Building:  I started my career at the age of sixteen as a Trainee Assistant Buyer for local building Contractors George Houlton & Son's during their centenary year.  I was promoted to Assistant and then Buyer. I left for a 'big money job' at Hygena.
Modular Furniture: As Buying Coordinator I liaised between the factories and the suppliers to make sure deliveries were on time.  We had to have a completely clean desk, all the time and there was a posh tea trolley.  I got myself fired for taking an unauthorised holiday with my girlfriend, now wife Polly. 
Building: My first job, running a buying department. Really enjoyed it, even at such a young age. Was threatened with a knee capping on one occasion because I wouldn't give 'a certain sub-contractor' a contract. Got tired of the 'win by drinking' culture of construction and sought out an industry where I would get better training and prospects.
 
Retail: Starting out as a Buyer, was promoted to Senior Buyer. Built a great team, helped launch a new business, helped to integrate the Debehams acquisition and coordinated a restructuring.  Following the property and retail crunch my role was made redundant and off I went, to Boots in Nottinghamshire with my young family.
 
Retail:  At the time, Boots was a long established plc and had a fantastic reputation in the city and across the country.  A great place to work and some superb people.  I helped commercialise the capital spend and worked on some restructuring, then the phone call from a head hunter came .....
Retail:  ASDA was going bust and it meant moving house again, so what was I thinking? Well, I reckoned that I needed some more difficult challenges and I got them here by the bucket load.  I was a part of the turn-around team with Archie Norman and Allan Leighton doing my bit to take £100m off the cost base. Sometimes called 'the University of ASDA', I learned loads, and then the head-hunters called again ......
 
TV: Sky had stopped losing millions a week and was embarking on the digital launch and so they wanted a 'blue chip' person to help with the commercial side.  Following money, fame and fascination I went to 'that London'.  I set up a team, kicked off the strategy and negotiated some large contracts. However, I resigned six months later. Working for a Murdoch business wasn't for me.
Transformation Consultancy:  After talking about it for ages, I went into business for myself and set up Active Management. A year later we had nearly thirty consultants doing transformation programmes around the world. In 2001 I sold Active to Private Equity joining  them as divisional MD  for a year or so to make sure my team were looked after and then followed the call of the wild again leaving to to set up TiVA.
Supplier Profiling: TiVA matched a corporate buyers requirements with a suppliers capabilities using a unique one to one matching 'algorithm'.  We won dozens of blue chip clients including Starbucks, The Daily Mail, Carnival Cruises, Zurich Financial Services etc. We also signed up over 50,000 suppliers. In 2008 we we're credit crunched and the business was bought by a competitor.  Great training, but costly.
Transformation Consultancy: Since 2003 I've been helping businesses and organisations that have big problems, or big opportunities. I call my approach   'non consultancy, consultancy' and I work through ACTiVA with client's teams rather than bringing in big teams of consultants. I also work with some amazing people as a non exec and some start up projects like eProfiler.   It's going really well and I've been lucky to work on some great assignments. Long may it continue. If you'd like to meet up contact me and we can grab a coffee and have a chat. 
Volunteer work: Between 2011 and 2016 I served as a Trustee on the board of Yorkshire cancer research helping to transform the organisation from just pure research to more a patient centred approach and in particular to take on the fact that more than 2,000 people die in Yorkshire every year over and above the national average. In March 2020 I established a group of 250 businesses to support the hospitality sector within Whitby and help them cope wit the challenges thrown up by the Coronavirus.