Mel spent much of his early life travelling from country to country, which gave him a passion for different languages and cultures, each with its own approach to life.

Those who know Mel soon realise that he is in the perfect spot running a business-intelligence company as it presents the ideal opportunity to blend together all of his skills and passions: technology, systems, people and analysis. Mel loves good systems that run beautifully because they’ve been built after well thought-through analysis. You’ll usually find Mel happily researching the next improvement that can be made, whether it’s hardware, software or process.

Outside of work, Mel has always enjoyed competitive sports and held the attitude that it’s okay to run past, but never over, somebody. He holds a black belt in judo, having had the good fortune to train under one of Japan’s Olympic judo coaches and also train in Japan. For the last 20 years (is it really that long?), the hard knocks of judo have been replaced by the softer landings of windsurfing, as well as some long-distance running.