Profile

I grew up in London, but moved to be closer to the beach and the countryside when I left university. I still have to visit the city often for work, but being able to get outside and offline from things is really important to me.

I’ve always enjoyed supporting young people in technology, which is why I’ve been a STEM Ambassador for quite a few years. It’s really fun to run Code Clubs, or help to teach computing lessons, especially when they involve cool tech like Raspberry Pi’s or micro:bit’s!

When I was (much!) younger, I was in the Scouts and really loved it, so now being a Cub leader is an awesome way to give back to the movement and support even more young people in my community. Working in IT, you don’t often get to tie knots, start fires, or go camping… so this is a super way to do something totally different when I’m not at work!

For the quieter times, I really enjoy reading. Long train journeys in the past saw me getting through loads of books, but I don’t have as much time any more. So when I can, I like to get stuck in to a great sci-fi novel…

When I’m not too tired after all of that, I run. I’m a member of my local running club, but I don’t compete that much any more… probably because I’m not that great at it! But the fresh air, sunshine, and the sights and sounds of the sea often lure me away from my desk… bliss!

Being a Technical Director at my own company has many challenges, as I’m the most technically experienced, as well as having to run the day-to-day business activities.

I’m a trained software engineer, but I’m qualified across a number of technologies, including data and cloud platforms. This means that I get stuck in to pretty much all aspects of the work we do, from speaking to customers, designing solutions, and implementing technical projects.

Being hands-on is what I love the most. Running a business is fun, but I’m a technologist and engineer at heart, so I find it hard to not being programming or figuring out some complicated technology. But I love helping my entire team to thrive and deliver great solutions. Nothing is more satisfying that building a great team that is confident and challenges themselves on a daily basis.

I recently was awarded the status of Chartered Engineer, which means I am recognised as an engineer both in the UK and abroad. I’m using this to not only further my own ambitions, but also to have influence on supporting young people in to technology careers, and flying the flag for British engineering 🙂

I used to commute to my places of work, especially when I worked for other companies, which often saw me getting up at around 4:45 in the morning, to catch a train to some place or another. But since I now work mostly from home, I can be a bit more relaxed about timing, which means I can do the breakfast with the family, and even do the school run.

Whether I’m running in the morning or not, I usually start at my desk by 9am, and spend much of my morning helping to sort my team out, on stand-ups (short meetings to discuss priorities for the day depending on the project), or looking at team resourcing.

Because I work on so many different projects, no one day is the same. So I could be doing some architecture design for the cloud one day, or perhaps some data engineering the next. I might be running a technical workshop for a customer, so that they can better understand their data, or perhaps showing a customer how they could implement one of our partner’s technologies.

Making sure I have regular breaks is key – the days can go really quickly, so it’s important to find time to get away from the desk, even though I’m often standing at it instead of sitting! I’ve really gotten in to my coffee… which keeps me going during those boring meetings! 🙂

I like to try and wrap up by 5pm, so that I can help with dinner with the family and eat all together. Then I can do the bedtime routing for my kids, or head out to Cubs to do all kinds of fun things with the group depending on the day of the week. Finally, if I get a quiet moment, I might sit and read for a bit, to wind down my brain after a hectic day online!