He was formerly the Dean of Sheffield University's Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences and the Joseph Hunter Professor of Pathology at the same university as well as Consultant Histopathologist to the Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.[8] From 2000-2002, by election, he served as the President of the British Division of the International Academy of Pathology[9] and he was later elected as the President of the Royal College of Pathologists from 2002-2005.[10][11]