I read engineering and economics at Cambridge University, and after some initial experience in heavy engineering, trained as a Chartered Accountant with Cooper Brothers (which became Coopers and Lybrand and then PriceWaterhouseCoopers). I had about 20 years of corporate management experience with a focus on improving profit performance, as a unit controller, budget manager, cost accountant, MIS developer, CFO and even for a time a VP Manufacturing.