I was born in Wallasey in the Wirral, on the shores of the Mersey. We later moved to Upton. After not passing my eleven plus, I became a pupil at Woodchurch Secondary Boys School. I eventually attended college at Leeds graduating with a BA (hons).

I arrived in Jersey in the early spring of ’76. The great long hot summer followed. I did everything I could to stay here because I loved the place. I was employed as a barman, potato planter/picker and a tomato picker, I worked on the hire cars at Mascot Motors. Later I taught photography at the Art Centre and acted as front of house manager on the opening night of Coriolanus.

I briefly looked after the Jersey Youth Theatre, putting on a truncated version of Macbeth. I moved back into teaching for a short while at Grainville.

In ’88 I moved into finance and became assistant manager for Allied Dunbar rising to manager before leaving in ’94.

Now aged 58, I’m happily married to locally born Fiona, with two children Kathryn and Ben. Both attended States schools, Haute Vallee and subsequently Hautlieu. My daughter graduated with a Maths degree and is now working for Jersey Telecom and my son after finishing at Hautlieu decided that college life wasn’t for him and elected to work for Royal Bank of Canada which he loves.

As an IFA (Independent Financial Advisor) I worked as a manager and subsequently a director at Hepburns since joining in 1994. I’m currently Assoc. Director of Advisa Hepburn Oracle. The three companies recently merged to become the biggest company of IFA’s on the Island. I have discussed my situation with the other directors and should I be elected I would relinquish my role to focus on being a Deputy.

Previously I was Chairman of the local Personal Finance Society (PFS) for two years, a role generally held for just a year. Locally PFS members have played a crucial role in working with the government on a number of issues. Early meetings resulted in deferring ITIS and 20% means 20% for a year also reducing the loss of Mortgage Tax Allowances over 5 years.

I acted as Chair of the Pensions Working Party attempting to resolve the pension problem here in Jersey. Close collaboration with Senator Terry Le Sueur and Tax Comptroller Malcolm Campbell and IFA’s resulted in the creation of the new Retirement Annuity Trust contract or RAT’s as they’re more commonly known. One of the quickest pieces of legislation ever seen in Jersey. The Chairmanship continued the following year with a pensions “Root and Branch Review”. The result was new laws being drafted and included in 2007′s budget. There is still some way to go, with various Working Parties looking at Occupational Schemes, Personal Schemes, the States schemes including PERCs and Offshore contracts.

For the past 8 years I have held a role as Governor for Haute Vallee School. The last 6 years as Chair. Haute Vallee is a success story since the closure of D’Hautree. Mainly due to the outgoing Head Bob Fairhurst, the hardworking teachers and ancillary staff who help create a welcome atmosphere for pupils and excellent results. (Three teachers were recently accredited as ” outstanding” by an Ofsted inspector, placing them in the top 5% in the UK.) That’s not forgetting the pupils whose successes academically, in arts, music and sports, consistently year on year, prove the value of it’s mission statement “Making a difference at the heart of the Community.” We run an inclusive policy that means no child gets left behind.

I’m one of the co-founders of the 745, 746,747, Breakfast Clubs, a local business networking group with around 200 members. Seven years later and it is still attracting new members. We meet monthly at the Pomme D’Or Hotel to hear members discuss their businesses, swap ideas and share inspiration.

From the Breakfast Club came the genesis of the “Think Twice, Buy Local” campaign. The idea was to promote those local businesses that couldn’t join the Genuine Jersey group but still provided a valuable service to the local community. It came from Kevin Keen’s comment at a club presentation “the next time you buy a yoghurt, just think about it if you buy a local one 80% of the money stays on the Island.” This turned out to be a controversial campaign provoking lots of island wide discussion and reportedly did help local retailers.

I have a creative Partnership called “Thinkable” with Phil Balderson a local entrepreneur and my campaign manager, that teaches creative thinking techniques. We have worked with Education and various local and UK companies. Both visualisers, we utilise concepts like Edward de Bono’s “Six Thinking Hats”, to broaden the scope of how people think laterally when looking for fresh ideas or problem solving.We have also opened conferences in Belfast and Birmingham.

I served as a panel member for the Prince’s Trust. We acted as selectors for disadvantaged individuals looking to exercise their entrepreneurial skills on the Island and hoping to source an investment from the trust.

2007 I chaired the annual “Slow Food Conference” and now serve as a committee member for the local “Slow Food” society. Slow food was started some years ago by Carlo Petrini as a reaction to the growth of fastfood outlets in Italy but has quickly become an international movement in promoting locally sourced produce, examining the politics of food, securing the existence of traditional artisan food producers and was one of the early advocates of seasonal eating.

 

Since then I’ve worked as a Chair for Branchage 2010 , sat on the 2010 Fish Festival committee providing creative input and more recently the Liberation Music Festival in May of this year.I run two blogs www.heritageyear.blogspot.com designed to illustrate photographically a year in the life of Jersey Heritage and the National Trust Jersey and www.slowfoodjersey.blogspot.com reflecting the ethos of Slow Food locally and extolling the virtues of the excellent food that surrounds us.

I also came up with the idea for Jersey’s Archive of “Street Archaeology” which is now being rolled out and supported by Appleby’s. A kind of “Where do you think you are?”

All of the above I do because I feel you have to get personally involved if you want to create change. Actions do speak louder than words.