Our Trainers

Mark has worked as a training consultant for ESRI (UK) since early 2001. Previously he worked for 2 years as a developer and trainer for Global Mapping Solutions Ltd. During this time he also trained for ESRI (UK).

He teaches many of the ArcGIS desktop courses, including the introductory courses, Building Geodatabases, Advanced Symbology in ArcGIS and Working with OS MasterMap. He is a qualified technical author and enjoys writing and developing courses and documentation. Mark is a Senior Member of the Institute for IT Training (SIITT).

Mark has 18 years experience as a military surveyor during which he worked on various photogrammetric and mapping tasks. After leaving the military he worked for a major UK travel company and a small reprographics business before becoming a GIS instructor at the Royal School of Military Survey.

He is widely traveled and suffers from severe wanderlust. This gives him chance to practice his photography, listen to music and worry about his garden back at home.

Tim is an IITT TAP qualified ESRI (UK) Training Consultant with 20 years experience in IT development (largely using Assembler and C on mainframe platforms) and IT Training in the UK and abroad. He has also carried out statistical analysis for National Government and spent three years teaching maths up to A Level in secondary schools, but don't let that put you off!

Having been with ESRI (UK) since 2005, he teaches the Introduction to ArcGIS courses, ArcFM, Crime Analyst Extension, Building Geodatabases, Mastering User Customisation and Tuning in to GIS for Managers. He carries out training needs analysis, develops and delivers bespoke training and produces materials for the MyTraining website.

Outside of work he can be found taking photos and spending hours on Photoshop trying to make them look like he thought they would when he pressed the button! He's also been known to draw cartoons when he's not playing lego with his kids, listening to music or walking in the countryside.

David has many years experience as a developer using VB/VBA/VBScript, ADO, ASP, SQL Server and HTML/DHTML. He has also spent several years training these and other skills as well as carrying out training needs analysis and related customer support.

David joined ESRI (UK) as a Training Consultant in 2007 and currently teaches the introductory ArcGIS desktop courses as well as managing the Aylesbury training environment. He also customises courses and delivers training to a variety of ESRI (UK)'s customers across different industries, whilst expanding his repertoire of GIS skills with a view to teaching more courses and a wider consultancy role.

He's a keen musician who's played in many bands and orchestras covering a broad spectrum of styles. He's currently the trumpet player in the ESRI (UK) band. He also loves carrying out creative activities with his children such as making board games and audio recording. There was mention on his CV of training for a half marathon, but things have gone rather quiet on that front lately!

Ed first started using ESRI products during his Masters in GIS at University College London in 1993 and then as a GIS Officer at the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead.

Ed has been with ESRI (UK) since 1997 and is based in Consultancy Services at the Cambridge office. Ed has been involved in a wide number of consultancy projects including both Local and Central Government sectors. His main area of expertise is with ArcGIS Desktop and ArcGIS Server, especially customisation using VB6, C#.Net, VB.Net and ArcObjects; and Python, VBScript / JScript.

Ed has been a training instructor since 2002 and is currently an accredited ArcObjects instructor. Ed has also written a number of courses including "Basic Customising of ArcGIS", "Using ArcPad" and also "ArcPad Application Builder" and has recently re-written the “Introduction to ArcGIS Server” course for the UK market.

In his spare time Ed enjoys many types of sport, especially football and cricket. Ed is also a 2nd Dan in Shotokan Karate and is a part time karate instructor at Royston Karate Club. He is also an avid collector of records, specialising in Queen and claims to have over 600 singles in his collection!

Rob is IITT TAP qualified and has worked for ESRI (UK) since 2001. Prior to this he had 18 years commercial IT experience with several leading UK companies. Much of this work involved relational databases and the last 3 years prior to joining ESRI (UK) was spent working with ArcSDE/ArcView. He teaches the ArcSDE administration courses for SQL server and Oracle and works as a database consultant on projects for a number of ESRI (UK)'s clients. He also has extensive experience in data migration and management and has recently worked with geoprocessing and data interoperability models and Geodatabase design using ESRI case tools.

Outside work Rob is a keen cyclist, orienteer and an enthusiastic dad. He also struggles to keep an allotment under control.

Matt began working with GIS and ESRI products in 1995 and joined ESRI (UK) in 2000 as a member of the consultancy team based in Newbury.

Matt has experience with requirements analysis, system design and development projects. He is experienced in Desktop and Server development specialising in the ArcGIS Desktop and ArcGIS Server products.

Matt started using GIS whilst still serving in the Armed Forces producing maps of military operations throughout the world. Once he completed his service he joined a small GIS company that was later purchased by ESRI (UK). Since then he has worked with Government agencies writing data capture tools, Car manufacturers carrying out Requirements Analysis and software development, National Mapping Agencies creating server applications and finally insurance companies producing system designs and implementations to name but a few.

In his free time Matt likes to find any excuse to go sailing, power boating and spending as much time teaching his one year old son how to fly traction kites.

Ming has been working with GIS from his second year at Durham University when he was mapping eco-systems and modelling their behaviour. The maps he produced were pretty and he quite enjoyed himself wasting the university's A0 paper as he plotted off maps and stuff. An MSc in GIS at Edinburgh and then it was off to find work. Ming landed a job with an international development consultancy that utilised his GIS skills in far-flung places such as Guyana, Tanzania, Lesotho and Estonia to name four places. The overseas work gave him lots of experience in developing GI systems for land and environmental management and an appreciation of how GIS can be an immensely powerful tool to assist in the decision making process at the international level. This was also the time he was exposed to ArcIMS and ArcSDE.

In July 2001, he joined ESRI (UK) and carried on his interest in ArcIMS and ArcSDE as a consultant in the Internet Services Group (ISG). Delivering enterprise ArcIMS solutions, performance tuning, troubleshooting and delivering an enterprise GI system have all been in his daily task list. Since the introduction of ArcGIS Server in 2003, this new application has been added to the list and Ming has been grappling with this ever since. Ming teaches the ArcIMS Administration and ArcGIS Server Administration course.

Ming has a wide range of interests that include cross country running, photography, online-gaming, salsa (dancing and eating) and football. He is also an active member of the UK based disaster mapping charity, MapAction where he has assisted in the disaster relief work in Sri Lanka, Pakistan and recently, Indonesia.

His star sign is Virgo. His Chinese Horoscope has him as an Ox.

Mike has ten years experience in the use and implementation of Geographical Information Systems (GIS). He started his career with ESRI in 2002 as a member of the ESRI (UK) Consultancy Team working on a number of large, ArcGIS-based projects on behalf of the Forestry Commission. These have included systems for maintaining forest roads, predicting likely cash flows and visualisation modelling of forests in the future. Mike now works as a Product Specialist for the ESRI Inc. ArcEngine team and teaches the 'Introduction to Programming ArcObjects with VBA' course.

Before joining ESRI (UK) Mike worked as a GIS lecturer at the University of Newcastle, then as a Senior Planning Analyst for the Glasgow & Clyde Valley Structure Plan. During this time he developed a strong background on GIS theory, analysis and application development.

Mike is a keen rock climber, snow-boarder and hiker and has travelled extensively in pursuit of these hobbies.

Guenter, a native of Germany, first started to work with GIS applications during his Biology degree at the University of Bayreuth. Further in his academic life he used ESRI products to analyse and display plant distributions for his DPhil thesis at the University of Oxford. For this he investigated spatial patterns of higher plant successions on glacier forelands in Norway. He then became an IT Trainer teaching a variety of courses for SAS Institute for 5 years before joining ESRI (UK) in Aylesbury as a Training Consultant in mid 2005. Since November 2007 Guenter is working mainly as a Developer in the UK Products Group where he has been involved in projects like, TrafficFlow, CrimeAnalyst and DragonMap.

Given the chance he still teaches Introduction to ArcGIS I, Introduction to ArcGIS II, Introduction to ArcIMS, Introduction to ArcGIS Server, Working with Network Analyst, Programming ArcObjects with VBA, Programming ArcObjects with .Net, ArcPad and ArcFM based courses for the Utilities sector.

In his leisure time he enjoys looking after his two little girls, photography, music and sports.

Miguel discovered GIS back in 1989 while working part time as a research assistant at the Texas Transportation Institute and finishing his degrees in Industrial Engineering & Nautical Archaeology at Texas A&M University. In order to pursue this ‘love at first sight', he moved to Redlands to work for ESRI Inc. as an Applications Engineer. There he learned the ins and outs of ArcGIS Desktop, ArcINFO Workstation, AML and Avenue and became an ESRI certified instructor. Miguel was the first ESRI instructor to ever do the Introduction to ArcView course in Spanish.

In 1996, after pursuing and marrying his other love (Marta), Miguel moved to the UK to start a new life as a married man, house owner, double piano owner, and treble Border Collie owner. With ESRI (UK), he has carried out application development, data processing, consultancy and last, but not least, training.

In 2008, Miguel joined the Technology Support Group (TSG), where he continues to offer his services as a consultant, Demonstrations Specialist, and assisting the Sales team in various other functions as well as training "Introduction to ArcIMS", "Customising ArcIMS with AXL", and "ArcIMS Administration".

Miguel comes to us from Peru, via stops in Texas and California. His leisure time is filled mostly with spending time with his family, playing tennis and football, engaging in chess matches, going to air shows, travelling to wild and exotic places, going to concerts and museums and indulging in culinary delights. He is also an avid squash player with dreams of reaching the top of the ESRI (UK) squash ladder, and to this we can only say... dreams are free, so keep on trying!

Alan has been with ESRI (UK) for over 11 years and in that time has worked in the Technical Services and Consultancy Services groups. His area of expertise is within the RDBMS and ArcSDE arenas including installation, configuration and troubleshooting both environments. Alan has also worked with our ArcGIS extension Data Interoperability and Geoprocessing.

Before joining ESRI (UK) Alan worked at the University of Hertfordshire within the Division of Electronic and Electrical Engineering as a Senior lab technician providing technical advice to students and academic staff.

Alan's past times include badminton, cooking and gardening.

Mark is based in the Newbury office. He has worked for ESRI UK since 2004 in Consultancy Services and specialises in project work involving systems, database design and ArcObjects development.

Prior to working for ESRI, Mark worked for a small GIS company specialising in vehicle tracking applications and public transport information systems.

Most of Mark's spare time is taken up by his young family; he has 2 girls and a boy all under the age of 4! He has a keen interest in how all things work (he likes to take things apart!). He has recently completed the restoration of a 1963 Lotus 7.

Chris first started working with GIS whilst completing a BA in Urban Studies at the University of Sheffield in 1994, a year later and a diploma in Town and Regional Planning under his belt Chris started work in a GIS department of a London borough. Whilst there Chris became involved in the Crime Mapping Project, one of the first Local Authority and Police Partnerships in the UK to actively use GIS to map and analyse crime. During this time Chris completed his MSc in GIS from University College London, and his interest in Crime and Disorder grew.

In March 2003 Chris was invited to join ESRI Public Safety Unit with general consultant and training responsibilities. Chris developed and teaches the Introduction to GIS for Crime course and the Crime Analyst extension course.

In his free time Chris attempts to perform DIY on a Victorian semi whilst thinking about how much more he would prefer to be out walking or mountain biking through Snowdonia.

Chris started with ESRI (UK) at the beginning of 2006. He'd been a GIS consultant in Australia for over 8 years by then, having started his working life as an ArcView 3.x desktop developer with a company specialising in airborne geophysics for mineral exploration. He then joined a consultancy working on catchment management and real estate and made the transition to web development. He's been involved in projects for public transport, telecoms and utility management.

Now he's based in Newbury, developing in C# and Java and providing consultancy for a variety of clients including central government. He teaches Developing Applications with ArcGIS Server (Java) and Customising ArcIMS using ArcXML.

Outside work he captains his local cricket team, plays golf and, on the rare occasions our glorious English summers let him down, enjoys watching sport taking place in sunnier climes. Otherwise he enjoys travelling, reading and using his Xbox 360 to defend your planet/race/country from peril. Oh, and he never shaves on Saturdays.

Andy has over fourteen years experience in engineering, information technology and GIS. He joined ESRI (UK) in 2005 as a member of the consultancy team based in Newbury. He specialises in software design and development using .NET and since joining ESRI (UK) has been working on a number of large ArcGIS Server projects. Andy is a Chartered Engineer and a Microsoft Certified Solution Developer.

Before joining ESRI (UK) he worked at Halliburton where he was the technical lead on a broad variety of GIS projects using ArcIMS and ArcGIS Server.

In his free time Andy is a keen snowboarder and mountain biker.

Don has been with ESRI (UK) since 1995. He is a programme manager who works mainly with customers in utilities industries (gas, water, telecoms), managing projects to deliver consultancy services and GI solutions for major corporate systems. These solutions underpin asset (network) management and GI information used by customers' operational teams within the organisation as well as commercial partners and the public. Previously Don was responsible for the Implementation Services team that focuses on delivery of solutions for local government. This includes implementation of server-based ‘Corporate GIS' enabling customers to extend the reach of GIS from departmental desktop users to support business requirements across the enterprise. Don has also been involved in managing consultancy projects for a many customers over the years; defence, utilities, central government, local government and commercial sectors.

Previous to joining ESRI (UK), Don worked predominantly in the Middle East and the North Sea in offshore oil exploration & extraction - geophysical seabed surveys, precise vessel navigation and positioning for offshore construction.

Olly joined ESRI (UK) in Feb 1998 and works in the Edinburgh office. Before then he gained a GIS Masters degree at Leeds University, graduating in 1994, then worked for a GIS and Transportation consultancy firm in California.

With ESRI, these days, he gets involved with bringing new ideas to market – delivering opportunities, but in the past he has managed a wide variety of projects across many industries. Previous job titles have included Project Manager and Programme Manager. When it comes to training, he helps deliver ESRI (UK)'s GIS Management courses.

Shelly joined ESRI (UK) in 1999 as part of a team working on core ESRI technology. Working as a Product Engineer, she has helped design, test and document ArcGIS 8 and 9, MapObjects and ArcGIS Explorer.

Shelly first used GIS packages as part of her Environmental Science undergraduate degree and while working as a Research Assistant at the Atmospheric Research and Information Center at Manchester Metropolitan University; this experience led to a Masters in GIS at Edinburgh University.

Shelly teaches the 'Introduction to Programming ArcObjects with .NET' course, and has worked with the .NET Framework since it's first public beta in 2001.

In her spare time Shelly is a keen mountain biker and snowboarder.

Rob joined ESRI (UK) in 2004, and works in the Edinburgh office. Since joining, he has worked in the Redlands development team as a Product Engineer, producing features for ESRI Inc's core products. In this role he has helped to design, develop and test the next generation of ESRI software. He is also responsible for the development and documentation of the ArcGIS Explorer custom task framework.

Prior to joining ESRI (UK), Rob used ESRI software as an Environmental Technologist working for a multinational oil company. He holds a degree in Environmental Science (Lancaster), and a Masters degree in Geographic Information Science (Edinburgh).

He is an avid Tranmere Rovers supporter.

Mark has been working as a software developer for the best part of a decade, although his interest in computers dates right back to trying to hack 'Mazogs' on the ZX81.

Mark learned his trade in C, but has since worked in a number of different languages including VB, C# and ASP.NET and is a Sun Certified Java Programmer. He is a keen writer in his spare time and the author of a number of articles for Broadband World Magazine, the Windows Advisor series and the book Access 2003 in Easy Steps.

When not sat in front of the keyboard, Mark can usually be found trying to entertain his five (!) children, convincing them that their walk in the woods will be much more entertaining if they'll all be fitted with GPS equipment first and trying to restore a 350 year old pile of bricks and plumbing to its original glory.

Colin was brought up in East Africa. Then having studied in East Anglia to become a Land Surveyor, returned to Kenya where he worked for a survey company out of Nairobi, travelling on projects throughout Africa and the Middle East.

He then worked for a London based Geophysical exploration, company, using photogrammetry to make maps from air photos. The projects he worked on in London were still mostly to do with Africa and involved mineral and ground water prospecting.

As the systems became more computerised Colin became involved in digital mapping and then subsequently GIS. For the last 18 years he has worked on many projects using a wide range of ESRI products. During this time he has also been an ESRI trainer, he has worked on the customisation, preparation and delivery of training at the old Watford office, the new Aylesbury office and at customer sites.

Outside work Colin enjoys sailing golf and plays a mean game of badminton.

Jackie has been working with ESRI products since 1988. Her first introduction to ArcInfo was at San Diego State University, where she was completing her Masters Degree in Geography. On returning home she worked as a Research Associate at the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne where she worked at the North East Regional Research Lab. Their remit was to widen the awareness of GIS across a range of industries.

In 1993, Jackie joined ESRI (UK) as a trainer. She has taught both introductory and Advanced courses in ArcInfo, ArcView and ArcGIS course. Later, she became Training Manager of ESRI (UK) and worked with the trainers to expand the range and quality of the training courses offered.

Since 2001, Jackie has continued to work in the field of GIS, and provides training courses for ESRI on a contractual basis. Courses taught include the Introduction to ArcGIS 1 and 2, and the Advanced Editing courses.

Jackie has a number of interests outside of work including tennis, kiln formed glass making, and more recently embarking on a lifetime ambition to learn to play the piano (badly!). She looks forward to meeting you on the courses.

Cliff's introduction to GIS came during his undergraduate studies in Geography at the University of Nottingham. His interest in GIS developed during postgraduate studies at the University of London, where he first encountered ESRI's GIS software. He then spent several years working in Higher Education as a researcher and lecturer in Environmental Geography and GIS. During this time his focus was the use of GIS and Remote Sensing for environmental modelling and the management of natural resources.

Cliff then began applying GIS in the Local Government sector, working at a number of Authorities in the south of England. In various roles he developed and implemented corporate GIS strategies; ran several GIS research projects; and trained many "novice" GIS users. In the summer of 2003 Cliff began working with ESRI (UK) and currently delivers a range of introductory courses and advanced courses.

Cliff's leisure pursuits include travel (an excuse for exotic holidays), aviation (getting to the exotic locations) and motor sport (a fast car to and from the airport)!