Starting this month, we'll highlight one fabulous BABC OC member each month in our very own version of the classis British TV show, "Question Time". We'll get to know you and learn from you as we hear your story via the same 9 questions each month.
FEBRUARY MEMBER SPOTLIGHT
1. What is your hometown and country?
I'm a bit of a nomad. Born on Merseyside, formative years spent there, and in Broughty Ferry or Edinburgh in Scotland, before heading to University in Guildford, Surrey.
2. What year did you move to the US and why?
We officially arrived on July 6, 2016. A year to the day our first son was born. My wife (Nicola) and I launched our first mobile app, SurveyMe from our spare bedroom in 2013. It took off in USA and we followed its popularity here.
We'd been to Balboa Island on the last day of our honeymoon a few years earlier and we came to investigate who was using SurveyMe here and would they pay for it. Our first paying client was the Village Inn, Balboa Island. We later moved into the apartment above the VI and the rest is history ...
3. Where do you work and what’s your job title?
I am currently CEO of Entertainment who we acquired in 2019 and a Senior Vice President at Cardlytics, a NASDAQ-listed company who acquired our company earlier this year.
4. What’s your favourite word?
"IMAGINE" - it goes with my personal mantra, "if you can imagine it, you can achieve it"
5. What’s your least favourite word?
"CAN'T"..... erm, yes you can. just go back and rethink it.
6. What’s your favourite sport or hobby?
We have 2 young boys both born in OC. Any spare time is spent enjoying being their dad. Otherwise, I love cricket, rugby and soccer.
7. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt and why?
Ooh that's a good question. Genuinely when we sold our company recently, I had to face this question. I didn't have the answer then and I still don't. I stayed with the company because I love the people in my team and honestly, because of them, I'm so passionate about doing what I do.
8. If you could go back in time, knowing what you know now about living and working in OC, what advice you give yourself arriving here on Day 1?
After the darkest clouds, comes the brightest sunshine.
9. What's the best advice anyone ever gave you in OC?
It wasn't advice as such but my oldest American friend here said to me just after we officially arrived, "why are you here? ... I mean what gives you the right to be here? ... what are you going to add to the United States that I don't add already?" It was a rude awakening to the fact that no one here is going to give you an inch, and why should they. But if you're prepared to work smart and hard, then you'll succeed.
