In a previous life I was a research chemist, in the pure academic sense. I always worked pubs and bars in the evening, because it was fun! Got as far as nearly writng up a PhD before the mind-numbing tedium of the laboratory got to me.

On awakening in my new life I joined Luminar Leisure and let them train me up in all things pub and night club.

18 months slave labour later I went solo, with all the relevent paperwork, and took a years contract with a conference football club. Not playing football, rather sorting out their hospitality offering and dragging their social club iinto the twentieth century.

Got married - still am.

At the end of that contract, without the promised bonus (so much for verbal agreements), I joined a relief agency. Two years of great fun and intense experiences followed as I bounced around from back street boozers in Kilburn to Egon Ronay recommended restaurants, and eveything in between.

Then I bought my pub.

Seven years later I sold it, for a lot more than I'd paid for it, and just before the market collapsed.

Since then I have been working for Project 90, the relief agency that I had worked through in the past, as operations manager. This role brings me in daily contact with most of the major companies in the sector, at a fairly senior level.

I work at the cutting edge of the pub industry and have a wealth of experience and contacts, and it is from this base that my 'Pub Doctor' project is coming. I hope it will be both informative and useful to people out there, particularly those struggling in the trenches - I remember what it feel like, and will help if I can.