Biography

I was born and grew up in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Despite many people's preconceptions of this part of the world, it was a great place to grow up and go to school. I went to Methodist College ('Methody') in Belfast before heading off to Leeds University in 1990.

The decision to study Philosophy and Economics for me was a change from a previous focus on studying science and engineering which i had taken in my first year at Leeds. I felt I needed to get to the wiring under the board as it were, and philosophy helped me do this.

Combined study of business ethics, environmental economics, buddhist philosophy and philosphical logic inspired within me a sense of the entanglement of choice and decision within rational or logical thought, something which genuinely inspires me.

After doing an MSc in Environmental Management at Hull, I moved to London and began looking for work. In early 1997, I began using the internet and had become a decent enough programmer (I was naturally drawn to the discipline and creativity of programming) that I began to think about the formation of a social business that would offer IT solutions to the types of people and groups I had enjoyed helping. It was a chance to infuse my personal beliefs with what I was good at, and the start of this process was a very revealing and rewarding time.

This, in essence, was the start of what became Ethical Media . Since founding the company I also worked for the RNIB (Royal National Institute for the Blind) as a web developer on the RNIB Helpline team. It was here that i developed my interest and experience in accessibility and usability issues for the visually impaired.

I left Ethical Media at the end of June 2004 after 5 amazing years as technical director to start out on a big new adventure in Auckland, New Zealand. I've since been working with some exciting businesses as a software archictect and got married to my beautiful wife Annabel in January of 2005.

After spending nearly 3 years with the digital agency Hyro as a technical manager and solutions architect i have ventured onto pastures new with Practiv as the Microsoft/.Net practice lead. I've developed deep specialisms in .net around Web Content Managment (WCM) and in particular Kentico CMS Microsoft Sharepoint (MOSS)

For a formal resume, please check out my CV