For the first 17 years of my career, I worked in Information Technology, starting as a Computer Operator/Shift Leader (1977-1982), working (on ICL mainframe computers in Godalming (UK). Godalming was one of the six Computer Bureau that was operated by the Co-operative Wholesale Society (CWS) around the UK.

In 1982, the Godalming bureau relocated to Woolwich, when a merger (I am unsure of the details) with with the Royal Arsenal Cooperative Society (RACS) took place. I moved to Woolwich as the Production Manager for the bureau that now carried out work for the CWS, and now for RACS.

In 1985, I moved to Salford Quays, Manchester as part of the CWS’s plans to bring all their bureaux to a single location. My role at the processing centre in Salford Quays was Remote Job Entry Service Manager (essentially, the bureaus still existed but they now submitted the jobs, by remote entry, so that all processing was done at the computer centre in Salford).

In August 1986, I moved to the CWS’s Head Office in Manchester, which undertook a wider remit of work, beyond just providing services to  retail outlets of CWS. My role at the head office was Technical Support Manager.

 After working for CWS for about 11 years (1977-1988), I left that organisation and took up the role of Operations Support Manager at Provincial Insurance, Kendal, Cumbria, UK.

After 6 years at Provincial Insurance and 17 years in IT, I left industry and went to university. This was (obviously) a major decision to give up a well paid job, and good career prospects, but it was the catalyst for a new direction in my career.

I attended the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST) from 1994-1997. I graduated with the First Class Honours degree in Computation.

My original plan was to return to industry (perhaps in a consultancy role, tackling the Y2K bug), but I was offered a funded PhD position at The University of Nottingham.

I undertook my PhD between 1997-2000, which resulted in my thesis entitled “Applying Meta-Heuristic Algorithms to the Nesting Problem Utilising the No Fit Polygon.”

I was offered a Lecturer in Sep 1999 two years into my PhD at The University of Nottingham.

I was promoted to Senior Lecturer (Aug 2003), Associate Professor and Reader (Aug 2005) and a Full Professor (Jan 2007).

In August 2011, I moved to The University of Nottingham’s Malaysia campus as the Vice-Provost of Research and Knowledge Exchange).

In August 2016, I became the Provost and CEO of the Malaysia Campus and was also appointed as a Pro-Vice Chancellor of the global university (which has campuses in the UK, Malaysia and China).

I retired from the University of Nottingham in Jan 2021, retaining my status as an (Emeritus) Professor.

In February 2021, I took up a position in the PETRA Group, Malaysia as the Chief Executive of the Good Capitalism Forum. I also hold position of the Chief Executive of the Sekhar Institute and a Senior Vice President of the PETRA Group.