I tinkered with electronics throughout my teens, leading to studying Electrical Engineering at the University of Technology Sydney (1989-1992), and commencing work for an awesome scrappy little electronics product development consultancy (Jatronics), who were owned by one of the worlds most respected manufacturers of 35mm film processing machines (Filmlab Engineering) where I learned the delicate art of handling priceless unprocessed film at hundreds of feet-per-minute in machines needing the space of a small warehouse.

Subsequently, a four year stint as Technical Manager for an office expense-management hardware/software products company (Billback Systems) selling to law & accounting firms across Australia, and which also brought a significant and honestly unpleasant taste of middle-management. During this time (1998-2003) I also midnight-engineered the electronics for the re-invention of pneumatic tube and other point-of-sale cash handling systems in Australia (API Security/Smike) long before half a dozen others duplicated us.

In somewhat of a change-of-life, I relocated to Melbourne Australia and a decade self-employed in small-business IT consulting (Techydude Consulting), leaving me with a keen awareness of modern infosec threats and responsibilities, just in time to see all those mistakes made again by the emerging wave of IoT cowboys.

Returning to my first love, electronics, in 2013, I helped clients invent the world’s first battery-powered breath-controlled smoking hookah (Kanben), and a medical dental device for halving the time patients need to wear braces/aligners (Clarus), and then to Ecoult Energy Storage Systems to help them bring the UltraFlex (20kW.h/20kW/48V battery) to market readiness in 2015.

Upon relocating to San Francisco in late-2015 I discovered the ‘Silicon Valley’ comedy TV series was actually a documentary when I spent 2 years at Mavrx Inc. (acquired by Taranis) to help make the world a better place using precision agriculture via multi-spectral aerial imagery. Not content with one glimpse at how the Silicon Valley Sausage gets made, I then joined the boutique Alloy Product Development consultancy where I worked on a wide array of product design challenges for clients whose products I can’t talk about.

Content with experiencing my own slice of the American Dream, since 2021 I now live near Lisbon, Portgal, where I bring my oddball array of experience and perspective to some very lucky clients!