What was your background before becoming an adviser and what industry experience do you have?

“I’m from a tech background, I came up through looking after servers and computers… anything with blinking lights and wires I’m all over it! Latterly I’ve got involved with Cloud Computing which is awesome technology and I wanted to bring that to Cumbria.”

Areas of specialism/interest

“As well as Cloud, security is also something I really focus on as that’s something that everyone really needs. It’s super complicated and so hard to get right, so it’s good to be an ‘expert’ in that. People know what they need and they just need someone there as a sounding board.”

Why did you become a business adviser? How long have you been an adviser/self employed?

“I became an adviser because I love what I do. I love technology, I love Cloud and I love Cumbria. I often think Cumbria is left out a little bit, so I think it’s great that Cloud can help anybody, whatever they’re doing, wherever they’re located. If people around Cumbria can embrace the technologies that I help with, in my opinion that will improve the area. Why would I not want to make the area better?”

What do you most enjoy about the role?

“I love talking to different businesses, seeing what they’re doing. There’s no two businesses the same and no two owners the same. People are cool and that’s why I like it!”

Your biggest success to date as an adviser?

“I’m really new to being an adviser so haven’t worked with too many businesses just yet. But there’s someone local who is doing Irlen Testing which is to do with how you read and process text. She’s doing so many things to help people on a day-to-day basis to read things more easily. It’s wicked-cool that she’s helping these people and improving their lives, and I’m helping her to do that which feels awesome.

I’m holding a Cyber Security workshop which will hopefully help people to understand more about the security risks that are out there and the easy things they can do to try and stop those things happening to them. We’re always reading about cyber-attacks and ransomware so I’m hopefully going to help as many businesses as I can to think about their data and security.”

3 interesting facts about you

• “I am a very boring person!
• I was an Olympic torch bearer in 2012, I carried the torch down Warwick Road in Carlisle and I still have it in the office but they’ve deactivated it so you can’t light it again.
• I love cars and tech so you’ll generally find me driving or tinkering with those.”