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. 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.