Our team are the key to our success.

We are a group of highly-skilled and qualified professionals with a vast range of abilities and experience.

Our team brings our clients’ visions to life.

Contact our team to discuss your project now!

Jonathan Newson

Founder

Jonathan started his career on the Youth Training Scheme back in 1988, working in the hardware support teams cabling division of a large insurance company.

Jonathan has gained a great deal of experience over the years and since launching Octopus Cabling, has been involved with over three thousand projects of every type in every industry. He has a love of business and passionately heads up the company which he founded in 2002. Outside of Octopus, he spends time with his family and tinkering with his air-cooled Volkswagens.

Peter Tickner

Senior Project Manager

From school Peter served as an apprentice with Marconi Radar and from there has enjoyed a busy career that has included owning his own companies and working at a senior level to help develop and grow others.

He enjoys project and account management and is committed to making a positive difference and to fulfil client requirements and expectations, in a friendly and yet professional manner.

Having known Jonathan since 2004, Peter joined the Octopus team at the beginning of 2018. Outside of work he enjoys relaxing with his family and friends and pursuing various sporting activities, including a round of golf.

Sam Harrison

Project Manager

Since finishing Worcester University in 2015, Sam has worked in the IT industry in both account management and project management positions, helping customers to achieve their desired solutions in a timely and cost effective manner.

Since joining Octopus in 2020, Sam has overseen projects for the MOD, Government, Education, private and charity sectors. Projects range in size and profile but he ensures all customers were kept up-to-date on progress and that the clients expectations are met.

Outside of work, Sam referees Rugby for Eastern Counties, plays golf and enjoys spending time with his family and friends.

Louise Hopkins

Accounts / Admin

Supporting the Octopus team from the comfort of a spinning chair, Louise is a key member of our office team ensuring that everyone has what they need to complete our customers projects, taking care of administration pre and post project and keeping our Monday.com project management system up to date.

Prior to working with Octopus Cabling, Louise was a Civil Servant working for the MOD and has also been a reservist within the Royal Signals having finished as a reservist in AGC (SPS) as a clerk.

Louise loves spending time with her husband and children walking in Wales, watching films and being together as a family. She is currently a Community First Responder within the Colchester Area and volunteers some of her free time on a weekly basis.

Zen Pearce

Project Manager

After leaving school in 1999 Zen joined the Military where he worked in telecommunications.

After leaving the military, Zen became a subcontractor working on high profile military and government sites all over the country installing structured cabling. During this time he achieved an NVQ in copper and fibre optic cabling along with WiFi installation.

In recent years he’s worked as a lead engineer running large projects locally, overseeing teams of engineers ensuring projects run as smoothly as possible. In his spare time, Zen enjoys travelling the world and spending time with his family.

Brian Stow

Senior Engineer

Brian started his career with British Telecom installing telephone switches for small businesses, fault finding on systems, as well as providing block wiring on 1308 cabling and CO-AX, Twin AX and TOKEN ring infrastructures.

Brian’s enjoys engaging and working with our clients, with the design and implementation of new fibre and Ethernet projects. He also enjoys the challenge of fault-finding, when working on older networks and providing solutions to problems.

In his free time, his family comes first, spending a lot of time with his grandchildren. He also enjoys fishing and motorsports, including F1 racing.

Errol Partridge

Senior Engineer

A background of over 30 years cabling, stretching back to before modern PC networking; from 3270 coax dumb terminals; Ethernet peer-to-peer; Token Ring and RS232 all the way to current Cat 5e/6/6a. 20 years ago he added the mystic art of fibre-optic termination and testing to his skill-set.

This knowledge has taken him to some ‘interesting’ locations including from museums to nuclear power stations and he can now connect anything to anywhere.

When not working he can regularly be found clinging to his youth at various live music venues.

Rob Earey

Senior Engineer

Rob started off his career in the communications industry in the early 90’s installing cable television and telephone services, moving on to a large telephone system supply company installing block wiring in various offices and businesses.

Rob has spent the last 20 years working in the network industry for 2 local firms and being a self-employed contractor.

Rob joined octopus in 2018 as a senior engineer and enjoys being part of a good team.

In his spare time, Rob enjoys spending time with his family, working on vehicle projects and enjoys outdoor activities.

Danny Budd

Engineer

Danny developed his career in construction and has a vast amount of knowledge with many years in experience in this industry.

Danny spent the first part of his life as a successful professional athlete travelling around the world competing and bringing home trophies.

He can often be found teaching water skiing at the weekend.

Sebastian Pierson

Engineer

Seb joined Octopus Cabling as a junior engineer in 2022. He had previously begun to train as an electrician before this was halted by the pandemic. Never one to sit still, he instead worked locally as a timber machinist for two years before joining the Octopus team. Working under the watchful eye of senior engineer Rob, he has already become a very valuable member of the team. Seb says that he really enjoys working for Octopus because of the people and the variety of work.

In his spare time, Seb enjoys going to the gym and spending time with his loved ones. He is also a serious ‘sneaker-head’ and likes to collect and sell rare trainers.

Luke Smith

Engineer

Since joining Octopus as a junior engineer in mid 2022, Luke has very quickly made himself indispensable. As he works primarily with senior and experienced engineers Errol and Alex, he has been able to gain a lot of experience and put it into practice. Luke has already worked on a variety of projects large and small, both internally and externally, and is always looking to expand his skillset and better himself. He says that he is really enjoying being part of the Octopus team and the variety of work and working enviroments.

A very keen runner, he has usually completed a few miles on foot in the dark before most people have got up for the day. He has a love of motorbikes and enjoys spending his spare time with his friends and family.

Why choose Octopus Cabling?

Established in 2002, our team have a wealth of experience in ICT and telecommunications and have expert knowledge of the latest electrical products and systems.

We have worked with hundreds of organisations and companies of all sectors and sizes, within both the public and private sector, including universities, MOD, schools, hospitals, local government and other publicly funded organisations.

We are a trusted and respected partner and hold industry recognised accreditations. All our engineers carry ECS cards and we hold SafeContractor© accreditation.

We provide a professional, robust and prompt service, with a personal and friendly approach. Many of our customers view us as an extension to their in-house teams.

Don’t just take our word for it!

Here's some genuine recent feedback from our customers...

  • We recently completed a project to replace 64 wireless access points for Colchester Academy, six of which were high level, externally mounted points, which required the use of a cherry picker. Following the installation, carried out by our team in three days, Ollie Blake, IT Manager, said, “Couldn’t be happier with the install; it was the most stress free project I think we have ever done!”.

    Trust IT Manager, South Suffolk Learning Trust
  • “Jon and his team wired up my old Victorian property running Cat6 ethernet to each room and to a set of 6 CCTV cameras, as well as running shielded cables to my outbuildings (a games room and an office). It was very important to me that the age and condition of the property be taken into consideration – Jon and his team completely respected this, making very tidy cable runs and cleaning up thoroughly. Performance (in particular latency) are critical to my work, Jon’s team took this into account by using high quality cable, having as few joins as possible and keeping the cable runs short. The guys we’re far more interested in doing a good job than just getting it done quick. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Octopus Cabling and will certainly use them again.”

    Tey Solutions
  • “ The re-launch of the Visitor Centre at Sandringham required a complete new fibre network to connect up both the new ANPR car parking system and EPOS to a dedicated network cupboard with dedicated broadband and 4G backup. The project was complex and required a contractor who was sympathetic to the needs of the operating business as well as able to work alongside a number of other trades. Jonathan and the team from Octopus were first rate, they provided a gigabit network using quality components and handed this over fully tested. I would have no hesitation in recommending Jonathan and the team at Octopus to any similar such projects”

    Visitor Enterprises Manager, Sandringham Estate