Projects | Skills | Education | Experience | Interests | LinkedIn | Blog

I am a full-stack junior developer, currently studying at Makers Academy & graduating July 2018.

After 5 years trading equities & derivatives, I started a social finance consultancy – Cortex – to help address major social issues by structuring & implementing impact investments. Before Makers, having studied AutoCAD at night school, I spent 18 months personally designing, demolishing & then rebuilding a house in Peckham.

My ambition now is to forge a career in software design & engineering. I am looking for opportunities in London or the US to work on interesting projects in effective teams.

Tech Skill Set: Ruby, JavaScript, jQuery, Sinatra, HTML, CSS, Node & React

For a complete list, see my GitHub.

Managing Cortex required consistently high standards of communication. Before this, during my time at Merrill Lynch, I wrote and distributed daily newsletters to my clients including market commentary and data analysis. I also chaired the morning meeting of 10-15 sales-traders in London and 15-20 in New York.

After a number of leadership roles at school, being an effective communicator was honed further when I became a qualified TEFL teacher at 19. Frequently in my career, I have thrived when making highly technical concepts accessible. Whether written or verbal, in pairs or as a group, listening and communicating efficiently is at the core of our journey at Makers Academy & I look forward to bringing these skills to my next role.

• Qualified teacher
• Leadership roles
• Represented by literary agency, Curtis Brown

One of the things I really love about programming is tight teams - pairing and solving problems together. Above all, I would like to think that I can fit well within a group and contribute to an enjoyable, healthy, positive working environment. I have the ability to find what is exciting in a project and bring this enthusiasm to the whole team.

• Lots of 'Team Player' stickers
• Head of House, Captain of Football, Captain of British Universities Cricket
• Mentored two juniors & helped shape future iterations of the course

At Makers we have to pick up new concepts quickly. A precursor to this is the willingness to grow and embrace challenges. At times, it can feel overwhelming but we are fortunate to be trained with tools and methodologies to effectively manage these aspects of development and maintain wellbeing, individually and as a group.

The emotional curriculum should not be underestimated. I am proud to have more mastery of my emotions and consider these skills as very much part of my growth mindset - empathy, listening, teaching, strong pairing skills, team work, shared learning and enhanced problem solving.

• Lord Mayor's Award for work in the community
• Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award

• Methodologies : Agile, XP, Test Driven Development
• Foreign languages : French, Spanish

Makers Academy (2018)

• Curious and passionate about code
• Fast, independent learner
• Great collaborator

Edinburgh University (2003-2007)

• MA Economics & Philosophy, Upper Second
• Captain of 1st XI & British Universities Cricket

Marlborough College (1997-2002)

● Academic & Sporting Bursary ● Head of House ● Captain of 1st XI Football, 1st XI Hockey, 1st XI Cricket

Cortex Capital (2012-2017)

Director. Social finance consultancy - impact investments & development

Merrill Lynch (2008-2012)

Sales-Trader. Global equities & derivatives for institutional clients

● AutoCAD Level 1 & 2 (2014-5) ● PCIAM Level 6 (2010-2011) ● TEFL (2002-3)

Outdoorsy stuff, theatre, non-fiction, music, the arts (!opera), travel (!flying), cycling, swimming, taking photographs, design, architecture, vacantly gazing at bodies of water & cleaning stuff (especially shoes).

• Ambassador for the Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square

• Governor of Bigland Green primary school, Tower Hamlets

• Cycled from Lands End to John O'Groats, as part of a three-man team, in memory of a friend who died of a brain tumour at the age of 16. Over 1,100 miles (in a very not-straight line) on a 'twin-tandem' called Cerberus, the frame of which was built in 1908. We raised over £32k for the Samantha Dickson Research Trust.

• Advocate & fundraiser for the mental health charity CALM