Heath Groves, CEO of Accrington-based tech firm Sundown Solutions, shared his experiences and insights from his time as a member of the British Army at an Armed Forces Event hosted by Community Solutions North West (CSNW) on Tuesday 21st June.
The event took place at CSNW’s headquarters at Elmfield Hall in Church, with local veterans invited along to enjoy lunch and hear from the likes of Mr Groves, who spoke about life after serving as a Special Reserve Officer in the Royal Signals, as well as his current role serving with the Specialist Group Information Services (SGIS), and Cyber jobs of the future.
Veterans were joined at the event, which ran from 1-4pm, by members of the Community Solutions team, the Church and Oswaldtwistle Royal British Legion and the Accrington Stanley Community Trust.
Mr Groves, who first joined REME (Corps of Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers) when he was 16 as a junior leader at Arborfield, Princess Marina College, before spending time at Catterick and Bordon, was awarded a Royal Signals’ Institution Silver Medal in 2021 and told visitors to the event stories about his time serving abroad.
Mr Groves, said: “I am very proud to have been at Community Solutions North West to discuss my time in the military, my current time in the military and also to give an insight into how we use places like CSNW to understand how cyber is changing the current state of the army, and how we use #AmazingAccrington to look towards these places for recruitment.”
Chris Emmerson, Enterprise Development Manager at CSNW, commented: “This has been a great veterans event in conjunction with and supporting Armed Forces Day on Saturday 25th June, and it’s been a chance to celebrate our veterans that are attached to Community Solutions for everything they have done for us and we hope they’ve had a great afternoon.”
Veteran Steve Kelly, who volunteers at Gatty Park and served in the Gulf War and five times in Northern Ireland, added: “I’ve been coming here for about four years. It’s a really good place where you get to meet lots of people which has been very helpful at times for my wellbeing and social life.”
You can learn more about CSNW and the work they do in the community by visiting their website: https://csnw.co.uk/
Sundown Solutions is a technology consultancy operating in the fields of digital transformation, software solutions, cyber security and Cloud computing. It counts the NHS, National Audit Office, Capita and Takeda Pharmaceuticals as just some of its blue-chip clients. Learn more on their website: www.sundownsolutions.com
