I am 48 years old, married to Pia and I have 3 children, Natasha (19 years old), Max (16 years old) and Daniella (12 years old)

I live in a village just south of Cambridge, approximately 60 miles North East of London. We have lived here for 17 years now, re-locating from Leeds when I took the job as Development Manager at Millennium Interactive.

At school I passed 9"O" levels and 4 "A" levels. I had intended to go to University to Study Sports Science, but unfortunately, my grades were not good enough.I have just completed my Open Degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics through the Open University.

I had always anticipated that I would succeed in business and not as a "Professional". Although at one stage I had considered Law as a career.

My introduction into computing came in the mid 1970's when my brother and I obtained a UK101. This was a Z80 based kit computer. You had to build it and then program it, it had only 1K of memory and 256 bytes of ROM. Not long after my father obtained an Apple II computer for his business. My brother and I taught ourselves to program so we could amend his software to perform the tasks he wanted. Not long after we started to write our first games.

We decided to write adventure games as I was writing short stories for publication in Science Fiction magazines. We wanted to turn these stories into games. By 1982 we had progressed through the ZX81 computer to the Sinclair Spectrum and the home computer boom was upon us. At this point we were writing games and selling them through small adverts in the back of magazines.

After school, I decided to start my own business. The family business was jewellery, and I had grown up working in the shop and thought I knew a lot about the business, well I had to learn! I set-up a wholesale company, I bought and sold gold and silver chains, bracelets, rings etc, plus I obtained a number of agencies for Watches and Clocks and precious gems.

I ran the business for 3 years, establishing a successful little company in the North East of England. Unfortunately I had to give up the business in 1982 because of illness.

Soon after giving up the business I was offered the role of Sales Manager for a new computer company setting up in Leeds. The company was selling CPM based machines to local businesses, Health authorities and educational establishments, as well as having a retail outlet which sold leisure computer equipment to the public. This company ran for almost 2 years and in that time we developed a range of new adventure games which we sold in the shop. I also ended up as General Manager.

Unfortunately, the company was forced to close when the 1984 recession began to bite, coupled with the entry of the multiples into the market-place, producing a market in which we found it hard to compete..

In 1984, we set-up Sentient Software Ltd. We were the FIRST, 3^rd party development company in the UK, (although Probe likes to claim they were, we did beat them). In our first year we grew from the 3 founders to 7 staff and had done projects for Leisure Genius, US Gold, and Ocean Software. To begin with we specialised as a conversion house. But by the end of 1985 we were developing original computer versions of licensed products, i.e. Cluedo, Monopoly & Scrabble for Virgin Games (who had bought Leisure Genius) and we were embarking on a series of original products based on Film licenses. Throughout the rest of the 1980's we increased our staff and our roster of clients. By 1989 we had 17 development staff and were working for companies such as US Gold, Ocean, Infogrames, Gremlin Games, Epyx, Activision, Grandslam Entertainments, Argus Specialist Press, plus other smaller companies.

During this time we developed over 100 different products on a multitude of platforms, including, Spectrum, Amstrad, BBC, Commodore 16, Commodore 64, MSX 1 & 2, Lynx, Memotech, Sinclair QL. Amiga, Atari ST and the PC.

We had a number of Number #1 titles including Match Day, Winter Games, Summer Games, Games- Winter Edition, Games- Summer Edition, Taipan, Wec-Le-Man, Power Drift and others. Plus numerous top 10 hits and lower chart hits. Throughout the 1980's we vied with Probe and Choice software for the top 3 developer positions in Europe.

We had continually ploughed back our profits into expanding the company. When the down-turn came in 1989, just prior to the start of the console boom, we had no cash reserves to tide us through the lean patch which in-turn led to our bankruptcy.

I left the games industry after this for about 3 years, taking up the roles as European Sales Manager for a Value Added Re-seller. Whilst there I expanded the sales operation from local business support to European reseller systems for our accountancy systems. I increased the sales of the software by over 200% in my own territory and in Europe by over 500%. I also increased my hardware and software knowledge through installation of multi-user systems and use of Unix and Concurrent DOS.

In 1992 I was offered the job of Development Manager at Millennium Interactive Ltd. a medium sized games developer and publisher. This was a chance to return to my first love, games. When I joined the company, there were 7 staff members in the development department, plus 2 external teams. In the 2 years I was there, I expanded the internal studio to over 30 staff, developed relationships with a number of external teams, set up the internal QA and test department, specified, and installed the network, recruited a group of Producers to work under me and acted as marketing and PR liaison for technical aspects for the company. (When I left the company, 4 people were given the roles I had fulfilled, it's just a shame I was only paid as one!)

Whilst at Millennium I was responsible for the development of over 20 products, including follow-up games to the successful James Pond game, James Pond 2 & 3, & Aquatic Olympics, Beast Ball, Wild Cup Soccer, all of which reached the top ten in the charts, plus a number of other less successful titles. Whilst there I was the original concept developer of a number of titles which were released after I left. I really enjoyed my time at Millennium and was somewhat unsure about leaving, but I couldn't refuse the offer made.

In 1994 I was head-hunted to join Virgin Interactive Entertainment as General Manager. It was my brief to build up the existing London Studio to around 40+ staff members, running in 3 teams (plus an R&D team), plus to develop new studios in the UK, Europe and Asia.

Whilst there I was responsible for the setting up the Tokyo studio and the Italian Studio (a buy-in into an existing developer). I was also in the process of setting up Virgin North (a new studio to be based in Manchester), plus Revolution Games, a partly owned developer reported into me.

I also had responsibility for the overall development of V-Net, a joint venture between Virgin Communications and Virgin Interactive. This was going to be the first Internet company to offer specifically developed games for the Internet. Unfortunately, the venture was eventually cancelled, although it did go on to become Virgin Net, one of todays most successful ISP's.

I was also on the "acquisition" committee which decided on all products to be published by VIE in Europe, and as part of this role I also met with potential development partners to ascertain their suitability of them and their products.

Whilst at Virgin we developed in the London Studios the companies last 16 bit game, Pinocchio. This was a mammoth task involving over 40 Disney artists in Florida and development staff in Disney Studios, Burbank, plus at it's peak 22 staff at the London Studio. Despite the previous liaison with Disney and the earlier successes of Disney licensed products, we had no pre-developed engine to fall back on and we had to develop a game that was better than the Lion King and Aladdin. In the end we were very happy with the result and it received excellent reviews.

I was responsible for up-dating the studio from 16bit product to 32bit/64bit and to PC and Windows 95 product. We began work on 2 PC & Playstation games and one Nintendo 64 and PC game. 2 of these games were based on my original designs. One was shelved after I left, the other two came out in 1998. I felt one of my greatest achievement at VIE was the obtaining of the 1st Nintendo 64 license for VIE for our product. I travelled to Kiyoto to pitch the idea to Nintendo and received their approval to develop the game.

I left VIE in February 1996 and joined News International as Product Development Director for their CD-ROM publishing company News Multi-media. The company had been set-up 14 months earlier with a mandate to develop products based on the massive content of News International. This included publications such as The Times & Sunday Times, The Sun, The News of the World and the Today Newspaper, plus access to the Pathe Library and BSKYB and various other content providers. When I joined the company it was on the understanding that we would produce fresh and innovative products including games.

During the time I was there I developed new relationships with developers all over the UK, Europe, Israel and even as far afield as New Zealand. Whilst there we released over 20 products, including those I had "acquired" and those we developed through our 3^rd party developers. I also increased internal team from 6 staff to 12 including Producers and technical staff. The company was closed down in February 1997

At this point I decided to look for a new challenge and to follow-up my passion for the Internet. When I left I decided to seek development capital for a start-up internet company. I teamed up with an entrepreneur who I had met when I was a VIE. He ran a successful development studio and was looking to the Internet as his next venture. Working as Interim Managing Director we began developing the new project, plus a number of his projects. The "project" has gathered a great deal of interest from blue-chip companies all over the world, all of whom wanted to be involved. Unfortunately, just as we were getting to the stage when we could take it into it's final steps, the funder suffered a serious cash flow shortage and was forced to pull all funding.

The company closed down in June and the 9 staff I had pulled together were made redundant.

I then spent the next 10 months consulting, while trying to get my Intellectual Property back from the receivers. .

Well, that's my work history... what I hope it says about me is that I have reached a level of senior management that reflects my abilities and skill set. I have always maintained excellent staff relations, because of my honesty and willingness to get stuck in. I have a good reputation within the interactive entertainment industry and I am well respected. I have excellent all round general management skills including good knowledge of microsoft products. I have experience of Prince 2 and ITIL and am a respected and succesful business development manager.

On a personal note, what can I write about myself.

I enjoy sports, as a participant, coach and armchair viewer. I am an ex-international trampolinist, I am a qualified trampoline coach, course Tutor, examiner, judge. and coach to Cambridge Cangaroos, a trampoline club in Cambridge. I am a cricket player and coach and I used to coach the local youth cricket team. I play golf (not very well, but hopefully improving and love to try most sports. Currently teaching Max to ski at Xscape in Milton Keynes, and hoping to get out onto real snow this season.

I am a published author of short stories (in the 1970's), am working on new short stories and looking for a publisher of those. I am working on my first novel, plus I have provided an number of free-lance articles for the trade magazines CTW, MCV and Develop. (See Articles). One day I will finish my novel and get it published! One day.

Current Projects
"A pregnant man" (working title)
This is my novel. It's about our experiences with my wife's pregnancy, seen entirely through my eyes of course. I hope it's humorous, those who have read my first drafts seem to enjoy it. I just need to finish it now!

"An absence of light"
A short story of mine.I had no luck with the publishers, so I've just published my new short story on the site. Check it out at Articles.

This web-site
I've has some very positive responses on this new look... glad you like it.

Board Games
Croswordz: I came up with this design about 10 years ago, after working on Scruples for Virgin Games. I decided I could invent a board game. So I did. Unfortunately, I came across the usual tale of not wanting to accept designs from outsiders. Just like the interactive games industry really. So, the game was rejected from two companies, Serif and Waddingtons, I didn't try anymore. Afriend of ours got his game published "Sophie's World" and he's gone onto to build a whole business from it, including games based on Lord of teh Rings and his new game The Hobbit. He's inspired me to have another go. So the game is being re-designed graphically at the moment. I'm working on the Interactive version and I will present them when I'm happy with the look and feel. I've rejigged it again slightly and will take the new version to the London Toy Fair in January.

Numerable: A new game for 5 years and up-wards. Its a maths game, to encourage children to play with sums and solve simple maths equations. It's ideal for Keystage 1 and 2 children, both in school and at home.
Unfortunately, after some very positive initial meetings and some design changes, the publisher has decided not to proceed with the publishing agreement. So once again I'm looking for a publisher.