Once a developer, always a developer, even if you end up leading teams of developers, working on way too many projects at once.

Started writing code on a ZX81 in 1981, moved on to business languages before leaving school, first using TCP in 1984 to deploy a hotel stock/accounting application remotely over an acoustic coupler. The owner didn't want it known a couple of spotty teenagers had written the business tools. After learning about HTTP through IRC and Newsgroups, I started tinkering as the web was born. My first commercial project was an online proofing tool built to help me share designs with remote clients, these days it would be called a web application but in 1993 I had to first explain the Internet and then the web before trying to explain what it did and how. Some things don't change!

Fast forward 30 years and I've been a principal consultant for Cap Gemini's Web Technology Group, been a part of many start-ups, seen them fail, but also some memorable achievements along the way. I've learnt the hard way, the best lessons come from the failures and the success stories wouldn't be possible without them. Although I know lead development teams on a wide range of web based projects I still scratch my developer itch when I can, whether it's code hardening, bug fixing or personal projects.

The most important thing I've learnt is a team of inspired and motivated individuals that trust each other and share the load of project goals in an unhindered collaborative environment can achieve amazing results.