Tell us about your day job

I am a senior researcher for BT looking at future networks and data analytics.

How long have you been in Prospect and why was it important for you to join a trade union?

Not as long as I have been at BT which underlines the importance of asking people to join the union.

I had previously been an active branch rep for the Society of Civil and Public Servants. Somebody asked me to join the SCPS and I did.

No one asked me to join the union at BT (it was before the merger with Prospect) and I didn’t for a while.

What’s your proudest moment so far as a Prospect member or rep?

Helping members get gross misconduct charges thrown out.

How has Prospect been of benefit to you in your career and professional development?

I still have a job.

Why did you decide to stand for the NEC?

I want to help the union continue to exist. To do that it must stay relevant to peoples’ working lives, it must make a difference.

What are of some of the workplace issues that you hope to make a difference on as part of the NEC?

Recruitment, training and helping members’ careers.

As a member of the NEC, how will you approach some of the difficult decisions that might pit the interests of close colleagues in your own sector against the greater good of the whole union?

By going back to the work of Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill and working my way forward.

What’s your message to a colleague who is perhaps reluctant to join a union?

I wish I had a magic message to get people to join. The most successful recruitment message recently has been BT announcing 13,000 job cuts with most due to come from our represented grades.

What are the best and worst things about attending Prospect National Conference?

Best: Meeting colleagues from different parts of the union.

Worst: Rule change motions.

Tell us something about yourself that maybe even some of your colleagues wouldn’t know...

I once caused a police alert for kidnapping on Dover Marine Parade.