Nev 'in action' inside the hub of a 7.6m antenna in Bangkok
After reading Physics at Wadham College, Oxford, I joined the Marconi Company and worked on the development of liquid crystal displays, until the company decided that there was no commercial future for them! So, in 1975 I made a career shift and moved into satellite communications. I worked on the development of the Earth Station equipment. The major customers were BT and Cable & Wireless. This work led to the start of my globetrotting. Trips to the Middle East and the Caribbean whetted my appetite for travelling. Frustration at poor promotional prospects persuaded me to emigrate to Canada in 1982. My first task was to establish the infrastructure to bring Pay-TV via satellite to Canada. Subsequent projects took me to the Arctic and Australia. I took full advantage of this latter opportunity and went snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef, visited Uluru (formerly Ayers Rock) and went on a cruise of the South Pacific.
South America was next. I visited the truly awe inspiring Lost City of the Incas at Machu Picchu in Peru, flew over the Nasca Lines and explored the Amazon jungle, where I narrowly avoided stepping on a poisonous snake.
In 1993 I was the victim of a 'downsizing'. After six months without work I picked up a couple of short contracts in Malaysia and the Philippines. Then an opportunity presented itself to work on the Iridium project, a global satellite-based mobile phone system. This took me to Brazil, South Korea and Taiwan. I saw the spectacular Iguassu Falls and went hang-gliding over Rio, landing on Ipanema Beach.
In between my work assignments, I went on safari in Botswana, re-enacted a voyageur canoe trip in Northern Ontario, visited the Monarch butterfly hibernation sites in Mexico and dabbled at vintage motorcycle racing. I still keep active and am now in my 45th season of football. Currently, I'm living in Texas and am the chief engineer on a huge project for the Far East to provide high speed internet access via satellite to 14 countries, two-thirds of the world's population!
