CV
Summary
I have over 25 years of experience developing large, distributed, internet-based systems in C++, Java, and C#. After successfully defending my PhD from the University of Nottingham, UK, I traded a life of lecturing, research, and inquisitive students in academia for some hard graft in industry.
Since then I have built up a wealth of real-world experience in how people, processes, products, and best practices continue to succeed and fail in delivering value to customers throughout software development. The more projects I’m involved in, the more I see my focus shifting from products to people, and again from process to principles that deliver successful systems.
I am a highly motivated, team player with a passion for learning all things, new and old.
In Industry
I worked on and off in the finance sector for over 10 years and consulted for a number the market-leading investment banks including Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Barclays Capital, Lehman Brothers, Credit Suisse, UBS, and ABN Amro. During this time I learned how to build large scale, complex, distributed, heterogeneous systems that connected applications together across the front, middle and back-office systems.
Given that these banks tend to periodically re-align their technology strategy with ongoing business challenges, I worked within numerous operating environments (mainframe, Unix, Linux, Microsoft), using different languages (SQL, Java, C, LISP, C++, C#, VB, Perl, etc.) to bind various vendor solutions ( MQ, J2EE, TibRv, Oracle, etc.) together to deliver business solutions within the Bonds, Credit Derivatives, Sales, Risk Management, etc spaces, as a project manager, developer, technical architect, and business analyst.
During my working life, I have spent a lot of time researching better ways to deliver software and ran a technical consultancy that focused on delivering training and mentoring services to companies interested in achieving the same goal. It was during my time running this company that I augmented the theory of delivering high-quality software I researched as part of my doctorate with real-world feedback that I gained in the field.
Currently, I’m putting all this into practice as the Chief Technology Officer at Wunderman Thompson North America. Prior to Wunderman Thompson, I was CTO of Cognifide, an Experience Technology company that has offices in London, Poland, the US.
Education
Academia
- PhD in Object-Oriented Design Heuristics from theUniversity Of Nottingham(1997)
- First Class Degree with Honours in Computer Science from the University of Nottingham (1993)
Professional
- Certified Scrum Master, Product Owner, Java Architect
- Diploma in Digital Marketing
Other
- I regularly write articles for magazines, online publications, as well as speaking at events that include conferences, seminars, and universities.
