Professional Events

I volunteered to help state schools with their career planning process which became an essential extension of the tenet of OFSTED inspections from September 2019.

This involves working with Career Leads in schools to build their career strategic plan to ready pupils for the workplace through various criteria that match the Gatsby Benchmarks.

In June 2018 I was snapped in my car doing 32 in a 30 mile limit. As part of a nudge initiative by the Government, I was given the option of attending a speed awareness course rather than be fined or have points added to my licence. For someone who lives in London, there is very little opportunity to go at any speed over 15 miles an hour, and this incident was out in the shires: however I did appreciate that the speed limits across much of London were reducing down to 20 mph. 

I attended the speed awareness course and the mixture of people revealed to me the fact that some people will not consider what they did was wrong. It was much more than that: taking responsibility for your actions inside a potentially deadly machine is very important. The speed awareness presentation, by professional drivers and ex police officers, hammered it home to me that the world of the road had changed dramatically since I had taken my driving test in the mid-80\'s.

So that very same evening I enlisted on an advanced driving course. Six months later and five guided drives with a charming volunteer from the IAM under my belt, I took my test and passed. The test was quite a frightening experience however: the examiner used to be Head of the Police Driving School at Hendon!

That experience has given me the impetus and means to survive on the roads around Europe and beyond. More importantly I now enjoy driving far more than I ever did. I enjoy being safe whilst driving and have a true sense of what it is to have complete cognition on the road.

I volunteered to help the STEM organisation to promote science, technology, engineering and maths through schools and universities.

This kicked off with my providing a career path presentation to my alma-mater Brunel University. It was well received and a copy of my presentation is attached for the record.

This was followed the next year by a visit to Channing Girls School to help with a STEM workshop. We talked about energy and its different sources. Then the girls ran teams to run a set of electric cars close to an exact distance. It was so much fun!

Engineering is such an important part of modern society, it is all around us and being just a small part of it is incredible empowering.

BearingPoint in 2013 decided that I was an ideal candidate to put forward to the MCA (Management Consultant Association) for an award. They put me forward for two: Innovation of the Year and Technology Consultant of the Year.

My work at the UK Hydrographic Office (UKHO) in Taunton was considered particularly challenging and resulted in a dramatic move forward for technology and thinking in that space.

In the end, a change of leadership at UKHO, meant that the UKHO decided to withdraw from entering the event all together: but the Technology Consultant award went ahead in any case. 

Come the night, there were only three shortlisted nominees of which I was one. I didn't get the award but it was a real insight into the good work that MCA consultants can do.