My bio.
My >30-year career spans roles with major international companies in both Banking (ABN AMRO, Royal Bank of Scotland, Deutsche Postbank) and Logistics/Supply Chain Management (Deutsche Post DHL, Panalpina, Gulf Agency Company, NFC), as well as an SME that needed some specific care and attention, and entrepreneurial, startup and artistic projects.
A rich, multicultural and open-minded character formed from having grown-up/lived/worked in the UK, Saudi Arabia, Hong Kong, Switzerland and Germany, and also gaining extensive business experience throughout Europe, Asia Pacific, the Middle East and North America. My former employers include German, British, Dutch, Swiss, Swedish and Taiwanese organisations and I have been based:
2012-present, Cologne, Germany
2007-2012, London, UK
2003-2007, Bonn/Cologne, Germany
1999-2003, Basel, Switzerland
1994-1999, Hong Kong, PR China
1989-1993, London, UK
1970-1989, UK, Saudi Arabia, Hong Kong
Since starting work, I have been keen to do pretty much everything I could. Starting at a country level, progressing to a regional/global level, then more strategically developmental, I have built up holistic organisational knowledge thanks to the different functions that I have worked in across my career, with roles in Operations, Sales, Marketing, Product Development, Strategic Development, Corporate Venturing ("Intra-"preneurship) and Advisory.
Two high-value and strategically important corporate ventures successfully created, from inception through to exit, while having developed and transferred processes and best-practice across several others besides.
First and foremost, I am client focused and my actions are ethical, social, commercial and market driven.
I have developed, structured, implemented and delivered (often complex, cross-border) customer solutions for major clients, in parallel acquiring valuable, industry-specific know-how by serving those clients from across multiple sectors including:
Fast Moving Consumer Goods
Technology / Media / Telecommunications
Retail
Apparel / Fashion / Footwear
Automotive
Financial Institutions / Insurance
Industrials
Construction
Public Sector
Despite having held highly specialist/expert roles with depth, I would describe myself now as more of a generalist, with all the flexibility, range and breadth that goes with that.
In addition, considerable first-hand exposure to tough macro-economic conditions, contractions and cycles, including being at the very heart of the 2008 global financial crisis in the City of London, the 1997 Asia-Pacific economic crisis based in Hong Kong and the early 1990s recession, also in London. I saw first-hand what “too big to fail” – and all the related, wider implications – actually means.
A British citizen and full German permanent resident, happily having a home in Cologne since 2003. Originally from an expatriate family and educated at the British international school Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, a boarding-grammar school in Kent, UK and the Open University in the UK and Hong Kong.
A refined international outlook and with an evolved knowledge of Germany, I also have a deep interest in the arts, culture, world affairs, people and life.