This may amble a bit, but it will be more interesting that way. It has been said we are the sum of our experiences so rather than a dry curriculum vitae I hope to show some of the experiences that have brought to where I am now.

My first job was working for Sweeties in the Walworth Road in London, weighting out the quarter pound bags. I sat in a fairly dark room surrounded by sweets with the proviso I could eat any I wanted except the boxed ones on the basis I would get fed up eating them soon, I did . I was fifteen and I fought hard to keep eating them but gave up after 2 weeks, but since the job was only for 3 weeks I did well, oh! and I made hundreds of bags of sweets in that time.

My second job was working in Donald and Achison in the Walworth Road, London here I fixed glasses, did a stock take, sorted prescriptions and learned how to work with the public. I'm still in shock from the experience. I found that people were demanding, unreasonable, arrogant and presumed that anyone in a suit was lying no matter what they said. "Come look outside the sky is blue! honestly!" "its not blue your just telling me that, why should I believe you your too young to know". Lots of useful knowledge hard gained.

It was about this time I started my foundation course in 3D Design at Ravensbourn College of Art & Design in Chislehurst.

My third job was my first experience of big business Sainsburys Stores in Beckenham, Kent a brand new store. I was one of the many eager children rounded up by the local kid catcher (good advertising) on the promise of earning at least £20 a week . I worked Saturdays amongst the cheese in the produce department. I was special "chosen" for this department, I still have no idea why, but it meant that I could do overtime that other could not (special skills! not just stacking shelves like in grocery).

It was about this time I started my BA course in Three Dimensional Design at Middlesex Polytechnic, Cat Hill.

My fourth job was at the Scala Cinema at Kings Cross, London it was like going into a wild west town, tumble weed was replaced old news paper (and other unmentionables) rustling down the streets.

Then after I started my PGCE course in Technology at Middlesex Polytechnic, Trent Park. If anyone knows these guys, I'd like to find out how they are doing now, this was an Islington Primary School where I did a racecar project. These guys were real stars.

My fifth job was at Thorn EMI in Enfield as a Special Product Design Engineer. Anything that was not standard was designed in our department. The process involved concepts, prototypes, material science, sub contracting manufacture (choosing contractor based upon available techniques related to new product and their past quality of work) and quality assurance. Occasionally competitor products were reverse engineered to confirm their marketing claims, performance and exploitable problems.

My sixth job was at Dron & Dickson in Dunblane

My seventh job was at Light Projects at Tower Bridge, London I was really happy here , the people were very exacting (which I like) hard workers and knew how to have fun.

My eighth job was at Marlin Lighting in Glasgow

My ninth job was at CLS (City Lighting Services) in Edinburgh oh! well live and learn.

My tenth job was at Thorlux Lighting

My eleventh job was at Kevin Shaw Lighting Design in Edinburgh Senior Designer Project Management of all vendors, risk assessments, implementation programming, staffing and training. New business development, project team leader, design report authoring, company marketing, design consultancy, project management and product design. Database administration, template design & implementation, e-communication systems. Website content creation and eMarketing. Graphics representations of completed designs for client approval.

My twelfth job was at Karl Smith Lighting Design in Edinburgh Principal (UK)

My thirteenth job was at Charles Kane Associates in Edinburgh Associate (UK) Search Engine Optimisation, eMarketing, re-branding and CMS authoring. Usability evaluations, information architecture and competitor assessments. Server side systems including business objects, phpmyadmin, OLAP report authoring. Lighting design services including project management, scheme design, product design, tender review and contact organisation.

My fourteenth job was at Charles Kane Associates in Edinburgh Senior Associate (UK) New media design, web development, content design, CMS, SEO, affiliate marketing (with Commission Junction, BeFree, LinkShare, AffiliateWindow, Tradedoubler, AffiliateFuture, DGM), link based marketing, contextual advertising and website content author. Data cleansing, data rule creation, data mining for the production of business intelligence. Search Engine Optimisation, eMarketing, re-branding and CMS authoring. Usability evaluations, information architecture and competitor assessments. Server side systems including business objects, phpmyadmin, OLAP report authoring.

My fifteenth job was at Charles Kane Associates in Edinburgh - Part Time European Director ( UK) (Part-time) Director / Manager client liaison feeding analytics for business intelligence and marketing processes. Developing strategic internet marketing plans with third party vendors in PPC and affiliate marketing sectors. Utilising analytics and user testing (market research & usability) together to evolve SEO and SEM strategies.

My sixteenth job was at Dollor Academy, Dollor, Clackmaninshire - Part Time Teacher of Technology (Part-time) Course design, communication, planning and implementation for website, furniture and graphic design projects. Reporting writing for 260 students aged 8 to 14 years, showing their potentialities, character and an assessment of specific aptitude.

Then after I started my MSc in Interactive Technologies for e-Commerce at Napier University.

My seventeenth job is at Touch Local,. The City of London Information Architect / Real-Time Web Analytics, Product Manager Information architecture and research for the design, management, development and deployment of full life cycle application projects in an AGILE environment. Online integration projects including portal websites, CRM, billing, salesforce, communicator and e-commerce purchase paths. Other recent projects involve community website concepts, research, architecture and UI design.

Internet Experience

I have been using the internet since 1982 and the world wide web since it first became available.

Recent Life

My studies are related to Human Computer Interaction (HCI) or Human Factors in relation to electronic media, interface design, development, implementation and the developing of training materials based upon observed use or practice. Usability, Accessibility and User Centred Design are also driving elements within my own ethnographic research into user behavior, relating human rationalisation, iteration and appropriation of media sources through various interfaces.

My background is a migration from design development, education, technical marketing into project management and new business development.

I have worked on a number of complex time relevant projects over the last 20 years and show some details below.

Broadgate VI		Baillie Gifford		National Museum of Scotland
Making complex things work comes from working on complex projects.		Clean design and ease of viewing are not accidental, making a powerful and meaningful statement requires skill.		Completing projects relies on understanding the needs of a client over the personal desire to be spectacular.
Dollar Academy		Royal Museum of Scotland		Gibraltar Airport
Inspirational level teaching causes unique designs. Completed chair designs from students aged from 8 to 12 yrs.		Simplicity takes a lot of effort and excellent design is invisible from its world context.		Now its done no one knows it was ever an issue, when everything works no one says anything, when it does not!!!!

I have also attended child protection training (at the police training college at Tulliallan) and written several child protection policies. I have maintained an Enhanced Disclosure over a number of years for both teaching and youth work purposes and consider the respectful care of children a priority in the work I do.

I have experience in many facets of project management / business development including project definitions, reports, scheduling, tendering, human resource management, vendor systems integration and various problem solving / trouble shooting scenarios in new media. These experiences have been gained on projects located throughout the world and have involved diverse market sectors including, commercial, financial, museum, healthcare, retail, pharmaceutical, industrial, petrochemical, military, local and national government. These experiences have given me insights into sector working practices, expectations, and effective communication / management methods.

Academic Life

I recently decided to go back to college an get a MSc in e-Commerce, a bizarre experience changing from a European Director to just a number in a system. However the saving grace was some of the best professors I have ever come across linked in with one of most pathetic management and administration structures I have experienced. Its not that the University did not want to be organised it just that they think like a 1970's nationalised industry (totally unaccountable for their actions). Additionally making professors responsible for their own feudal kingdoms is odd, if professors had wanted to be administrators they would not have spent years in research and frankly, they are not good administrators. With my rant over, I learned a great deal about parallel technologies, aced web design well I'd been designing sites for over 10 years, so no surprise. My final paper research produced so many commercially viable results that I was compelled by sound commercial knowledge not to include them in the final paper. I passed, but at least the cat is still in the bag, 9 months of research have greatly assisted me to design new holistic e-commerce testing methods for commercial practice.