About me
Programme strategy, governance and execution - ecommerce, digital and AI
I got into the internet before most people knew what it was. In the mid-nineties while still at college, I was working at one of the UK's first internet cafés developing .com's, building early chat rooms and web browsers, teaching myself HTML, ASP and Perl, and figuring out how websites worked.
When Tarmac approached the café wanting a website, I built it. That turned into more websites for construction companies across the Midlands. Then, in 1999, I was brought in to build Dyson's first ecommerce platform to sell their early DC01 range at shop.dyson.com. Four of us built the entire thing from design through to database, with no pre-built platforms to lean on and no established playbook for how ecommerce was supposed to work. I was team lead, and very quickly became the person managing the client relationship with Dyson directly.
That transition, from the person developing to the person responsible for the outcome, happened naturally, and it's how I've worked ever since.
The journey
My career has moved between agencies, consultancies, brands, and SaaS businesses, and across roles that have variously been titled CTO, VP, product lead, programme and project manager. The title has always been secondary to the work of delivering in variously shaped organisations.
Connecting all of these roles has been my focus: ecommerce and commerce technology, at scale and often in complexity. I've led internationalisation programmes for major brands and thousands of small marketplace sellers, built and managed partnerships with the likes of Amazon, eBay, Walmart, and PayPal, led teams in substantial digital transformation programmes, and delivered data and loyalty solutions for some of the UK's most recognised retailers. At Webinterpret I spent nearly a decade in a senior leadership role spanning product, partnerships, and commercial.
A significant part of that journey has been in consulting, with more than twenty engagements across fashion, grocery, pharmacy, financial services, and marketplaces. Walking into programmes at different stages, reading the situation quickly, and finding a way through.
What I believe
Having been inside ecommerce through every major shift, the dot-com era, the marketplace explosion, platform consolidation, the composable and headless wave, and now agentic commerce, I've formed some views that shape how I approach transformation work.
The first is that the hype that comes with a new technology is often not overblown, but sometimes early. Almost everything the dot-com bubble promised eventually happened. I think about that when people say AI is overhyped or suggest that there's not much real Agentic Commerce. I don't believe the question is whether it will change commerce, more when and in what form.
The second is that agentic commerce is already here, in layers, and impacting everything about digital transformation from strategy to governance to delivery. AI-driven product research & discovery, personalised search & merchandising, intelligent pricing; these are live today across many products and platforms. The next layer, new consumer interfaces and entirely new brand relationships, is evolving now and is consumer driven. Nobody knows exactly what shape it will take. Which means the transformation work right now isn't only building for what's known, it's building the process and data foundations, the adaptable architecture, and the organisational culture to move when the landscape shifts again. And it will shift again, much more quickly than we've seen in those previous waves.
The third is that most transformations don't fail on strategy or technology. They fail in the space between the two, on delivery leadership. That's the space I've worked in for a long time, and it's where I'm most useful.
How I work
I've spent most of my career working as a consultant and freelancer, moving between startups and large enterprises, and taking on whatever the role required: VP, CTO, product lead, marketing and sales leadership, sole contributor PM. I've led teams of dozens of developers and business units, and managed projects with no direct reports, navigating complex matrix environments where influence matters more than authority.
What's remained constant throughout is the work itself, leading ecommerce and digital programmes, and doing what it takes to deliver them.
I'm comfortable operating at a strategic level - shaping direction, establishing governance, aligning senior stakeholders - but I don't see that as separate from the hands-on work. In my experience the best programme leaders are able to stay close to the detail while keeping a commercial view. I'm as likely to be working through a delivery plan or sitting in a team stand-up as I am presenting to a board.
I try not to overclaim. What I can say honestly is that I've been brought into difficult situations more than once and found a way through, and that I care about the outcome, not just the process.
How to hire me
I take on engagements three ways: a Programme Health Check, a fixed-fee, two-week review of your programme's plan, governance, team and vendors, with recommendations straight to the sponsor; fractionally, one to two days a week alongside your team; or as an interim programme lead when the situation needs full-time ownership. Either way, the same principle applies, I'm accountable for the outcome, not just the advice.
I contract through Immerced, my consultancy, and where scope requires it I can bring in trusted specialists I've delivered with — from project management through to technical leads.