Working Life
I'm not a entrepreneur in the traditional mould. I've never borrowed a penny outside my mortgage. The way I actually found out that I had leadership qualities was though experiencing desperate circumstances.
It's not enough to choose the right path, you also have to empathise with key people along the way. I call these people gatekeepers - they are always strangers but they opened doors that you are unable to alone. Those doors led me to be the person I am today.
Education
I studied biochemistry at the University of Leeds. Education gave me the foundations required to move into the working world in my field. This is not strictly necessary for every individual.
Working Life
Upon completing my education, I began working at the BIBRA food toxicology research institute before embarking on a successful career in academic publishing.
I was the Commissioning Editor at Elsevier and Senior Editor at Academic Press, followed by joining Current Drugs Ltd in 1987, where I developed the Current Opinion journals for pharmaceutical patents by extracting information from patent libraries and publishing these on a monthly basis in a range of medical areas.
The Future...
In the 1990s, I took the leap to move away from working for an organisation and founded Ashley Publications Ltd and Expert Reviews Ltd. This was subsequently acquired by Informa PLC.
In 2003, I became the Founder and Chairman of Future Medicine Ltd and Future Science Ltd under the umbrella 'Future Science Group'.
To this day, we have encompassed some some of the most respected journals and community websites in medicine. These include Nanomedicine and Regenerative Medicine as well as Neuro Central and Oncology Central.
For more information on how I set up my own business please read: