Internet. London. Bicycles.
Since August 2014 I've worked as an IT contractor, mainly in London.
Since September 2017, I've worked for Shell, doing DevOps and development on an electric vehicle charging project.
Before that, I did six months at World First, a foreign currency exchange. I helped maintain and improve a legacy backend system, mainly working (very carefully) with the processing of interbank SWIFT messages.
That followed periods at Hearst, a global publishing company, working mainly on replatforming the Runner's World magazine brand, and at Brilliant Basics, an agency.
This was after a short spell in Beijing, during which I built an online recruitment website.
Prior to that, I worked with an independent internet entrepreneur on two projects, one in the personal finance space, and one in online mapping.
Just before that, I built a collection of websites for a Hong Kong-based restaurant chain.
My last permanent employment (i.e. not working on my own account) was at Bridgeman Images, an image library. There I spent two years doing DevOps and development.
Before returning to the UK in 2012, I lived in China for 13 years. I returned via a five month bicycle tour from China, through Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, and Malaysia to Singapore.
In 2006, I began tech work on GoKunming, an English-language website about Kunming and Yunnan province. I became a co-owner. In late 2007, I moved to Kunming to live. My business partner and I sold the site, and it continues to be one of the most successful independent English-language websites in China.
This was preceded by a spell working remotely for a Hong Kong-based yoga/gym company.
That was after working at a media company in Shanghai.
Prior to Shanghai, I was in Hong Kong. I did some science teaching and then made my way into tech.
I went to Culford School in Suffolk. I scored four A grades at A-level. I graduated from Cambridge University in 1998 with a 2:1 in Natural Sciences.