In the mid 70's, as I completed high-school in Ottawa, my childhood interests in woodworking and mechanics continued unabated and evolved into summer self employment, offering custom woodwork out of the family garage. By the summer of 1974, I couldn't wait to get out into an industrial environment and was hired by Modern Cabinets, an experience I first likened to “industrial boot-camp” but which soon led to project supervision including the creation of manufacturing drawings and project specific interaction with architects and designers.

I moved to Calgary in 1980 and joined Artistic Stairs, a company specializing in wood constructed spiral and circular stairs. I found the product fascinating with the elegant twisting curves of the laminated stringers and handrails. My supervisory role offered the opportunity to improve processes through the design of proprietary fixtures and equipment. The new equipment had to be custom built by metal fabricators working from my design drawings. This was my first major exposure to designing and working beyond wood technologies, an important learning experience for me.

In 1982, I joined Evans Consoles a firm of less than 10 employees, specializing in high end custom woodwork. Several opportunities to build architecturally designed consoles for large control centers resulted in my heading a product development program that resulted in several Canadian & USA patents. Through product innovation, Evans was able to specialize, grow and establish it's leadership in the industry. By the late 90's, Evans had over 450 employees and had delivered hundreds of projects in Canada, the USA and overseas.

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My work in product design & development transitioned from hands on to senior management. Some of my project favorites were:

• GTE Sprint, San Francisco, for the creation of the Evans Consoles console system
• NASA Mission Control in Houston, Texas, for its sleek design and prestigious purpose
• Calgary Council Chambers, for its artful elliptical shape and great detailing

Personally, my time at Evans was a great exploration and learning experience in integrating various material medium and processes into beautiful, yet functional furniture products.

In 2000, I left the industry to explore new ways of expressing my passion for the transformation of materials. I travelled to Northern California to study shaping processes for sheet metal at TM Technologies. I moved to Nelson BC, attracted by the opportunites there to pursue materials sculpture and aviation.

In late 2004, inspired by the work of Mark Newson, and Herman Miller's iconic “Aeron” office chair, I felt compelled to work on a seating concept that had been in gestation since arriving in Nelson. I have since spent more than 3,000 hours on this concept including the building of mock-ups and prototypes, and finally releasing the first in a series of five: Aviator 1

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