What was your first step in the industry - how did you get involved?
My involvement in the Audio industry started when I was around 15. A couple of friends and I started a live music club in my home town of Rochdale, and I was the guy who ended up with the responsibility of arranging a PA for the gigs that we put on. A few of the bands that played in the club then asked me to do sound for them at other gigs they were playing around the local area. Then when I moved on to University in Plymouth, I needed cash (To pay for my beers) so I landed a part time gig with a local PA rental company. And as it seems to happen in this industry one thing led to another and I was touring and working in studios before long. Then in 1989 I was offered a position with Studiomaster in Luton to run their service department (I was getting tired of touring and the late night studio work).

How come a guy from Lancashire ended up in Hong Kong?
After being at Studiomaster for about 2 years, I then moved on to work for a company called Thear Technology. There I was involved in service for Otari, Revox and a bunch of other studio equipment manufacturers. During this period I came across a position being offered in Hong Kong to work for a company called Advanced Communications Equipment (ACE), who are a Pro-audio distributor, and handled many of the brands that I was working with at Thear. Anyway, we started negotiations, and in July 1993 I got on a plane to Hong Kong to work for ACE as their Technical Support Manager.

You worked for dbx, first in US and then in the Asia. How did all this come about?
ACE is heavily involved with Harman, hence I spent a significant amount of time dealing with people from JBL, dbx, Soundcraft etc... So when dbx decided they needed someone to handle Sales and Marketing in the Asia/Pacific region they approached me to see if I was interested in jumping ship. So after 4 years with ACE working in China, I moved to the US to work with Harman Music Group (dbx, DOD and Digitech). Harman wanted me to spend some time in the US to get familiar with their operations. The only problem with this was that I was dealing with Asia, so I ended up spending most of my time back in Asia and not in the US anyway. Thankfully, after about a year, I moved back to Hong Kong.

As a guy who's lived in the UK, the US and Asia, what do you feel about the differences?
There's obviously a ton of cultural differences... Even the US and UK are totally different in a great deal of ways. The most interesting things about living in Asia is that there's a lot of cultural variance across the region, this is something that you don't really get in the US and UK.

How come the move to Shure?
After about four years at Harman, I wanted to move on to something a bit more challenging. So when I was offered the position to work with Shure as the MD of their Asian office it was an ideal career progression with a strong, reputable company.

Shure is a very established company with a long history. What's it like to work for such a company?
Working for Shure is great; everyone working at Shure has a great deal of pride in the brand. This is something quite unique, particularly in our industry with companies coming and going all the time, there aren't many out there who can claim to have been around as long as Shure.

2003 has been a busy year for Shure with re-organising and a new HQ in the US. Exciting times?
Yes, things have been busy. But, good busy, as all of the changes are a result of our business continuing to grow.

What of the future for Shure and for yourself personally?
Shure has a good vision of where they are heading in the future, this is quite inspiring and therefore keeps things interesting and personally rewarding.

What are you most proud of during your time in the industry?
That I made the move to Asia.

What do you think about the state of the industry at the moment?
I think the industry is going through a transition period, and I see more companies are trying to diversify their businesses into different areas. Professional recording has almost disappeared when compared with ten or fifteen years ago, as most musicians are recording at home. Installed systems are being geared more towards playback instead of live music... Consequently, many manufacturers have to rethink the kinds of products that they need to produce to address the shift in user requirements.

What gets you out of bed in the morning?
My kids.

How would you like to be remembered?
This is the kind of question that needs to be answered after a few beers! As it's the middle of the day I'm a little short of answers...