I was educated at Oxford and London Universities and Cranfield School of Management and hold degrees in Modern Languages, Latin-American Studies (History and Economic History), and Business. I have been variously a periodical and book publisher, a freelance journalist, a university teacher, the artistic director of a theatre company, a British Council Overseas Career Service Officer and a management consultant. During a long period of residence in Mexico, I founded and co-directed a theatre company, gave university-level courses in English Literature and Economic History,  and was the first editor of a Spanish-language journal published by CIDE (Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas). I have written two plays in Spanish for the Latin-American community in Toronto. My novel - The Chocolate Man –  was published in Canada by Cormorant Press in 1995 and selected as a “Book at Bedtime” by CBC Radio. A second novel “Conquest” set in Mexico was published in August 2021 in the UK. Non-fiction writings include commissioned books on Brazil and Colombia, the ‘Latin American’ volume of Purnell’s ‘History of the Twentieth Century’, and many articles and shorter pieces. My first book in Spanish - En Busca del Padre Alfons Roig Izquierdo - was published in Spain in 2023. I have also translated several book-length works from French and Spanish into English.
I was the founding partner of a Canadian management consulting firm and helped to run it for seventeen years. I have conducted assignments for both public and private sector clients throughout North and South America, in India, Africa and Europe.  I have been an adviser on Latin-America to both the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and the Canadian International Development Agency. Beween 2005 and 2015, I was Chair of a UK company specializing in the provision of training and learning support for students and employees with special needs. I have  also been a director of the website journal openDemocracy and co-founded its Latin-American section. In May 2018  I was an official observer of the presidential election in Venezuela. I am a life Fellow of the RSA. In addition to my native English, I speaks fluent French, Portuguese and Spanish and hold dual Canadian and UK citizenship.