“I’m deeply curious, love to learn, pay attention to people, student of psychology, deft at communication, excel at networking, deeply tech-savvy and relish growing others through education and leadership.”

Eric is an experienced global C-level leader who uniquely combines advanced software development, engineering, marketing, communications and leadership to produce superior business results. Known for building, motivating, and growing high-performing teams ranging from 10 to 21,000 people while holding numerous executive and board-level roles. With over 17 years of direct technology experience, has developed a variety of innovative systems including well-known mobile, web, machine learning and E-commerce systems.

Eric is a polymath with the ability to learn almost anything whilst being an expansive thinker. Not seeing the world as a pile of discreet facts but seeing it as a matrix of interrelated data. Finding solutions both in other established fields & creating new solutions.

Having worked in many sectors – private, public, community, political, non-profit and government they have become an anthropologist of organisation & office/remote cultures.

“As an experienced leader I attempt to balance the needs of stakeholders and those of my team. I catalyze the growth of others by facilitating opportunities for achievement, leadership and learning. I am deeply curious, love to learn, empathetic and thoughtful even as I remain proactive and decisive. I strive to build a positive, transparent and constructive culture and I thrive in a variety of environments.”

You can find my Strength Finder results here:

Activator
Individualization
Futuristic
Arranger
Strategic

Career Summary

As an Executive and experienced leader with 20+ years total and 10+ years at Executive level.

Leader – Held six Executive roles and six Board roles in UK, Canada and US. Over 20 years of leadership, led 31 teams, led 21,000+ people and £1.1 Billion turnover. I have led an organization of 300 people as President/CEO, and departments of 120, 400 and 21,000 people as an Executive.

Software/IT – 17 years of technology experience, worked on codebases (both mobile and web) and IT infrastructure over the last 9 years as well as leading IT services with 100 staff, for 6,000 users and 371 Schools for 3 years.

Educator – Over 2 decades of certified training including Executives, Ministers and managers. As well as trained/coached people stepping into management for the first time

Communications & Marketing – 19 years of communications, marketing and product work.

Global & Cultural – Have worked in 11 countries including US, Canada and Britain – England, Wales, Northern Ireland, Ireland, France, Netherlands, Argentina, Australia, Thailand, Canada, United States

Capabilities

Leadership – led by example, getting the best out of people and giving my best back
Technology – Software, customer & product development and high level IT management
Strategy – devising options, scenario planning, looking around corners, play to win, business model creation
Marketing & Communications – Social, digital, print, branding, market research, real life, I have done it all
Education – Mentoring, coaching, teaching, training & facilitation
Community – Politics, government & community engagement
Innovation & Creativity – thinking out of the box and other shapes, able to discern disparate patterns, intrapreneur and entrepreneur
People – High EQ, people politics, culture, conflict resolution, matchmaking and student of psychology
Organization Development – Alliances, mergers, restructures, change management, development, culture and real talent management

Leadership

Getting the best out of people and giving my best back

Eric has 20 years of leadership experience, 8 years at a senior exec level. In the UK, Canada and the US. They have led several divisions in communications, marketing, technology, corporate services and external service delivery (both corporate and consumer-facing). They led as CEO 300 people with a $3.5 Million Sterling turnover, with loss to profit and through a major restructure. As an executive they have been responsible for, in one instance, departments of £71 million in revenues and 400 staff. Their board level experience includes service as Governor for a British university (University of Hertfordshire) and multiple smaller companies.

To reinforce their experience and skills their took a number of postgraduate courses as part of a MBA program at Open University, UK. At MIT, US they gained a Certificate of Executive Leadership after completing a program of both in class and online courses in June 2021. As well as taking on Executive Coaches throughout their career.

Throughout their career they have led 31 teams and had 27 jobs where they have being responsible for both people and strategy, in private, government and public sectors.

Their work has not gone unrecognized. On Linkedin they have over 100+ Endorsements for Leadership and over 100 Reccomendations with commentary on his management and leadership .

Sample of teams Eric was responsible for:

SpotHero – USA – 120 Software Engineers, Data Scientists, Business Analysts, Corporate IT, and SecOps
Yello – USA- 27 Software Engineers, six scrum teams – Campus Recruiting/Events, Native Mobile Apps, Integrations, Core API, Core UI
Enova – USA -7 Mobile engineers in two teams, Android and iOS
CastingWorkBook – Canada- 7 people -> 5 full stack engineers, 1 Product Designer and 1 DevOps
Professional You – Canada- 4 people
Vision Critical – Canada- 12 people – Two teams one Creative and one Communications/Marketing
Cornwall Council (merged 7 councils into 1) – United Kingdom – 22,000 people, £1.1 Billion turnover
Cornwall County Council – United Kingdom- 400 people, £71 Million Turnover
Liberal Democrats – United Kingdom- 35 People
Consumer Association – United Kingdom- 24 People
NCDL/Dogs Trust – United Kingdom- 16 People
University of Hertfordshire Students Union – United Kingdom- 300 People, £3.5 Million turnover

Strategy

Devising options, scenario planning, looking around corners, play to win, business model creation

Eric is good at connecting disparate dots and paying attention to trends. They are a natural and trained problem solver. They own over 300 strategy games, they believe in testing ideas out. Whilst their nature is optimistic, they plan for several eventualities. They have run hundreds of communication campaigns and participated in over 100 public elections in both the UK and Canada.

They have taught strategy to hundreds of students in several different fields. They have time in the tech startup community helped them learn how to build numerous business models and learn how to adapt them fast. With their insight of people they are able to factor in the human dimensions to both the big picture and the tactical delivery.

Eric has had 25 jobs where they have been responsible for both staff and strategy, in private, government and public sectors.

Their work has not gone unrecognized on Linkedin they have over 100+ Endorsements for Strategy and numerous Reccomendations with commentary on their vision and strategy.

Eric led multiple campaigns to create Mission, Vision and Culture Values:

Multiple Organization alliances – NSPPC, NCDL, CA, CCC
Organisation wide Mission, Vision, Culture – SpotHero, Cornwall County Council, Professional You, Vision Critical/Angus Reid Strategies
Large Software Departments Cultural Values – SpotHero, Enova, Yello
New Business and Products – Vision Critical, Professional You, Casting Workbook, Enova
Governor of University of Hertfordshire – University of 21,000 students, £70 Million + turnover. Served on a number of sub committees and task forces including Strategic Information Systems Review and Student Recruitment.

Eric at Scale, I have led 21,000 people (through a merger of 6 different organizations), led 400 people which include 100 people IT department, 300 people as a CEO through a major restructuring and turned the organization from loss to profit, I have led multiple political election campaigns with 50+ people, working 18 hour days for 3-6 months, I have seen the worst and the best of people.

Technology

Software, customer & product development and high level IT management

Eric‘s passion for new technology is part of their DNA. Their father fixed mainframes for Digital/DEC, as a single father he often took Eric to work with him. Eric gained their first degree from the University of Hertfordshire, UK in Computer Science BSc Hons, and the IT consultancy (Pure Imagination) they set up at that time with a friend paid off his University debts and allowed them to travel the world.

Since then, they have been responsible for an IT department (over 100 people) serving 18,000 staff and during the merger described, was leader of the associated IT program.

Between 2011 and 2013 they took an Applied Web Development diploma and Applied Web Applications diploma, with over 10 courses with an average grade of 94% from BCIT, British Columbia Institute of Technology, Canada. They did this in the evening and weekends on top of his full-time job. After they focused on building their Ruby on Rails capabilities, whilst working for Apple as a “Genius”.

In 2014 they went full time as a Junior Rails developer. Working for a year as a full stack engineer they worked on multiple codebases full stack. In 2015 they was promoted to Product and Software Development Manager and recruited a team of developers and designers. In 2016 Eric moved to the US to work as a Manager of Software Engineering working on Mobile Apps both Android and iOS. They took courses at Big Nerd Ranch to further their coding skills on both Android and iOS. In 2018 they moved companies and is now leading over 20 engineers in four teams web, mobile and integrations, as a Senior Engineering Manager. In 2019 Eric started to study Artificial Intelligence at MIT, in Multiple classes on campus and online. In 2020 Eric studied BlockChain at MIT and 2021 they studied Cybersecurity at MIT.

I have worked on production code for 15 Apps (a mixture of Web and Mobile). I have worked on Infrastructure for five organizations (from owned hardware/servers, through Virtualization to the Cloud), with a heavy leaning towards Mobile CI/CD. I have facilitated Vision/Values and principles for three Software Engineering departments, one with 135 engineers, one with 50 engineers and one with 7 engineers. I have introduced new technologies and approaches to software engineering in five companies.

Eric’s head is regularly buried in the latest sci-tech publication, in his spare time they builds new applications.

Eric had 8 jobs as a Software Engineer, 1 as IT Consultant, 2 with IT Networks, 1 as Department leader and 1 as IT Trainer.

Examples Codebases

Yello -> Yello Enterprise web app, Yello Pro Mobile App (Android and iOS)
Enova -> NetCredit web app, SimpleCredit web app, Simplic Android App, NetCredit iOS App
CWB-> CastingWorkBook web app
MyBestHelper web app
LXVentures -> WannawatchIt. web app and Mobio web app
Big Mama Textbooks -> web app
Apple – web Retail Employee Appreciation site
PowerShifter -> Multiple Telus websites

IT Infrastructure/DevOps/CI/CD

Yello Mobile Only
Enova Mobile only
CastingWork Book – All systems including moving Hardware servers to Virtualization
MyBestHelper – All cloud AWS
Cornwall County Council – On Premises Servers

Marketing & Communications

Social, digital, print, branding, market research, real life, I have done it all

Eric has worked in communications for 19 years, in both Europe and North America. This has included the B2B and B2C marketing for businesses, brands, products, services, policies and individuals in the private, non-profit and government sectors.

In addition to leading divisions responsible for delivering core marcoms strategy and execution, nationally and internationally, Eric has also held roles responsible for advertising (print & digital), social media, employee comms, stakeholder comms, market research, information systems, information technology, product development, sales, fundraising, branding, public relations, CRM, VoC, public affairs and campaigns (political & charitable). This rare diversity of experience has facilitated Eric’s success in breaking down silos and building strong inter-linkages between practices.

Eric does not just work behind the scenes, but has been a public spokesperson for organizations and campaigns in countless media appearances and print interviews, and has frequently addressed audiences both large and small as a public speaker.

Eric has had 31 jobs in Communications & Marketing.

Education

Mentoring, Training and Facilitation

Eric has trained many hundreds of individuals: from business leaders & executives, to campaigners, candidates and politicians, to youth & students. Eric’s training includes management and communication skills, media training, public speaking, negotiation, organization development, and conflict resolution, as well as desktop publishing, IT networks… and scuba diving. Eric has accreditations from a number of national organizations in training and also in training trainers.

Eric has also facilitated multiple strategic management sessions including one recently to establish a vision for an alliance between Petrochemical businesses in Canada as well as having acted as an independent chair for alliances.

Eric frequently takes on mentoring as a fundamental aspect to his management style, and helping mentorees understand their key drivers and values, and to make fundamental decisions their own way.

Eric has had 10 jobs as a instructor/trainer.

Examples of Education roles:

Mentor @ 1871 – Provide mentorship, time and expertise for the benefit of member companies (Startups)
College Instructor – Part-Time evening and online instructor in Marketing and Communications
Associate – Facilitation multiple away days, mission setting for multiple management teams
English Teacher – I gained my TEFAL (Teach English as a Foreign Language)
Rescue Diver (PADI) – Supported training of 100+ scuba divers
Activist Development Manager – Trained over 500 activists including government ministers, politicians and activists.
Trainer (Liberal Democrats) Trained hundreds of political candidates and activists in election and communication skills
Training Consultant – Trained 1,000+ teenagers in campaign development and lobbying
Regional Trainer – Taught 100’s in management skills over 6 years
Network Technical – Design and educate setting up IT networks
IT Software Trainer – Desktop Publishing

Community

Politics, Government and Community engagement

Eric’s keen sense of social justice in communities is borne of his personal experience being brought up in the foster care system. They have himself been an advocate and elected official in a number of capacities – as well as political adviser to Government Leaders and Parliamentary MPs.

As an elected politician for over three years (in the UK), Eric both campaigned at grassroots level to build solutions for his constituent communities, as well as working at the macro level as a Cabinet Member responsible for delivering Communities and Cultural Services to a region of 500,000 individuals.

Within Canada, Eric was one of the core members of the successful Startup Visa Campaign and they were Vice-Chair the Active Transportation Policy Council (for the City of Vancouver, BC). Whilst in Chicago Eric was a mentor for 1871 helping others form new businesses and tech companies.

Consequently, Eric is uniquely placed to provide strategic advice, understanding the total picture of the inter-relationships between individuals, communities, representatives and business. Their insight into community-building has particular pertinence today for clients looking to understand the formation of virtual communities.

Eric has worked in 110 election campaigns, has stood and won 17 positions and being elected to public office. With responsibilities ranging from volunteer to nation wide head of campaigns. They have sat on 7 committees in a senior capacity. Worked in 6 non profits as campaigns lead, running a large number of issue based campaigns. In addition they have volunteered for a large number of organizations.

Innovation & Creativity

Thinking out of the box and other shapes, able to discern disparate patterns, intrapreneur and entrepreneur

Eric has been described as someone whose thinking simply cannot be put ‘into the box’, and who refuses to be limited by disciplines or dogmas.

Their diversity of experience and active imagination enables them to make connections where other people do not. As a result, they have a reputation for encouraging creativity in people and challenges to innovate new ways to meet needs, whether formally or informally.

Some of their favourite ‘out of the box’ accomplishments include putting libraries on beaches, getting marketers to learn from gamers on engagement techniques, harnessing Digital TV’s to deliver health services, having run the most recognised charity campaign in the UK, and the idea behind their latest project Professional You which anticipates will make the resume redundant. It is worth noting that they are a very good cook, essentially because they is willing to try new things.

To further their ability to innovating and open to change, Eric went to Second City (in Chicago) and took all the five levels of Improv. Once this was completed they performed on multiple stages in multiple theaters. They also went to Annoyance Theatre and took not only the five levels of classes but multiple summer time intensives (week long) courses with people from all over the world.

Erics’ favorite hobby is Roleplaying games and they have written a multiple campaigns and scenarios (in multiple settings e.g. Fantasy, Science Fiction, Horror, Historical and present day) and being the Story Teller/Game master with groups of friends and at Conventions (e.g. GenCon).

Examples of Innovation

Chicken Checkin post actual pitch
Encouraging Curiosity
Profession You – My Startup
Startup Vancouver Weekend 2011
Building a tech/startup/knowledge friendly government in BC
Hacking Health – Gaining a suntan in Whitehorse, Yukon whilst coding

People

High EQ, people, culture, conflict resolution, matchmaking and student of psychology

They have been “best man” five times and brought many more couples and friends together. Professionally they have brought some awesome teams together and they have led over 31 teams throughout his career. Perhaps it started due to Eric being a foster child and going to 12 schools (before college) and having to work out people fast.

Perhaps it is because they comes from two very different cultures British and Argentine. Or maybe it is because they were an immigrant from Britain to Canada and then to the US. Or maybe it comes from starting in multiple careers always starting at the bottom of the ladder multiple times. Either way they have failed at lot and learned.

Regardless their curiosity has lead them to read an exceptional amount about people, psychology, sociology, anthropology, spending the last two years studying most of the published psychology work for the last decade AND listening to all the MIT psychology degree lectures( via podcast), AND building a team of psychology advisers for Professional You. Either way Eric is incredible curious about humans.

Eric has been responsible for recruiting in 11 organisations – USHU, NUS, NCDL, CA, Liberal Democrats, CCC, Vision Critical, ProfessionalYou,Casting WorkBook, Enova, Yello, SpotHero
Types of recruiting including adding to a team, building an entire team, campus recruitment, diversity recruitment
Eric has built entire interview processes for Managers, Service Providers, Marketers, Designers, Software Engineers (Mobile, Test, FullStack and FrontEnd) and DevOps.
Eric has been a leader through two mergers, one with seven organizations.

Organization Development

Alliances, mergers, restructures, change management, development, culture and real talent management

Eric has led and helped build a number of key alliances and strategic partnerships spanning private, public, non-profit and government sectors. Through these, Eric has developed an unparalleled understanding of organizational culture and its development, change management and alliance forming techniques.

On the implementation executive that merged six organizations (with a total of 22,000 staff and £1.15 billion in revenues), Eric’s particular achievement was to realize a culture shift from bureaucratic to customer-centric throughout the new organization. They later led a merger between a technology company and a market research company, 400 staff at the time.

They have led an award-winning public-private partnership in Digital innovation, and a nationally recognized programme to reduce overlap and wastage between multiple service delivery organizations.

Success & Drive

Eric’s energy knows no bounds. Constantly striving to innovate and create, Eric brings vision, as well as his passion for developing both people and technology to every project. Campaigning and advocacy is in his blood – and it is this drive to succeed, as well as diverse experience and exceptional ability to see the big picture, that makes him a considerable asset to any organization.

Eric left school at 16 and started his working life in a restaurant kitchen at the age of 14.

More than work?

My mother was Argentine, my father British and I chose to become Canadian.

People

I love to have good intense conversations about things that matter and my friends cross all ages, sex, genders, sexual identities, races, cultures and nationalities. I love to learn from others

Table Top Games
I have being playing RPGs for a few decades, starting out on Dungeons and Dragons and quickly evolved to many other RPGs – I love creating new worlds, writing interesting scenarios for players to explore – keeps the imagination alive and well, whilst also entertaining a group of friends. You can see most of them on Board Game Geek -> Roleplaying games, . I have ran many sessions at Conventions for strangers and introducing them to new worlds and rulesets. I also enjoy the odd Board game – Board/War Games.

Reading

I own about 3,500 books and in-fact have a small library. You can see most of them on GoodReads

Cooking
My third career (Pre University) started as working in a Kitchen cleaning dishes and I left the career as a Head Chef at a Four Star Restaurant

Strength Training

I got into this after working two years without any breaks – daytime worked at Apple, evening studied at Community collage and weekends worked for multiple Startups as a Software Engineer and my doctor told me I will die unless I got healthy, over 10 years, strength training has given physical and mental healthiness

Traveling

I have visited and some I have lived in e.g. England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Ireland, France, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Spain, Italy, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Australia, Thailand, Vietnam, United States, and Canada

Writing

Started with a lot of writing at work, and then for blogging and recording my journey (my augmented memory) and then RPGs, and multiple short stories

Improv – Trained at Second City & Annoyance. Performed on multiple stages and multiple groups

Other Hobbies – Scuba Diving, Hiking, Computer gaming, Skiing

Updated March 2023