Catherine Hurst

IT Services Manager
Catherine works with Nous’ chief information officer to help consultants work productively using technology. She is a relationship-focused organiser and planner who can juggle many priorities, maintaining attention to detail in a changing environment.

For 10 years before joining Nous, Catherine managed information technology (IT) for a rapidly expanding business, ensuring quality support and an integrated, stable, national infrastructure. She also has more than 13 years of experience in professional library roles, including managing collections, developing systems and consulting to assist libraries apply IT.

Influential work

  • Led transition of internally managed and hosted IT infrastructure from an office-based server room to an externally managed datacentre; enabling enhanced security, 24×7 maintenance and equalised national service; and including contract negotiation and development of the technical schedule with the infrastructure partner
  • Coordinated a transition from traditional telephony to a unified communications solution, minimising business risk, providing time for adoption and enabling increased productivity
  • Coordinated the installation of a SharePoint platform to enable real-time collaboration on documents and improved efficiency, replacing emailed document collaboration and traditional file-server shares
  • Researched changes to work health and safety legislation; including managing whole-of-business risk assessment and developing prioritised action plans and practices, messages, posters and an induction pack to mitigate risks through increasing awareness.

Outside of Nous

Before joining Nous, Catherine led a risk management initiative to develop, routinely promote and update a business continuity plan; coordinated production of reference services for property and construction specialists; developed an on-demand delivery solution for past examination papers; coordinated a project, involving four UK universities, to establish copyright clearance and course-reader production services; enabled the transfer of a US indexing and abstracting concept to the UK, establishing a database-building operation; edited Library Technology a professional awareness journal concerning IT developments useful to libraries; and coordinated staff, premises and business concerns to establish an office in Dubai.

Catherine holds a Bachelor of Environmental Science (Honours) and a Master of Librarianship from the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth.

In her spare time...

Catherine enjoys exploring and learning new things. She has an interest in the natural environment and so likes being outdoors and visiting new places.