I grew up in a suburb of Aberdeen, Scotland, where I went to school. I didn’t hate it, but I always felt a bit of an outsider. I expect that’s true of many people.

I studied Architecture at university and had a brief career working in Glasgow and London before taking time out to go skiing. I competed for two years in the Europa Cup circuit, trying unsuccessfully to qualify for the Olympic team before I ran out of money and had to find a job.

There was a recession at the time, so I talked my way into an IT support role with the transitional organisation that would become Scottish Natural Heritage (it is now called NatureScot). I worked there for nearly 30 years, working up to become responsible for all the software used in the organisation, before focusing on the ERP system.

I joined the Cabinet Office in 2020 to lead the government’s centre of expertise in ERP. I then spent five years working on the Shared Services Strategy for Government. This is moving the entire Civil Service, all 18 Departments and 305 Arms-Length Bodies, onto five shared ERP platforms. These five clusters (Defence, Overseas, Synergy, Matrix and Unity) will provide ERP services for over half a million users. My role was to provide technical advice to the strategy team and the five cluster programmes. I chaired a number of cross-government working groups, such as the Enterprise Architects and Data Leads.

In December 2025 Oracle made me on of their Oracle ACEs in recognition of my Oracle ERP expertise and contribution to the Oracle user community.