I was born in Blackpool, England in 1966. After a Maths degree at St. Andrews University, I made a terrible mistake and became an accountant. Fortunately, I was able to make a sideways move into IT and never looked back. I did pretty much every job in IT around the world before becoming a Data Architect/Consultant for hire. I then discovered the pleasure and pain of Sales, and joined two early-stage database startup companies, at least one of which became very successful. I retired in 2021 to the Wirral in the North West of England to concentrate on my wife and family, my bass guitar, my Peloton and my writing.