I was born in North Yorkshire on 28th August 1980, but spent the first four years of my life on the road, living in Monaco, Taiwan and Kuwait- alas my memory of these times fails me! My formative years were then spent in North East England, growing up and going to school in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Aged 18, like so many Britons, I left home for my first true job. I wasn’t to start, the almost perfunctory, University education just yet. September 1998 saw me start work for the UK Ministry of Defense (MoD) in Malvern, England. After nine months of training, I spent a further two on secondment in Bath on my first job with responsibility.
Now it was time to start the education process, and do so in earnest. I moved to London- my home for the next four-and-a-half years. Studying at Imperial College tied me to London for nine months of the year, while I spent my summers working for the MoD at sites in Farnbourgh, Bristol and Preston. Upon finishing my time in London I travelled a little and spent three months in Patagonia, Chile, on a Youth Development program (with Raleigh International). By the end there was a new school classroom for one of the most remote communities in the region and improved National Park infrastructure was helping to encourage tourism and its associated economic benfits.
In January 2004 I emigrate to Vancouver, Canada, where I started work on my PhD and have been happily embracing Vancouver living since.