Early Days

I started my career in Cape Town, working in the financial sector for southern Africa’s largest banking group. I managed the infrastructure and support services for one of their primary offices based in the Cape Town city centre.

I shifted to the education sector shortly before being headhunted by the University of Cape Town to join their ICTS department. I had a number of interesting roles at the University, spanning operational and project work, ending up as a systems engineer, focused on projects to design and test new technologies.

International Experience

Making use of my dual nationality, I moved to London in 2006 and began working at the St Christopher’s Hospice Group, the world leader in palliative medical care.

While there, I set up a structured service desk and all the related policies, processes, and staff roles, as well as led and participated in various technical projects. I was the lead designer for the group’s first ever electronic patient record system, a landmark moment in technology for the group.

After working at the group for a number of years and in several roles, I was offered the position of Head of IT at The Forward Trust, a nationwide non-profit, focusing on the rehabilitation of prisoners struggling with addiction. I was the first ever internal IT hire for the Trust and was charged with creating an entire IT function for the growing organisation. I once again set about creating everything we would need, hiring the appropriate staff, establishing budgets, processes, policies and a coherent strategy.

After a few years, I moved back to Cape Town for a year and a half to reconnect with friends and family. During this time I was asked by the St Christopher’s Hospice Group to work as a consultant on several projects they were looking to run. The primary project included significant redesigning of the electronic patient record system to accommodate newly launched medical services. I flew between London and South Africa as required.

Somerset House

Returning to the UK again, I was delighted to be appointed as the Head of IT for Somerset House Trust, London’s working arts centre, based at the phenomenal Somerset House on Strand. Half a million square feet of Grade I listed building, housing some 2600 creative, technology and cultural sector innovators and artists.

The IT department is responsible for the provision of all IT and telephony services to resident organisations, as well as ensuring all facets of IT are provided for all our public and private events. This includes our outdoor cinema, bars, restaurants, open air concerts, the seasonal ice rink, as well as our numerous artistic exhibitions. We also handle all the IT and connectivity for our hundreds of cowork members.

Over the years I’ve been asked to consult with a number of organisations including Age UK, The Public Theatre in New York, the Science Museum Group, Outside Edge Theatre, and others. I’ve presented on technical topics at the European TEC conference, the IDG 2020 CIO Summit and been interviewed by CIO magazine.

In 2024 I took on the role of Director of Operations & Infrastructure at Somerset House. This role expands my remit to include oversight of the physical estate, facilities provisioning, as well the existing IT services.

Project Portfolio

Throughout my career I have been fortunate to be able to work on various innovative and exciting projects. You can find a selection of these on the Project Portfolio page.

Other Interests

My greatest pursuit outside of technology is travel. Although I’ve been to around 50 countries so far, it always seems that the more I travel, the more places there are to go. I try to combine travel with scuba diving where I can. You can find a few snaps of my travels in the Travels section.