I am a motivational leader and agile web professional with over 20 years of experience, 15 of which have been dedicated to WordPress. I have played a critical role in the success of a number of large-scale engagements, including SONY, Sage, and ITV. I have a passion for problem-solving and delivering success – with extensive enterprise-level strategic experience, overseeing large departments of technical and operational staff and creating teams capable of successfully delivering large-scale digital projects.
My multi-disciplinary background across commercial, operational, creative, and technical roles, provides a deep and broad knowledge base. My expertise extends far beyond technical knowledge. I am skilled in partnership building, team management, client relationships, technical consultancy, and sales and pitching. I provide clear leadership and direction in projects, with a strategic vision which enables me to steer projects towards successful delivery.As an experienced speaker and thought leader in the industry, I am regularly invited to speak at conferences and events, including WordCamp Europe and BrightonSEO. Over the years, I have overseen many projects which have received multiple awards, including BT Sport Industry Awards, Chartered Institute of Marketing Awards, and UK Blog Awards.
My journey began in 2001 when I founded an agency in Brighton, UK and oversaw the creation of dozens of WordPress websites – managing the full project cycle, including pitching, proposal writing, designing, delivery, training, and ongoing support. I worked with other commercial agencies and vendors and often managed outsourced development teams.
In 2016, I joined Pragmatic, a leading WordPress agency in Brighton and worked on an early headless site using WordPress as a REST API delivery system. Within two years, I became the Technical Director and oversaw a department of 30 engineers and designers, both onsite and remote. I moved the agency to agile delivery practices and managed the transition to the Block Editor. I managed training provision across the technical team, including an early collaboration with the core Block Editor core delivery team team – and created a React training program for the technical team.
During my time at Pragmatic, I pitched, scoped, and delivered multiple award-winning sites, including Sage, Danone, and National Lottery. I regularly worked with clients to provide effort estimates, negotiate investment levels, define programs of work, and identify new business opportunities.
In 2020, I joined American Eagle as Technical Director. I built a new enterprise WordPress team within the 800-strong agency – hiring and directly managing a remote team of 15 operational and technical staff. My key role and responsibility includes pitching, hiring, resource planning, scoping, architecture, key technical decisions, and escalations. I implemented agile practices within the team and worked directly with the CTO and Leadership Team on strategic focus.
I regularly deliver key commercial insights and suggestions to the leadership team and provide level of effort estimates across multiple large and complex sales opportunities. I have successfully moved from zero to $4m+ annual team revenue in less than three years. In that time, I have overseen a number of large Sitecore to WordPress migrations, architecting a large $1m+ headless project and overseen the running and maintenance of large-scale retainer engagements. I have delivered multiple presentations within the agency and beyond, spearheading the team’s contributions back to the WordPress community, and created and maintained internal products utilised across the team.
I have introduced some new strategy partners to the agency, including Algolia, Cloudinary, Vercel, and WP VIP, generating substantial new revenue streams. In 2022, I fronted a national TV campaign, which played across major networks in the USA, and have been interviewed and invited to speak at various events, including Velocitize, WPEngine Panel and the WPTavern Podcast.
I have a depth of experience building successful teams, a deep understanding of our industry and a passionate commitment to delivering successful projects.