What does your role at the online DVD rental giant entail?
I’m responsible for the management of all hardware, software and
engineers across the company. On a day-to-day basis my team will handle queries
ranging from fixing a broken laptop in London to rolling out a new distribution
centre in Germany.
What was your first job?
Designing military aircraft. I worked for BAE Systems as a sponsored
undergraduate while studying maths at university. Geometry was my specialty.
How did you get into the IT profession?
I’ve always been interested in computing. I grew up programming my Amstrad CPC
464 in Hex opcodes, as I couldn’t afford a Z80 assembler at the age of 12. I
naturally found myself in the technical computing department at BAE Systems
after graduating from college.
If you weren’t in IT, what kind of work would you be doing?
I suppose I could have ended up as an accountant or even a maths teacher.
Which IT vendor has had the biggest impact on your career?
Sun. Not particularly for its hardware, more for the Java programming language.
Java, and the open-source community that sprang up around it, had a huge
influence on me.
Which technology would you most like to have invented?
MPEG compression – the enabling technology for CD, DVD, HD-DVD, Blu-ray and
digital transfer of music and film around the internet.
What keeps you awake?
When I worked at a startup, I used to lie awake worrying about the site going
down. Thankfully, I now have a budget to spend on building in resilience. What
keeps me up now is my baby son.
