About Me

The Early Days: Launching Cahoot & E-commerce

My journey into QA began in the 1990s at Abbey National (now part of Santander Bank). By 2000, I was at the forefront of the e-commerce boom with cahoot Internet Bank, specializing in non-functional testing. My role involved:

• Performance Testing
• Disaster Recovery
• Security

During this time, I began providing strategic technical solutions beyond standard testing. I engineered a custom data-cleansing pipeline to bridge a critical gap between backend providers and fulfillment systems, ensuring customer data flowed accurately through Abbey National's infrastructure.

The IBM Era: Mastering Automation & ETL

At IBM, I transitioned into functional testing for their primary ETL offering, DataStage. This was my first deep dive into test automation using WinRunner, QTP, and Rational Functional Tester. I adapted to complex testing environments involving various operating systems and databases, while also gaining experience in Internationalisation and Localisation testing.

Financial Tech: Solving Complex Data Logic

Joining White Clarke Group (now Solifi), I focused on API testing with SOAPUI and Selenium automation. I believe a tester should be a builder; when faced with massive 100k XML messages, I wrote Groovy scripts to parameterize date logic, significantly accelerating test cycles for the entire team.

My highlight here was performing a deep-dive root cause analysis on a project-threatening calculation error in customer statements—deconstructing layers of legacy "fixes" to implement a permanent solution.

High-Stakes Compliance: Precision & Automation

At bet365, I tested regulatory reporting where accuracy is a legal mandate. I leveraged strong SQL skills and developed custom C# utilities to automate the parsing of vast data directories. This transformed a labor-intensive manual audit into an instantaneous automated process, providing the Compliance team with a reliable way to verify submissions.