My career spans finance, executive search and consultancy. Investment banking took me from my hometown London to Boston, Tokyo and Hong Kong. Headhunting took me back to Japan, then, as head of a leading Financial Services practice, into the City of London’s most exclusive boardrooms. Mixing with “the great and the good” —Chairmen and CEOs of major public companies, Governors of the Bank of England, senior politicians and the like—my job was to work out what made them tick. Not just “Are they really any good?” but, “Are they trustworthy?” I wrote Zero Ri$k whilst creating the rubriqs people skills system, and spent much of 2023 in Zimbabwe on a major fraud case.

I had the fundamental idea for Zero Ri$k a decade or so ago. I was frustrated by the system’s seeming refusal to punish white collar criminals after the Crash. I watched as everyone became more and more dependent on gadgets and big tech. I had a simple idea: what would happen if a hacker added a zero to everyone’s bank account overnight… and then another, and another. Do the maths: in six days, everyone’s a millionaire. What does that mean for the economy, for society? I thought— and hopefully a few others will agree—that it’s a great, original premise.

I was lucky to go to a good university—I’m a Trinity Hall, Cambridge, Law graduate—but, being the first person from my family to go beyond school, I was completely unprepared for the opportunity. Too much sport and partying; not enough studying. Fortunately the recognition a few years later that I’d missed a golden opportunity has given me a lifelong passion never to stop learning. So, in addition to detective and crime novels, thrillers and other fiction, you’ll always find two other books on my bedside table – a biography or history, and a book for learning new “stuff”. Two years ago it was evolution, a year ago silent movies. Born and raised in Boston Manor, I now live near Tower Bridge, although you’ll still find me supporting Brentford FC most Saturdays.