I have been working in the digital space helping to deliver products and projects since leaving university in 1995.
At school and university the ambition was to go into journalism. At the London School of Economics (LSE) I was the news editor of the student newspaper The Beaver.
Just before the end of LSE we took the newspaper online just as the world wide web was taking off. It was one of the first university newspapers to go digital.
Largely as a result of that, I worked during final exams at the Daily Telegraph on their new online vehicle the Electronic Telegraph. Just before graduating I accepted an offer from the owners of the Daily Express to work for one of their new online companies in Oxford.
I returned to London in 1996 to join the new digital arm of Redwood, a customer publishing company. From a team of 2 we acquired new clients and built websites for a number of household names although in those days the online presence was largely magazine-based content.
In 2000 I left Redwood and joined Independent Television News (ITN) as a Senior Producer.
Key projects I was involved with at the time included the 2000 US Election – the closest in history – and the 2001 General Election in the UK, which was delayed by the outbreak of Foot & Mouth disease.
In 2005 I moved to the BBC where projects included introducing a User Generated Content system for BBC News which was later adopted by all the other major departments.
I was involved in the 2010-11 redesign and redevelopment of the BBC Sport online presence, and the 2012 London Olympics.
Moving freelance in 2013 I joined the Football Association working on the redevelopment of theFA.com and the launch of the England Supporters Club.
A return to the BBC in 2014 saw a spell as scrum master for the BBC online voting team behind Strictly Come Dancing and Sports Personality. I moved to the iPlayer teams in 2015 and and in 2017 became Release Manager for the launch in October 2018 of BBC Sounds.
A move at the end of 2018 to work as an agile Coach for Santander followed, including training product owners and mentoring scrum masters in agile delivery techniques.
At the start of 2020 I joined QA to focus on agile Training both in classroom and on-site. With the Covid 19 pandemic that swiftly moved online, and with companies facing increasing delivery challenges, it was time to move back to a delivery role.