Hello world.
I was born and raised in Northern Ireland; but the 1970s and 80s were not happy times in my homeland, and I knew from an early age that I wasn’t going to hang around. I moved to England to go to university; and like many in my generation, I stayed.
Living in England has unquestionably made me feel all the more Irish, as you’ll immediately see on any rugby weekend or Eurovision night.
My career found me. I was literally in the right place at the right time to become a website specialist. I’ve worked for Sky News, Microsoft and various arms of Her Majesty’s Government – long before that became fashionable.
I first started working with WordPress, the software behind this very website, in 2007; and it has occupied my working hours ever since.
I was a solo consultant… then an agency co-founder (twice)… then, having sold my business to WordPress ‘foster parent’ company Automattic, I worked on the VIP team, bringing large-scale sites and clients to WordPress, and helping to expand the global partner ecosystem.
I left the company in May 2020, to seek fresh challenges and refreshed motivation. Having taken a few months off to support my family through the disruption of a global pandemic, I returned to consultancy in March 2021, offering my services as a Product-Owner-for-hire through a new company, Tintou.
My passion in life is cycling. I particularly love to ride the track: indoors whenever the opportunity arises, but more often, outdoors at Reading’s Palmer Park.
I finished close enough to the front enough times to win the Reading Track League B Division in 2018 and again in 2021; and I’m one of Ireland’s top three track sprinters over the age of 50. Marginal gains are more appealing to me than they used to be.