Profile

Phil grew up as a ginger kid in Sheffield in the late 70s and 80s. These facts alone could have derailed many people - but looking to other northern ginger role models such as Rebekah Brookes, Chris Evans and Mick Hucknall (sadly most of them now discredited or worse, grey) Phil managed to pull through. From this precarious start in life Phil has gone on to be an active participant in many of the most significant world events, generally as part of the at-home audience watching John Craven's Newsround.

It was whilst watching an episode of Blue Peter featuring the roll-out and maiden flight of Concorde, that Phil designed and built an aircraft of strikingly similar proportions but made entirely from a single sheet of paper. He resisted the temptation to patent the design (a move echoed by Tim Berners-Lee years later for the considerably lesser development of the internet) and so, thanks to Phil, similar aircraft can be found flying around classrooms near you right now!

The aeronautical theme caught Phil's imagination and years later he was sponsored by the RAF as part of their Flying Scholarship programme. However, after 3 years of looking at stones in muddy, wet quarries, Phil graduated from university at just the time that the first Gulf War kicked off. The life of a jet pilot suddenly looked less glamorous and a lot more dangerous so Phil cast around for another career and alighted, after considerable thought (at least 20 minutes in the careers office at Newcastle University), on becoming an accountant. This profession seemed to pack nearly the same level of excitement as piloting a hawk jet in the Red Arrows with slightly less chance of being killed when undertaking the duties required for the job.

Phil's lack of aptitude for auditing, linked with the realisation that there was more pay in making stuff up, doing pretty presentations in PowerPoint and running workshops, meant he was ideal for the role of "Management Consultant".

Today Phil can still be found telling people what to do and how to do it - and he can't resist re-engineering every business process or customer experience he runs into on a daily basis.