He has an international reputation for his work in distributed systems development, Grid and Cloud Computing and Knowledge Management. He holds a doctorate from the University of Salford, and a first-class degree in computer science from the University of Manchester. He has researched the organisation of distributed work and systems in various organisations including government-related organisations, the construction industry, financial services, health, and most recently among particle physicists at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. He has undertaken consultancy for a wide range of companies, and has published articles in journals such as the Journal of Management Studies, Information Systems Journal, Journal of Knowledge Management Research & Practice. He is a member of the board of Youthnet, the UK’s first online charity, and the former chair of a national volunteering charity.