My career has been shaped by a series of deliberate choices — and a few happy accidents.

I started in public relations, where I learned the fundamentals of communication. Not just what to say, how to say it — but importantly, what not to say. A discipline that still informs how I think today.

In the late nineties I tried to build something of my own — a content site for busy young professionals, in the earliest days of the commercial internet. It taught me more than I expected and gave me an appetite for digital that led me, deliberately, to eBay. I joined at a moment of rapid scale, took on a variety of roles, and towards the end of my time there found myself drawn to mobile — a nascent industry that felt like the next big thing. It was.

That interest in mobile led to a move to Vodafone — a conscious decision to learn product, because I believed it would make me a better marketer. It did. And that thinking has stayed with me since.

From there, Amazon. Fifteen years, two very different chapters — mobile in the early days of app growth across Europe, and then a deliberate move into logistics when I wanted a new challenge. Amazon is often assumed to be an organisation of limitless resource. The reality is different. Frugality is a founding principle — you are expected to spend money as if it were your own, to find ways of doing more with less, and to resist the temptation to throw resource at a problem. Combined with a rigorous, data-led culture that always starts with the customer and thinks long term rather than short term, it is an intellectual discipline that sharpens how you think about every decision. It sharpened mine.

After 25 years inside some of the world’s most recognisable digital businesses, I wanted to use what I’d learned differently. Working more directly. Seeing the impact more clearly. Bringing the same thinking and discipline to businesses where it can make a real difference.

I also make time for a small number of pro bono engagements with charitable organisations, and occasional mentoring for early-stage marketing professionals.

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