Life
I was born in 1955. A rebellious child, I was unconvinced by school but only realised why decades later when my son joined Mensa. With him, I attended a seminar to understand the challenges of educating very bright children and learned a lot about myself. I have a higher IQ than Carol Vorderman who’s made a career out of hers.
Agriculture was my chosen subject at college, followed by a ten year sales and marketing career in the fertilizer industry. It was here that I learned how to sell. A couple of years in a new business development role in a different industry followed before I became my own boss in 1990.
Over the next 13 years I ran my own marketing services agencies, selling out in 2003. Those years gave me both the experience of growing a business and a unique insight into the challenges faced by hundreds of others (and the agencies established to support them!)
Since then I have been exploring the world in which we live and how it is changing. To do that I constantly put myself in challenging situations, confronting some of society's ills head on; only then can speak about them from experience and from the heart.
I don't claim to be a futurologist, but can see some clear patterns emerging. I'm told I have a ‘ferocious intellect' which perhaps explains why I find it easy to translate what I see into words and concepts that others can easily grasp and act upon. Perhaps that's why my writing is so popular.
Right now I see an accelerating convergence between our need for economic, environmental and social sustainability. The growing social enterprise movement, of which I am a passionate supporter, is just one sign of that convergence. It is an essential stepping stone, but not in my view the final solution.
2009 saw me sell my shares in one business to start up another. Turnpike Farm PR is a new company that will grow reputations and deliver results in the social enterprise, environmental, tourism and housing sectors.
In common with many successful men, I have a long suffering wife. Belinda keeps my feet firmly on the ground. Our son is an economist in the energy industry and our daughter an epidemiologist working in East Africa.