In 1981 John left Bath University to start his career as an engineer. But, in a climate of rising unemployment, he believed that job opportunities would be thin on the ground and accepted the first offer he received.
“I shudder at the thought of that draftsman’s job at a small engineering company in a dull Somerset backwater,” he says. “The tedium of producing electrical drawings was palpable and was made no more enjoyable by the prospect of visiting even more remote building sites on their completion. However, this job - coupled with a diet of industrial experience with more imaginative employers - was the catalyst for me setting up an automation solutions company, although my mind occasionally wanders back to the wide open spaces of rural Somerset.”