A former UK Military Intelligence Specialist and Special Operator, he is now a court-appointed forensic expert witness, executive producer and presenter, and a Ground Hunter on the BAFTA-nominated Channel 4 series Hunted and Celebrity Hunted.
Having spoken to over 1.5 million students internationally, he has spent years encouraging young people to think differently about education, opportunity and the skills they may one day rely upon in careers they do not yet know exist.
Growing up in the Rhondda Valley, he struggled at school. Unknowingly living with dyslexia and ADHD, he had little enthusiasm for formal education and certainly did not leave school with his future mapped out. What changed the direction of his life was discovering that learning could have a practical purpose and that thinking differently could, in the right environment, become an advantage.
Languages became one of the keys.
He went on to learn Arabic, Russian and Pashto during his time in the military and is now one of the UK’s higher-profile practitioner linguists, an elected Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Linguists and a David Crystal Award winner. He also holds an MSc with Distinction in Intelligence Systems and Cognitive Engineering.
Those language skills became central to a 23-year military career that took him into intelligence, operations and some of the most complex environments in the world. His career included operational work across the Middle East, North Africa and Afghanistan, together with a high-profile secondment to the United Nations Special Commission in Baghdad as a Weapons Inspector and Interpreter.
From Saddam Hussein to Barack Obama, his career has brought him face to face with some extraordinary people, albeit in very different circumstances.
Today, he works independently as a court-appointed forensic expert witness, reconstructing complex incidents and examining the difference between what people believe happened and what the evidence actually shows.
His television and media work includes serving as a forensic consultant on BBC The One Show – Watchdog, together with appearances on The Morning Show, Sky, Bloomberg and LADbible.
He also runs his own production company, developing and producing factual content, and is the executive producer and presenter of the investigative documentary False Positive, which premiered earlier this year and forms the starting point for a planned investigative series.
He is an Ambassador for Combat Stress, the veterans’ mental health charity.
His mastery of cognition now underpins his work with elite performers, including professional sportspeople, sharpening decision-making, mental preparedness and performance under pressure.
Alongside his work with young people, he has delivered keynote talks for major organisations including GCHQ, the MOD and Home Office, as well as corporate audiences in the UK and internationally.
For school audiences, his talks are energetic, honest and rooted in real experience. He speaks about languages, careers, intelligence, resilience, decision-making, overcoming setbacks and why the subjects young people study today can create opportunities they may not even realise exist yet.
His core message is simple:
You do not need to have your whole life mapped out at 13, 14 or 15. But the skills you choose to build now can open doors you cannot yet see.
For students considering whether to continue studying languages, he shows them exactly where those skills can lead, not in theory, but through a life and career in which language, culture and communication have repeatedly made the difference.
Lincolnshire
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