OK, enough procrastination already!

When we all departed WHS in 1969, I headed off to commence my Electrical Engineering degree, at UNSW in Wollongong.

After graduation I worked in Arizona (with Honeywell) and Virginia (with General Electric) on the design of Steel Mill automation systems. It was during my time in Virginia that I met my future wife, Mary Jo.

We were married in Melbourne in 1977, after we had moved back to live in Australia to work on the design and commissioning of the new Hot Strip Steel Mill in Hastings, Victoria.

We have three kids, Matt (28), Dave (26) and Lucy (19). The obligatory family snaps appear below.

In 1980 I was offered a job with Honeywell as a Software Engineer, and we moved to Sydney. I stayed with Honeywell for close on 20 years, working in a number of very different roles (engineering, marketing, sales management and general management etc), and with stints of varying lengths in the US, UK, Europe and SE Asia. One of the more unusual assignments involved spending 2 months commissioning a production control and telemetry system on an off-shore oil and gas platform in the South China Sea. (I arrived on the platform just one week after a full-scale gun battle had successfully discouraged pirates from boarding and killing all the inhabitants!) Join Honeywell and see the world, indeed!

I am now a Partner of Business Clarity P/L, which provides consulting, mentoring and coaching services to SMEs. I am also the Australian Partner of Autopolis, which is a very small, boutique firm providing strategy consulting and analysis to the global Automotive Industry. And just to fill in any spare time that might sneak through, I am a Director of Print Associates P/L, which designs and sells software systems to help large companies substantially reduce the cost of their printing operations.

Mary Jo and I live in Pymble in Sydney, with the usual array of suburban distractions – theatre, concerts, tennis, sailing, friends and family. I still suffer a great weakness for nice cars, but I’m having counseling… We love to travel and are currently planning a trip to France in 2010.

Life is good!