I am a strategist, facilitator, performer, writer, and imaginative interventionist who helps individuals, teams, and organisations unlock their imaginative potential.
I spent the last twenty years navigating the complex architecture of Higher Education as a Professor, Associate Dean, and Institute Director. Leading large teams and managing multi-million-pound portfolios taught me a vital lesson: even the most successful organisations need dedicated space to dream. I realised that to build the future, teams must occasionally step out of day-to-day delivery and reconnect with their original purpose and imagination.
In August 2025, I founded One Little Spark to meet this need and help leaders move from the ordinary to the extraordinary, building systems with soul.
I don’t offer off-the-shelf consulting. I build strategy from the ground up that is future-focused, action-orientated, and designed to breathe life back into your work.
My approach is defined by two landscapes: the bottle kilns of Stoke-on-Trent where I grew up, and the salt-weathered steel coast of Teesside where I now live with my family. Coming from the Potteries, I learned early on that industry and creativity are not opposites, but parts of the same gritty, beautiful system. I bring this hands-on mindset into the committee room, supporting teams to harness imagination, catalyse innovation and change, and build organisations and programmes of work fit for the future.
As a gay LGBTQ+ man, a husband, and a father, I have always navigated the world from its edges. This vantage point allows me to read the unwritten rules of a room, spot the hidden potential within complex systems, and design inclusive spaces that didn’t previously exist.
Currently based in Redcar, I am writing a trilogy of books on what it means to Live, Lead, and Love an imaginative life. Whether I am facilitating a leadership residency, energising a civic project, or performing an EDI cabaret, my goal is simple: I help you find the horizon, regulate the noise, and design the futures you are driven to build.
You can find out more about my research here.
