Recently, the MCT program team send out a series of emails to MCTs introducing them to some of the regional leads in their area. In the UK we do have a few (8 + 1 recently moved to the UK from South Africa). So if you are based in the UK, you probably got the most emails of anyone outside the USA. I’ve been asked by a couple of people since, where the information included came from and why the email was sent. So here goes with the explanation.
The Regional Leads (RLs) are experienced trainers covering a range of technologies and with experience including working as employed and independent trainers, business owners, consultants and running learning partners. We use our experiences to help MCTs navigate the MCT program and keep up to date with changes. The role is primarily one of a bridge between the MCT program and the MCTs. Unfortunately, we do not have any control over the program and there are requests for help, we cannot resolve, but will always do our best to point you in the right direction. The RL program is a volunteer program with a term lasting 2 calendar years with applications for renewal opening in the autumn of the second year. The current term started in January 2022.
Due to data privacy regulations the MCT program team cannot share your details with us, but as Regional Leads we can give them permission to share our details with you. And to that end, we were asked to complete a form with our contact details and some other information to be sent to MCTs. That’s the information that was included in the emails you received.
As Regional Leads, without contact details for the MCTs in our region and it can be a challenge to keep lines of communication, especially when we are tasked with ensuring we maintain the NDA nature of some information shared with MCTs prior to public announcement. Such as program updates, new courses and exams.
To join the UK MCT Team for UK based MCTs & friends or register for our monthly meetup fill in the form here
Sara Fennah
Sara has been MCT Regional Lead since 2022. And has several years of experience in Teams, Viva, and Microsoft 365.
Contact information
Preferred Time Zone: GMT
Preferred Language: English
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarafennah/
Best preferred contact: I can be contacted via LinkedIn, Twitter, Teams or Email and am a member of the UK and global MCT groups on Facebook. Take your pick!
About Your Regional Lead: I’m a Teams Superfan, Viva Explorer, long time MCT, MVP for Microsoft 365 Apps & Services and Regional Lead for the first time since Jan 2022. I love helping others to advance their owns skills and use of technology, whilst challenging myself to advance my own skills and expertise. For those who will ask I currently have 50 Microsoft Certifications. My MCT journey is unusual. I call myself a ‘born in the cloud’ admin having started my career outside of tech, then training end users (MOS) for many years and finally started my journey as an admin due to Microsoft 365.
Pronouns: she/her
Ed Baker
Ed has been MCT Regional Lead since 2013 – the beginning, and has several years of experience in Azure, Security and Modern Workplace.
Contact information
Preferred Time Zone: GMT
Preferred Language: English
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edbaker1965/
Best preferred contact: Email, which can be found in the RL list on MCT Central
About Your Regional Lead: Experienced MCT with broad skill set and always happy to help MCT colleagues
Pronouns: he/him
Chris Hoard
Chris has been MCT Regional Lead since 2020 and has several years of experience in Fundamentals, Microsoft 365, Microsoft Teams and Security.
Contact information
Preferred Time Zone: GMT
Preferred Language: English
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/choard/
Best preferred contact: Email or over Microsoft Teams. MCT’s can also contact through LinkedIn or Twitter, however I prefer email or Teams to respond in a timely fashion
About Your Regional Lead: Chris Hoard is a two-time Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT) Regional Lead, three time Microsoft 365 Apps and Services MVP and Educator (MCEd). With over 13 years of cloud computing experience specialising in Provisioning, Professional Services and Architecture, and over a decade of that active in the field, he now delivers skilling and enablement experiences to over 700 Microsoft partners for Vuzion (Tier 2 UK CSP) throughout the UK, Ireland and the UAE. His focus areas include Microsoft Teams, Microsoft 365, Microsoft Viva, Security, Compliance & Identity (SCI) & the Power Platform. Outside of work, he is very active in the Microsoft Tech Community, blogs at microsoft365pro.co.uk and since 2019 has spoken at many international events including Microsoft Ignite, Microsoft Build, Commsverse, Galactic Summit, Microsoft 365 Virtual Marathon and the Modern Workplace Conference Paris. As the co-creator of Metaverse One and Teams Nation, he sits on the Microsoft Certifications Advisory Board and several feedback programs such as Teams, Viva and Defender. He is a former member of both the British Computer Society (BCS) and Microsoft 365 Partner Council
Pronouns: he/him
Andrew Bettany
Andrew has been MCT Regional Lead since 2019, and has several years of experience in Windows, Azure, AI and Microsoft Fundamentals.
Contact information
Preferred Time Zone: GMT
Preferred Language: English
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewbettany
Best preferred contact: LinkedIn
About Your Regional Lead: I’m based in the North of England. I’ve been a MCT for about 17 years and have loved getting learners to achieve their goals. Most recently I’ve been involved with helping students at university to study Microsoft Fundamentals topics to introduce them to new cloud technologies.
Pronouns: he/him
Onah Cyril Obinna
Cyril is a solution architect and has been MCT Regional Lead since 2021 and has several years of experience in SAP workloads on Azure, Microsoft Windows Database and Operating systems, Azure, AI and Microsoft Fundamentals.
Contact information
Preferred Time Zone: BST
Preferred Language: English
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/onahcyril/
Best preferred contact: LinkedIn
About Your Regional Lead: I’m based in the North London. I have several years of experience in Azure admin and solution architecting. I also work with SAP workloads on Azure. I love helping learners to achieve their goals.
Pronouns: he/him
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