I grew up as the son of a builder who was building and extending houses for clients in Surrey which included some property development and learnt from a very early age that building sites can be very tough (especially in the winter!) and hence favoured a career in Engineering and left Purley High School at the age of 16 in 1977 and enrolled on a General Engineering Course at Redhill Technical College. This resulted in being employed by the then ‘Decca Radar’ and soon to be ‘Racal’ on a 5 year Electronic Engineering Apprenticeship with the first 3 years full time at College and a further 2 years of block, day and evenings. After qualifying, this all resulted in the very good fortune of joining a leading research and development team at Racal working on government projects including the privilege of equipment that played a significant role in the outcome of the Falkland War.
In the later stages of this career path my father invented what at the time was a simple but revolutionarily new building product/method which is still used on many building sites today, which we started manufacturing together at the family home. This resulted in me leaving the electronics field although I was hugely thankful that my training and education had spanned many engineering and project management disciplines and I was readily equipped to now enter the world of manufacturing followed quickly by a real time crash course in sales, marketing and overall business management as the business and product range expanded over the years via natural growth and further company acquisitions. The family business finally ended in the purchase of our company in the late 1990’s by a large US corporation. This resulted in my wife Helen and I moving to Staffordshire for two years to head up their UK business and involved a project of relocation and amalgamation of three acquired competitors into a bespoke facility in Tamworth. This included bringing together the national sales teams and production facilities. In 2000, Helen and I had our first child, Rebecca, and four years later Jemma, when we returned to Surrey in 2002 and moved to Headley in 2004, where we were fortunate enough to build our own house. I joined Headley Parish Council in 2012.
Outside of work and the Parish Council, for recreation I am both a golf and tennis club member.
