After school I took an external London BSc degree in maths and physics at Wolverhampton and Staffordshire College of Technology which is now Wolverhampton University, and went on to teach maths at Spalding High School. I joined the RAF as an Education Officer, spending two and a half years teaching basic electronics and maths at RAF Cosford and a further two and a half years redesigning flying training at RAF Lynton-on-Ouse. I changed branches to Fighter Control and spent fifteen years there. During the last eight years I was essentially an operational systems engineer for the procurement, introduction and use of tactical data links, apart from a four month stint commanding a remote radar station on West Falkland.
After retirement from the RAF in 1990 I joined a small consultancy specialising in tactical data links and expanded their offering to include air traffic management, ballistic missile defence, cyber security, business continuity management and crisis management. In 1997 I left to become Head of Group Business Continuity and Crisis Management for NatWest Group, but left in 1999 when the RBS takeover was imminent and joined Vectra. I retired from Vectra in 2010 and set up a one man consultancy company, where I provide cyber security and privacy consultancy. In the voluntary sector, I chair the Information Security Specialist Group of BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT and am a Chartered IT Professional. I also chair the Cyber and Convergence SIG of the Security Institute and am a Director of the UK Chapter of the AOC. I will continue for as long as I am still enjoying it and anyone still wants my input!