Experience

1. Nov 2024 – present

   Fractional CTO & Non-Executive Director

   The Finishing Line — 3PL logistics, Basildon

   Board-level adviser and hands-on technology leader for a multi-client third-party logistics provider — maturing the technology function and aligning IT investment with growth.

   • Architected and delivered a new Warehouse Control System — Android operator app plus Node.js services integrated with WMS and ERP — built end-to-end with Claude Code and one developer
   • Rolled out Claude and Cursor across the development team; AI-powered delivery is now standard practice
   • Delivered an enterprise analytics platform ingesting ERP, Sage, WMS, HR, CRM and service-desk data into Metabase and Power BI
   • Achieved Cyber Essentials Plus through a company-wide cybersecurity uplift
   • Led the tender and transition to a new IT service provider; rolled out the business’s first integrated CRM and service desk

2. Sep 2024 – present

   Founder & Managing Director

   ventive.ai

   Technology consultancy and product venture for manufacturing and digital businesses — architecture, AI roadmap, data strategy and delivery.

   • Delivered an enterprise Digital Asset Management platform now holding 150,000 assets, with LLM-driven auto-annotation
   • Delivered a Product Sustainability platform managing 100,000 components and 15,000 products at component level
   • Evolving a hybrid PIM/PLM platform for manufacturing — BOM, cost, sustainability and compliance computation

3. Jun 2017 – Sep 2024

   Chief Digital, Development & Transformation Officer

   Colart International Holdings — global manufacturer

   C-suite executive across manufacturing and distribution operations in the UK, France, Sweden, USA and China. Led a 35-person technology and digital function, with additional remit for business development, marketing and a sub-brand business unit.

   • Reduced the IT cost base by £2M (33%) while improving service quality; cut infrastructure costs a further 25% through cloud migration, Docker and Kubernetes
   • Delivered double-digit margin gains via SKU and manufacturing-cost optimisation across a 15,000-SKU portfolio
   • Led Industry 4.0 deployment across multiple manufacturing sites; integrated Infor M3 ERP with manufacturing, distribution and customer-facing systems
   • Introduced enterprise LLM use with a company-wide portal; ran agentic AI and RAG pilots
   • Built Shopify DTC ecommerce integrated with ERP and logistics backends; delivered enterprise DAM and Product Sustainability platforms

4. May 2014 – May 2017

   Senior Director of Technology

   RELX (Reed Elsevier) — FTSE 100 information services, London

   Directed architecture, governance and delivery across property, agriculture and science portfolios.

   • Led a 30-person team building analytics and data systems covering ~50% of UK agricultural activity
   • Designed the event-driven enterprise architecture for the PropertyLink commercial property data product
   • Implemented a unified global website platform across all RELX units — ~£500K annual savings
   • Oversaw the technology divestiture of New Scientist

5. 2001 – 2006

   Co-Founder & Director of Technology

   Opta Sports Data / SportingStatz, London

   Co-founded the sports data business that became the global category leader — later acquired by Perform Group for £40M.

   • Built the real-time sports data platform supporting hundreds of live events, feeding data feeds, websites, mobile apps and print
   • Scaled the organisation from start-up to 100+ employees with a portfolio of major media clients

6. 2002 – 2014

   Founder & Managing Director

   Coreware, Guildford

   Built a 17-person software consultancy delivering enterprise platforms for Thomson Reuters, Sky, HSBC and Reed Business Information.

   • Thomson Reuters opinion platform: 1,500+ journalists, 1M+ monthly unique visitors
   • Official IOC mobile app for the 2010 Winter Olympics — live results to 500K users
   • HSBC Canary Wharf live financial wallboards; World Cup sites for Thomson Reuters, MSN and Sky

7. 1999 – 2002

   Director of Technology

   Sports.com, London

   Led infrastructure, support and application development with a 50-engineer team.

   • Engineered high-capacity websites supporting 5M concurrent users
   • Implemented a sports betting platform creating a multi-million-pound revenue channel

Earlier career: contract web developer at Reuters (1994–1999), building financial and news platforms and progressing to architect and team leader; software engineer at RMSL Traffic Systems (air and marine traffic-control radar) and Racal Research (defence R&D, embedded systems and early neural network models).