Cliff was born in the North of England and emigrated to Australia back in 1981 along with the rest of his family.

 

Cliff attended High School in the lovely coastal town of Wollongong on the NSW South coast, known affectionately by the locals as “The Gong”.

 

Cliff has been known to describe himself as a recovering Catholic but practising alcoholic, but he hasn’t quite passed the chronic stage just yet (of either ailment) or perhaps he is still in denial.

 

Cliff attended high school at Edmund Rice College, run by the Irish Catholic Christian Brothers order.

 

The rest of Cliff's education has been in the “School of Hard Knocks” perhaps more verbosely, but accurately described as “School of Gentle Nudging With Occasional Kick to the Posterior”.

 

Cliff was the Founder and Managing Director of 4Solutions until its sale to a Canadian IT multi-national in November 2016.

 

With 1 daughter, 4 sons, a grandson and one son-in-law, Cliff is, miraculously, still married to the same girl he started dating back in 1984. His working theory is that his wife is now just too tired to bother looking elsewhere, but, whatever works! They will soon celebrate, or perhaps commiserate their 30th wedding anniversary.

 

According to his DNA profile, Cliff is approximately 2/3 Indian, 1/3 European including British, Sardinian, Iberian and also somehow 1.2% Native American. His mother maintains that she is 100% French, but for some reason not a single French gene was passed on to him or any of his siblings...

 

Professionally Cliff is Chairman of two private companies and Chief Operating Officer of one. He is about to embark on his first genuinely new career path for 25 years.

 

His blog “SSDD – Insight, Personal Stories, Wit, Reflections and Pondering from a 25 year IT Career & the Next Chapter in Business” is an attempt to document whatever experiences that may be mildly interesting, perhaps amusing but hopefully both.

 

In his spare time, Cliff likes to cook, especially for his wonderful family and friends, listen to music, experience travel and new cultures and has been known to sample a wee dram of almost any good quality whisky he can lay his hands on, not to mention the odd rum, beer, red wine and oh dear, we had better stop there!