My career so far reads in three chapters! I spent my early years in the media sector, from start-up to working right in the heart of the media establishment.
Then I did it again, joining an Internet startup and finishing in one of the oldest and most establised telecoms companies in the world.
Today, I work mainly with private equity as a retained industrial partner and advisor, as well as a Non-Executive Director and Chair.
I have been involved in the development of technology, media and telecoms services in the UK for more than 30 years.
I was one of the founders of a digital media business that pioneered the production of press-ready digital newspaper pages and TV broadcast data services after graduating with a degree in Computing Science from Imperial College.
We sold that company to the UK's national news agency The Press Association and I stayed on to build their new media division.
From there I joined Internet pioneer Demon Internet as CTO, eventually floating that business as telecoms operator THUS where as COO and one of the youngest FTSE Executives in history I saw it grow into a FTSE100 company.
In 2008 I joined Cable&Wireless Worldwide following their acquisition of THUS as CTO, and then as CSO managed their subsequent demerger and IPO process.
Since 2010 I have been working with private equity companies as an advisor, Non-Executive Director and Chair across a broad portfolio of technology-enabled companies.
| More than 30 years' Board experience, as an Executive, Non-Executive and Chair in private, listed, charity and government organisations. |
| 8 years' Executive experience in the Media sector, 14 in Telecoms and Internet - 11 in the FTSE100/250. |
| Two £multi-billion FTSE IPO's, 37 M&A transactions - 3 Class 1 and 29 with Private Equity. |
| UK, European and Global experience in companies from start-ups to FTSE100 with a strong-growth advanced-technology profile. |
My Executive roles start in media and on into Internet and telecoms, all companies with a strong technology focus.
| 1988-92 | CNS Digital news agency |
Founder, CTO |
| 1992-96 | The Press Association UK national news agency |
CTO & Strategy |
| 1996-99 | Demon Internet Pioneer of the ISP industry |
CTO |
| 1999-08 | THUS Group plc FTSE100 next-generation carrier |
COO |
| 2008-10 | C&W Worldwide plc FTSE100 global carrier |
CTO, CSO |
| 2010-15 | UK2 Group Global hosting |
Chair, CEO |
I have served as a Non-Executive Director and Chair on the boards of several companies, often, but not always, in partnership with private equity.
| 2009-11 | intY
Wholesale cloud applications |
NED |
| 2011-15 | Adapt
Enterprise managed hosting services |
Chair, Investor |
| 2011-22 | JT Global
Channel Islands telecommunications |
NED, Chair |
| 2014-22 | Data Communications
Company
Smart meters for the UK |
SID |
| 2015-18 | Kondor
Consumer electronics distribution |
NED, Investor |
| 2015-17 | Zitcom Group
Enterprise and SME hosting |
NED, Investor |
| 2015-17 | Fibercore
Speciality fibre optic engineering |
NED, Investor |
| 2015-19 | Comic Relief Ltd
Positive change through entertainment |
NED |
| 2017-22 | Virtual1
Wholesale telecoms services |
NED, Investor |
| 2018- | Miss Group
Global SME and consumer hosting |
Chair, Investor |
| 2018- | Zen Internet
UK Independent ISP |
Chair |
| 2019- | Ascent
Software development and data analytics |
NED, Investor |
| 2020- | Firstborn
Financial services specialist |
Chair, Investor |
| 2020- | Sliide
Engaging content for smartphone users |
NED, Investor |
| 2022- | Celerity
Digital transformation |
Chair, Investor |
I have a few advisory, education, charity and not-for-profit roles. Some of those are necessarily confidential, however here is a selection of some of those positions.
| 2013-19 | Counterpoint
Global risk analaysis |
Advisor |
| 2014-20 | Cambridge University, Judge
Cybersecruity and social media |
Lecturer |
| 2015-19 | Comic Relief Ltd
Positive change through entertainment |
NED |
| 2015-17 | JANET Commercial
UK's academic network - SuperJanet |
NED |
| 2021- | BGF Foundation
UK Charity funding |
Trustee |
|
Miss Group
Global hosting Chair, Investor |
Firstborn Group
Financial services Chair, Investor |
|
Zen Internet
UK ISP Non-Executive |
Ascent
Software and analytics Non-Executive, Investor |
|
Sliide
Content for smartphones Non-Executive, Investor |
Celerity
Digital transformation Chair, Investor |
Humberston Comprehensive
School
Waltham Toll Bar Sixth Form
BSc Honours Computing
Imperial
College
1988
You can find some more information below about the various companies I've worked for as an Executive.
There are references and links throughout, but if you would like to get in touch then reach out on one of the social media platforms.
One of two founding directors of CNS after leaving university. We were a start-up that pioneered electronic content production in the media industry, including the introduction of direct-to-plate, electronic page delivery and camera-ready information services to the regional and national press.
Our products included TV and financial listings, sports results, racing and weather services - typographically complex, time critical and data-intensive pages all delivered electronically to clients to suit their exact editorial and technical requirements to deadline, typically as complete print-ready pages sent directly to the press or broadcast platform.
Prior to CNS these pages were usually composed by hand.
We created the 7-day TV listings market at the time multi-channel TV was emerging in the UK and were a key content and technical partner for Teletext UK, the commercial teletext service, producing all their regional TV listings and the now-next service.
We grew rapidly, within three years producing tens of thousands of newspaper pages a year and distributing them to almost every media outlet in the UK.
CNS was one of the first UK companies to be on the Internet, and was operating prototype digital news services in the early 90's from the offices in Howden. It was also very active in the open source movement.
We sold the business to The Press Association in 1992 and it continues to operate to this day.
The Press Association is the national news agency of the UK, it delivers a continuous feed of content via a national newswire and the Internet, including text, images, video and data into newsrooms around the world.
This ranges from breaking news, to international real-time sports and financial data, entertainment guides, TV listings and archived images.
PA acquired CNS to form PA New Media in 1992 as part of it's strategy to embrace emerging digital technology.
As Technical Director of New Media and latterly as Director of Strategy I was intimately involved in more than 200 new information and media products for print, broadcast and online media in the following years.
These included numerous real-time news, sports, and data operations including Teletext / Ceefax / Skytext services, the introduction of computer scoring to Cricket, Saturday afternoon football services such as Grandstand and the Saturday Pink's, and the launch of many high profile Internet properties (for example Sporting Life, Freeserve, MSN, Football365, CricInfo, Nationwide Football, and The Electronic Telegraph).
One of the many interesting projects was the introduction of electronic cricket scoring in association with the TCCB. We were fortunate to be testing the software when Brian Lara hit his world-record breaking 501, and we captured every ball he hit and exactly where he placed it in real time.
PA New Media was subsequently re-branded as Ananova and ultimately sold to Orange.
I joined Demon Internet as CTO responsible for all operational, customer service and technical areas of the business.
This followed a long informal association with Demon dating back to 1992 - the team that originally designed, built and launched one of the UK’s first commercial ISP's.
Aside from the tenner-a-month dial-up ISP service Demon was famous for, we were one of the original founders of the London Internet Exchange, launched Beeb.net with BBC Worldwide and had an agreement with Apple to be the sole ISP on all Macintosh computers sold in the UK.
At our peak we were the largest ISP in Europe.
We produced the UK's most widely read Internet magazine, hosted half of the UK's websites, were one of the largest terminators of domestic telephony traffic in the UK, and involved in some of the defining moments of the emerging Internet regulatory envrionment.
Demon was successfully sold to ScottishTelecom, a subsidiary of ScottishPower plc, following a competitive process.
The historical importance of Demon Internet in the development of the UK Internet industry should never be underestimated - and not just from a technical and regulatory perspective. The Demon marketing teams were also never afraid to push the limits.
The Demon service ultimately remained active until 2019.
Appointed to the ScottishTelecom board following the acquisition of Demon Internet in July 1999 to drive the £2bn de-merger and IPO process from ScottishPower plc culminating in a listing on the London Stock Exchange (FTSE250 and subsequently FTSE100) and TechMark indices in November 1999 as THUS Group plc.
At the age of 33, I was one of the youngest FTSE Executive Directors in history. Our IPO was hugely over-subscribed, our roadshow took in most of Europe and the USA, and we had nearly 80 analysts covering our progress.
I represented THUS on the board of NGNuk, the Ofcom body that established the principles for the roll out of broadband and next generation networks.
THUS was the first telecommunications company to deploy a next-generation fibre-optic network in the UK, and the first to deploy a full MPLS capability nationally.
We completed multiple acquisitions over the next six years, including the Class 1 acquisitions of Your Comms and Legend Communications plc, and won numerous national awards.
THUS pioneered many new next-generation communication services, often working closely with others such as OnDigital and BSkyB's WapTV with whom we helped develop the now familiar interactive-TV 'Red Button' services.
THUS was acquired by Cable&Wireless plc in October 2008.
Joined Cable&Wireless EAUS as part of the integration team for THUS Group plc, and took responsibility for customer services, and subsequently for global operations as CTO.
Cable&Wireless EAUS was a global telecommunications company with operational infrastructure around the world. This included the international sub-sea cable networks and large centres in Europe, Asia and India.
In January 2010, following a strategic review, we prepared the division for de-merger from Cable&Wireless plc and subsequent full listed company operations as Cable&Wireless Worldwide. I managed the de-merger process and subsequent IPO which completed with full entry to the London Stock Exchange (FTSE100) in March 2010 and saw the FTSE100 briefly become the FTSE101.
UK2 Group is a multinational hosting and Internet infrastructure business with operations in numerous countries around the world - providing hosted applications and server platforms for consumer and SME markets.
I worked with LDC in acquiring the business, initially joining as Executive Chair and overseeing the spin-off of OnApp - a virtualisation and orchestration software business. I then took over as CEO of UK2 Group.
UK2 operated multiple brands in the hosting market, from mass consumer, SME and domain brands, through to VPS and dedicated server brands. It was one of the first to market with VPS technology as VPS.net and had a specialist dedicated server product marketed as 100TB.
I hope you found something of interest, if not then at least you know what is here.
If you do want to reach out and get in contact, the best way is through one of the social media platforms - take your pick, I check them all occasionally.