Now Editor at MVF Global, a very successful marketing company in the throes of pivoting to become a media company. I'm currently re-inventing one of their biggest brands to tackle the upcoming AI/SEO apocalypse. 

 

2020 Editor-in-Chief at Decanter, the highly respected wine publication, now owned by Future. Its portfolio includes a high-end print magazine, a website with a best-in-class subscriptions paywall, plus email newsletters, social, awards, events and more. I’ve redesigned and revamped the magazine, hired a US-based team and launched a US-only newsletter, broadened the audience focus, strengthened the team, and generally refitted it for the 21st century. 

 

2018 Senior Brand Journalist at Interbrand (and sister agencies C_Space and HMKM). The first ever journalistic hire for this enormous branding agency. They discovered that in-depth editorial content works well to engage and persuade clients and industry influencers, so decided they’d better find someone to help them do it properly. That was me. Plenty of work, and a fascinating chance to work in a high-level C-Suite environment.

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2015 Editor-in-Chief of the award-winning Car Design News portfolio – a global media brand involving web, social, a quarterly glossy magazine, a 200-page yearbook, awards, worldwide events and more – for Ultima Media, part of huge German group Süddeutscher Verlag.

 

2011 Freelance, including launching and running major digital and offline campaigns at the Telegraph Group’s customer content division for clients including HSBC, Unilever, Ford and BMW; branded content creation for digital specialists Sticky Content, part of the Press Association; helping to launch a new supplement for The Sunday Times; advising on B2B brands for United Business Media; consulting on Pomp, the launch of a new luxury on-and-offline brand for high net worth individuals; helping to launch a new Soho newspaper; and acting as Editorial Director for a prestigious book publishing house. Other clients included IBM, Atos and US-based NTVB Media.

 

2010 Writing The Haynes Manual of Men’s Cooking, now into its third reprint. Also conceived and ran an accompanying blog and social media strategy to promote it, which worked rather well.

 

2008 As Editorial Director, heading the content division of top marketing agency Tullo Marshall Warren (£26m+ turnover). Pitching for, launching, and managing many innovative online and offline projects, from virals and email campaigns to social media strategies and large-scale outdoor work for clients including First Direct, Royal Mail, Nissan, the Royal Air Force and Unilever.

 

2005 Freelance and consultancy work, including conceiving and executing many on- and offline projects for content agencies including John Brown, Redwood, River and Seven, a spell as Editor of Sky Magazine (the UK’s biggest magazine, Europe’s biggest customer magazine), and running media seminars in Eastern Europe.

 

2001 Founder and Editor, Restaurant. Conceived and launched this fortnightly magazine and website, plus associated trade show and world-famous 50 Best awards event. A truly independent startup, I took it from three people in a rented room to 30+ employees in smart offices on Regent Street. Sold, rather profitably, in late 2005.

 

2000 Founder and co-owner of publishing consultancy The Spitalfields Group. Work included a successful pitch, on behalf of Redwood, for the BMW customer magazine, an early London listings website, and many launch projects.

 

1998 Headhunted for role as Editor of then-huge men’s brand Maxim. Produced its biggest-selling issue ever at over half a million copies. Helped to launch its vastly successful and groundbreaking US edition.

 

1993 Launched BBC Top Gear magazine as Managing Editor, taking it from a rough magazine idea to a big-selling, market-leading international multi-media brand. Invented the style and tone which the TV series later had huge success with. Also launched the BBC’s first major brand website, TopGear.com, in 1994. It was (briefly) the organisation’s biggest web property, and is still hugely popular today.

 

Early days Newspaper reporter, trained to NCTJ standard on then-successful local daily the Nottingham Evening Post; went on to be employed by nationals the Mirror, Guardian and Independent. Also worked for magazines such as Living etc, Time Out, Melody Maker, Bicycle, International Musician, Drapers’ Record, BBC Homes & Antiques and many more. Launched and ran a successful desktop publishing consultancy; clients included EMAP and United Newspapers.