I started out as a Chartered Accountant but I've spent most of my career working with software, including a role as Chief Technology Officer of the world's largest tax recovery company. The CTO role came with an expensive AWS bill which was eating more and more of my budget every month. Reducing this cost was a major priority, but also a satisfying optimization problem that I thoroughly enjoyed solving. It planted the seed (bean, technically) that grew into CloudBeans. Outside of work I enjoy board gaming (complex optimization problems, no coincidence there) and I'm the proud dad of an adorable but chaotic toddler (that chaos can't be optimised)!