Geophysicist with the British Antarctic Survey (2500 km of dog-sledging) then with Total in North Sea, Paris and Angola. Head of Geophysics with Triton France during Paris basin boom of the 1980’s, Neil established the IT department and developed a perverse liking for computing. Subsequently Neil was General Manager of French start-up Pétrole Saint-Honoré until the boom bust in the early ‘90’s. Neil founded The Data Room in 1995 as a data management and IT technology watch company and began editing the monthly newsletter Petroleum Data Manager in 1996. The Data Room performs market research, technology watch and hands-on data management for its oil and service company clients. Outside of oil and gas, The Data Room has conducted studies and research reviews for the European Parliament and Commission in the field of telecommunications and software engineering.