I started working in journalism while at university in Edinburgh in the early 1990s, when my first email was a collection of digits and my first mobile lasted two hours on a good day.
I was selected as the inaugural Herald fellow in 1994, being selected from my journalism postgraduate course for a one year paid training attachment at the newspaper in Glasgow. I kept up sports freelancing while working during the week on the newspaper.
By the end of my first week on the Herald, I’d got a front page byline from tracking down a coastguard who was first on scene when a Chinook helicopter crashed on Mull, a hangover from my first night in the Press Bar (that dates me), and been added to the reporters rota as a fully-fledged reporter.
From the Herald I went on to work at Today and Scotland on Sunday, with freelance work continuing to appear in other titles. On SoS I picked up a nomination for Best Young Journalist in the British Press Awards.
I left journalism to go into business to business publishing in 2003, working as a general manager on international seafood titles, launching new websites, conferences and magazines with the job involving travel across Iceland, Norway, Europe and the Highlands and Islands, including Shetland.
My first exposure to social rather than commercial marketing was at NHS Lothian in Edinburgh, working on public health campaigns such as the HIV Comeback Tour, HPV vaccinations and flu campaigns as well as representing the Royal Hospital for Sick Children.
More recently I’ve been working on commercial marketing, digital transformation and inclusion as well as delivering cloud utilisation projects for a number of government departments, UK charities and commercial organisations.
