The OBE Divestment Project was initiated following the $4 billion sale of Oldcastle BuildingEnvelope (OBE) from CRH to KPS Capital Partners. With CRH lacking its own centralized IT department, the responsibility of decoupling mission-critical systems and services fell to OBE’s internal team. I was uniquely positioned to lead this effort, having built and managed key tools relied on by both companies. The challenge centered on ensuring seamless continuity of service during the transition, while also establishing new environments for CRH's continued operations, without introducing downtime or data loss.

The scope included identifying infrastructure dependencies, planning separation sequences, migrating legacy environments, managing authentication handoffs, and ensuring global usability across teams. As the only person named in the official divestment documentation, I was tasked with leading the technical execution of this transition end-to-end.

Oldcastle BuildingEnvelope — Global Web Systems Lead

CRH–KPS Divestment | ComEx & OpEx Project Lead

When CRH divested Oldcastle BuildingEnvelope (OBE) in a $4B sale to KPS Capital, I was trusted with a uniquely critical responsibility: to ensure that CRH retained operational continuity for key internal web systems I had helped design. I was the only individual specifically named in the divestment documentation, tasked with building out secure, standalone infrastructure for CRH’s continued use of our ComEx and OpEx tools.

CRH had no centralized IT department. They relied on IT teams from their subsidiaries, meaning I became their de facto lead for this transition. I scoped, deployed, and managed new hosting environments, replicated and migrated both codebases and databases, and implemented authentication with Okta, guiding their European security team through web-based access control for the first time.

On the Oldcastle side, I built transition plans to move off legacy pre-2016 Microsoft servers, some of which housed thousands of business-critical assets. I led server decommissioning efforts, moved services into modern Azure and Windows Server environments, and architected new storage and data distribution strategies with zero operational downtime.

After the sale, I continued working under a unique pay arrangement between the companies, again, rare for someone in IT functioning temporarily as a Profit Center. I supported CRH’s infrastructure team in finalizing the OpEx project and establishing long-term ownership of both platforms. Years later, I’ve remained in contact with the European team, who continue to use and build on the foundation I established.

Throughout my time at OBE, I led migrations away from third-party systems toward secure in-house solutions, drove documentation improvements, and championed mentorship and cross-team collaboration. My ability to clarify technical complexity into actionable decisions made me a frequent point of contact across departments and a trusted voice during a pivotal moment in the company’s history.

• Strategic Systems Decoupling
Designed and executed a multi-phase separation strategy that maintained uptime while isolating shared assets and environments between OBE and CRH.

• Leadership in Critical Infrastructure Migration
Led the replication and transition of full-stack applications and services, including secure data stores, legacy Microsoft server environments, and Azure-hosted assets.

• Security and Identity Management
Collaborated with CRH’s European security team to establish and configure Okta-based web authentication protocols in a federated environment.

• Stakeholder Collaboration & Communication
Interfaced with executive leadership, European infrastructure teams, and internal developers to ensure clarity, alignment, and successful cross-org implementation.

• Technical Diplomacy Under Pressure
Maintained professionalism and delivery focus amid shifting timelines, competing goals, and international coordination—earning direct praise and a rare designation as a Profit Center.