I have been working in the Retail, Footwear and Apparel arena since 1988 when I joined Lectra as a Field Engineer. I stayed with Lectra for nearly 10 years working in the Services area, from Training Manager to National Services Manager. My final position was as the head of the Lectra Information Management Team working on PDM and Data Management software from Lectra and 3rd Parties.

In 1998 I left Lectra to join Animated Images as the UK Operations Manager concentrating solely on PDM and the StyleManager application. Clients included Desmonds in Northern Ireland and Courtaulds in Nottingham.

Animated Images was aquired by Freeborders in 2000 and I became the European Technical Director working with the team in establishing and expanding the client base within the European market. During this period I designed several new process modules for the Freeborders CPM/PLM system including Risk Analysis, Advanced multi-dimensional Costing, Advanced Sourcing as well as Workflow and various Integration modules.

I joined PTC in 2005 as the Principal Process Consultant for Europe my mission was to develop and expand the Retail, Footwear and Apparel business (RF&A) for PTC using their FlexPLM Product Lifecycle Management software based on the Windchill Enterprise platform.

In 2008, I opted to join the Product Development Partnership company as a partner member to work on providing independent advice to Users & Suppliers of PLM software and to assist in the evaluation and implementation of PLM solutions across the world. The past 19 years have been a rapidly changing environment for RF&A and I am sure that the next 19 will provide just as much of a challenge, but it is also something I think the PDP team can help our clients to make sense of and help them to make the right decisions.