Let’s get acquainted

Aimi denies the existence of cars and can cycle 78 miles in one day. Ironically her name is spelt like two major northbound roads, stuck together.

She would like to fix everything in Sketch.

Alan founded Fluent in 2006, after discovering that running his own company was the best way to get stuff done.

As Head of Strategy, Alan is responsible for translating clients’ business goals into workable solutions. He studied computers at Cambridge University, and has worked for blue chip organisations such as Ford and Microsoft. After graduation he joined a Cambridge startup, Endis, where he oversaw the development of their flagship product.

Several years later Alan branched out, setting up Endis Solutions - a sister company offering consultancy and custom web solutions. Over time Endis Solutions became Fluent and has grown organically to its current size.

When Alan’s not meeting clients, researching technologies or posting terrible puns to the all-company feed, he can still be found flexing his coding muscles. He’s famous at Fluent for his ability to bring the best out of people, galvanise the team and drink six caffeinated beverages before 9am. (He’s in the office by 7.30am, mind).

When he’s not building software or companies, Alan does his ‘Shed Job’ (to quote his son), where he enjoys making non-virtual things out of wood and metal. He has a busy house with two kids and a revolving cast of foster children to keep him on his toes.

Andrew oversees the creative process from concept to completion leading the user experience and design aspects of our work at Fluent.

Growing up, he spent a lot of time programming on his Sinclair ZX81 and honed his design skills on a state-of-the-art Archimedes; thankfully that early work has now been lost in the mists of computing history. Clearly he was always destined for a career that combined technical ability with creative flair.

Although he's been designing and building websites since 2002 he also has a degree in Music and Sound Recording and a past-life as a dubbing mixer for television - working on a variety of projects including 'River Cottage', the Brit Awards, an unpublished Beatles project and the oft-forgotten classic 'The Baby Mind Reader'.

In his spare time he's just taken up rowing and records the occasional audiobook.

Ben specialises in managing big, complex projects with lots of moving parts. It’s his job to understand what clients need and make sure that the right stuff gets done in the right order by the right people. He can Sprint with the best of them.

Prior to Fluent, Ben was a Business Systems Manager, overseeing the implementation and management of specialist office supplies software.

He owes his particular set of skills thanks to an early career in event management and later, as a professional services consultant.

These days Ben misspends most of his time growing vegetables on his allotment or plotting his entry into the craft beer industry.

George joined us on the eve of Covid lockdown 1.0. That means we don't have a photo for him yet but we will do in time.

George is as Cambridge as they come, with an MPhil Computer Speech, Text, & Internet Technology, plus 9 years combined at two of Cambridge's best known companies; Cambridge Assessment and Abcam.

George can mostly be found building Angular applications providing an essential bridge between design and back end.

Graham joins Fluent as a Software Engineer. Coding has always been something that Graham has a natural affinity towards. As a kid all it took was a short Java course to learn that coding was from him and the rest is history, well, computer science.

Other joys include being out on the water where he makes use of his power boat licence and sea cadet training. We presume that in being half Scottish Graham is naturally more adept at dealing with wetter conditions. 

“Fluent for me is the perfect workplace that allows us ‘techie’s’ to do what we do best. We're at the table to make decisions on best-practices, technologies and processes which is important to me. Due to Fluents wider consultancy services across product development I have been able to pick-up on knowledge around the effects my engineering works will have from a UX design perspective and vice versa, which is very cool.”

Despite spending nearly all his time messing about on computers as a kid, Ian didn't realise you could get paid for it until he spotted something called ‘Computer Science’ on the list of A’ level options.

After a year out doing a badly paid work placement for a technology company and living in the ‘worst house share in Southsea’, Ian escaped to Warwick University, where his work on peer-to-peer networks earned him a first class degree in Software Engineering.

Ian has been a full stack developer at Fluent since 2010. In that time, he’s written some ‘pretty cool’ code, even taking on Solr, to improve the way people search for things like plumbers, houses and jobs. He’s also pretty good at making choose your own adventure web games.

He’s a qualified lifeguard and has a medal somewhere in his attic to prove it. Having recently renovated his house Ian now has a dislike of DIY equal only to that of ActionScript for Flash.

He does love having a 10 minute commute by bike to work though.

Jamie joined Fluent mid covid lockdown in early 2021 and hadn't met any of his teammates in person until a company trip to Alton Towers later in the year.

A sign of his character, he settled in quickly and it feels like he's been here for years. Whereas he has actually spent the last 3 years as a junior developer at a Cambridge college and the 4 years prior to that gaining a 1st in Computer Science from Anglia Ruskin University.

Either way, his love for cats and lifting weights has and never will change.

Jen has joined Fluent as our latest UX Designer. Jen’s path to UX Design is an interesting one as she first started out in her career in Forensic Psychology, to then move into Law, to a short stint in PR, to finally, UX. (We have to admit, we’re very pleased to find Jen sharing her analytical mind within UX design!) 

As a newbie to the UK (born in Canada, raised in Lebanon) you may find her exploring the UK and trying out restaurants. Although to enjoy one of her passions of scuba diving, we like to assume Jen goes elsewhere in search of warmer waters. 

“Fluent is a small and dynamic team that works on some very cool projects with clients such as: CMR, ITO World, ieso. What I also really like is Fluent takes on projects where business technology works for the benefit of people and the planet; from Charities to Sustainable Transport initiatives.”

Jon brings to Fluent over 20 years of industry experience in technology and design. He is our front-end developer and UI / UX design whizz. To the core Jon is a creative and a self proclaimed perfectionist. He started out at university solely focused on gaining an Art degree. A few years later after encountering the world of web design Jon went on to do a Masters in Multimedia Applications. 

Jon’s favourite place in the UK is St Ives in Cornwall, not just for its beautiful surroundings but for its quality art exhibitions. 

“My role at Fluent offers me lots of flexibility. I work across both front-end, UI and UX design. It's about a 50/50 split which means I get a big say in the overall product. I am based in Lincolnshire (originally from Yorkshire). It’s a 1.5 hour commute to the office so I mainly work remotely. The Fluent team is set-up really well for this type of working environment.” 

Justin joined Fluent in 2011 as a UX Developer and uses his illustrator’s eye to ensure that content and design are rendered into a seamless user-experience.

He has over 20 years’ experience of building and testing software and websites, but only had his first taste of computing when he enrolled on a free programming course after graduation. He caught the bug and the rest, as they say, is history.

Justin is famed around Fluent for possessing a coffee-fuelled metabolism that enables him to eat vast quantities of lunch without gaining any weight.

He loves most sport, Matisse, Mike Leigh films and dreams of painting a large picture he’s actually happy with. Other more lofty ambitions include playing for Liverpool FC and winning the F1 world championship.

In a previous life, Dr Pete spent 13 years at Nottingham University, gaining a PhD in mathematical computer science and teaching theoretical computer science to theoretically grateful undergraduates.

Since 2012 he’s been putting that theory into practice at Fluent, using his finely-honed coding skills to help people find accommodation, learn about climate change or even locate the perfect burger. His dedication to the cause often sees him in early, or staying late to oversee the latest release.

When he’s not knee-deep in HTML or similar, you’ll likely find him riding one of his many bikes, going to festivals (current Glasto tally = 12) or supporting Ipswich Town.

Like the perfect search engine, his brain can retrieve the most apt Simpson’s quote for any occasion. He also makes a mean sourdough - a claim yet to be verified by any of his colleagues.

You’re least likely to find him buying a cat or making a round of tea.

Victoria joined Fluent in 2022 as our marketing manager after four years with Cambridge-based Intrasonics, whose audio watermarking and audio matching technology is widely used in audience research content protection, synchronised apps and interactive toys.

Her interests include networking, reading, conversing over new ideas, and netball, which are certainly things that we do at Fluent Towers - although the mostly male Fluent netball team is supposed to be a secret.

When Victoria is hard at work, she is reaching out to potential recruits for our growing and sustainably-focussed enterprise, and turning our carefully crafted marketing plan into reality with new web content, blogs, and case studies featuring our latest digital transformation and digital product projects.

Wes joined Fluent in 2013. Prior to this he spent over 10 years working as a Business Transformation Manager, which he juggled (courtesy of gruelling 80 hour weeks) with an MBA at Cass Business School.

Having figured out out how to optimise his own working week (no sleep, lots of caffeine), Wes now does the same for the team at Fluent (more sleep, same coffee intake) where he’s responsible for keeping clients happy, developers busy and the business buoyant.

When he’s not mixing business with pleasure, Wes can be found walking, running and climbing in the Peak District. He’s travelled to a country for every letter of the alphabet and is partially deaf thanks to a Saturday job he had in a balloon shop as a 15 year old. Pop.