Previously a CTO in the financial technology space, I’m now focused on #techforgood – with a particular interest in climate change and humanitarian aid.
I co-founded FundApps a SaaS platform helping global financial institutions comply with regulation. I’m also co-founder of SDD Conference and Developer Fusion.
My experience
Co-founder & CTO, FundApps
Sept 2011 to July 2018
At FundApps I led the technology and product team as we simplify regulatory compliance for the investment industry – our service analyses over $6 trillion in assets daily, and is used by some of the largest financial institutions across the world.
Founder, SDD Conference
Sept 2013 to date
SDD (Software Design & Development) brings together some of the world’s foremost software development experts, and put together in-depth technical sessions and workshops for software designers, developers and architects.
Co-founder & CTO, TechEye
Jan 2010 to Sept 2011
Co-founded technology news site TechEye. Within 9 months we grew the site to 400K+ unique visitors/month alongside building a contextual advertising platform serving 100K+ impressions daily through our technology ad network.
Founder, Developer Fusion
1999 to date (part time)
Founded the largest UK-based developer site with over 600K unique users per month, with the role involving
- Development of website, driving advertising sales, building brand awareness.
- Technical writing, editing and reviewing of content, and presentations at several developer events.
- Establishing strategic partnerships across the developer community in the UK, including Microsoft and Adobe.
Head of Development, Anorak Digital
Dec 2006 to July 2008 (now part of glue Isobar)
- Established a successful technical team working with blue-chip clients to deliver consumer and b2b websites to tight deadlines and a consistently high technical standard.
- Experienced across the full project lifecycle – from pitching for business and establishing requirements, IA and timelines through to the development process and final QA.
- Extensive hands-on development and mentoring to deliver solutions including fully standards and accessibility compliant pan-European sites, consumer brand sites, “web 2.0” community sites with sophisticated use of AJAX, and solutions to deliver tight integration with existing business systems.
- Created web service platform and central library to reduce lead-time and costs for projects, including full-text site searches, user registration, 3rd party integrations and automated deployment.
- Researched and drove the use of new technologies and standards both internally and with our clients
Self Employed
1999 to 2005 (during A-Levels and University)
Delivered solutions for a range of clients,
- Modular e-commerce system (multi-million pound transaction volume), online file management systems, ad-serving tracking and management
- WebZinc.NET a tool written in C# that allows developers to extract content from web sites and automate form filling tasks, featured in several leading .NET magazines
- Created “Developers Pad”, a fully customizable development editor written in VB 6, reviewed in leading magazine, PC Plus.
Education
St Anne’s College, Oxford
2002 to 2005 – BA Hons First Class, Computer Science
Speaking and Events
- Delivered technical presentations to audiences of up to 100 people – see talks and slides.
- Helped organise the first “Developer!Developer!Developer!” conference in 2005.
- Ran “Hands on Labs” at the Visual Studio 2005 product launch in London.
- Helped kids write Java to catapult cows in Minecraft at the CERN tent at Womad festival.
Work in the news
- FundApps selected as a FutureFifty company
- FundApps featured in World Economic Forum report.
- Developers Pad featured in PC Pro magazine.
- WebZinc .NET featured in .NET Developers Journal and Visual Studio Magazine
- BigWhiteWall won a Guardian Media innovation award.
Awards
- Microsoft ASP Insider (info)
- Microsoft Most Valued Professional (2005, 2006, 2008)
- FreshMinds ‘Ones to Watch’ (info)
- Oxford College Prizes (‘03, ‘04, ‘05)
Testimonials
FundApps
“James joined me one year into the FundApps journey and immediately took over all things technology. Over the course of the next 7 years, James and I bootstrapped and built the company together. James is obviously a first class technical mind, but what I think makes him exceptional is that he combines this deep technological understanding with excellent commercial savvy. On the personal side his calm demeanor is legendary and he is just an all-round likeable guy.”
December 1, 2018 – Andrew White, CEO, FundApps
Developer Fusion
“I’ve known James for a number of years and he is a well respected and extremely well-liked member of the developer community. His fantastic achievements at DeveloperFusion have served to support hundreds of thousands of developers worldwide. He’s managed this despite a number of other important commitments and his selfless attitude to the Developer Community has been awe inspiring.”
August 14, 2005 – Graham Parker, Chairman, VBUG
Head of Development at Anorak Digital (glue London)
“James is one of the most articulate, technically savvy and passionate people I have worked with. His approach to development and architecture is second to none, consistently demonstrating a deep understanding of concepts, and he has an admirable pragmatic and collaborative approach when it comes to leading development teams and/or mentoring other developers. His has a never ending entrepreneurial spirit and drive and a great technically focused strategic approach to his work. I highly recommend James.”
March 28, 2010 – David de la Pena, Head of Development, Glue London
“I have worked with James for the last 18 months and can’t recommend him highly enough. Not only has he provided excellent hands on technical expertise but has added a great deal to the internal running of our agency and helped build solid and long lasting client relationships.”
July 28, 2008 – Glenn Jones, Managing Director, Anorak digital
“James was a breath of fresh air to work with, his angle on current web development and technology was unsurpassed, quite surprising as he’s not been agency side for long, but has heaps of enthusiasm for technology and a good eye for design and resolving (and countering) all my banal design requests, he just makes stuff work and well.”
July 24, 2008 – Nick Clement, Senior Designer, Anorak Digital