Say hello to some of our wonderful members

Say hello to some members! David Ripper

"I’m just starting up a new company and wanted to find a shared space locally with other people involved in digital and technology, to see if I could tap into local resources to help me get my new company up and running. I knew I’d need to get services from other companies and, like most people, I prefer to work with people I know. So much the better if they’re local. I’ve just signed an agreement with another C4DI member to develop some software for the new company which is great as it means it’s being created locally which has all sorts of advantages for me.

While I get the new company off the ground I’ll be continuing to ply my trade as an IT&T consultant. I’ve been employed by large and small organisations in the private, public, and third sector but am now loving working for myself. Since setting up on my own a couple of years ago I’ve primarily been involved with helping organisations migrate to the cloud. Most of these have been national clients such as Cordant Group PLC and the Medical Defence Union but I’ve also been lucky enough to work with a couple of Yorkshire based organisations as well. I’ve just launched a new website for my consulting business http://ledgetechnology.co.uk which I’ll be starting to market in the next couple of months.

My goal is to build my new company to a point where I can live in (and run the company from) the Mediterranean coming back to the UK as and when I need to!"

James Horspool

James Horspool, is originally from Willerbyand was educated at Hymers College in Hull. He went on to study electrical engineering in Sheffield but instead found his passion for programme making through student radio and while on a BBC TV Engineering summer scheme.

James has always been a bit of a radio geekand joined radio and magazine publishers EmapPLC for the first decade of his working life. This included a long spell at Viking FM based on the marina in Hull starting as weekend overnight presenter and ending upas the acting Programme Director. Along the way he picked up a few industry awards mainly as the Station Sound Producer.

James subsequently worked in Liverpool for Radio City at a time when the company waslaunching a new talk station and were also preparingto be the official media partner for Liverpool’s year as European Capital of Culture. Following this he was head hunted to workas a Programme Controller for what is now Global Radio (owner of Capital, Heart, Classic FM and LBC) in the midlands. He went on to work for UKRD in the North East, proud to be a manager in the company which won the ‘UK’s No 1 Company to Work For’ four times in a row and he led the on-air team to grow a record audience for the station.

James has specialised in growing radio and online audiences to increase impact for commercial advertisers,and his work has evolved into delivering behaviour change campaigns as well as development projects. He led a project in Ethiopia for M&C Saatchi building and developing new radio stations and more recentlyhe worked as the military Media Advisor to the UK Ebola Task Force in Sierra Leone.

A concurrent part-time career in the Army Reserve has taken James to serve in Afghanistan as well as to exercise in Cyprus, the Falkland Islands, Kenya and Germany. He holds the rank of Major and although proudly wears the cap badge of the Yorkshire Regiment he serves in the newly formed 77th Brigade as the Officer Commanding ‘Media Specialists’. The unit is engaged in using and developingboth traditional and digital media techniques in support of military operations worldwide.

James was made a Fellow at the Institute of Leadership and Management in 2012 inrecognition of his continuous professional development through his mix of civilian and military training.

James enjoys using technology to solve problems creatively and he meddles but freely admits he knows only enough to be dangerous. He can’t code or programme in the modern domain, quickly finding his limits with C++ at University but get him close to a ‘Commodore Pet’ and the start-up sequence may just come flooding back. He is someone who is passionate about high quality mediaoutput (i.e. he watches a lot of Netflix) and is very excited about the growth of future platforms in a rapidly changing environment. That is why he has joined C4DI to take forward a concept in this area.

Mike Anson

I was born in Hull but at 19, I had the opportunity to immigrate to the US with my family. My dad, who is also a software engineer, got a job in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He also got me in to the company and this is were I began to learn web development as well as studying music and recording.

I currently work remotely for a large CDN out of Arizona called Limelight Networks who provide digital content for a range of large companies including Apple and Netflix. A lot of our team work in different parts of the world on different time zones. Working from Home can be great sometimes but I’ve definitely seen the benefit of the workspace at C4Di. Separating work from home has definitely been the best part of working here. There is a friendly but driven atmosphere from the other members that inspires me daily.