David Norris

David Norris started in the computer industry working on the LACES computer Systems at Heathrow in 1978, starting off life as an Assembler programmer.

Realising that programming was not his strength he moved rather rapidly into analysis. After the implementation a new customs entry system at Heathrow he left and joined Rank Xerox as a systems analyst. Arriving just as they lost their patents he spent four turbulent years leading projects to revamp the costs and efficiency of Xerox.

After a brief stay at Calor Gas in search of RDBMS experience, David joined Coopers & Lybrand (C&L) in 1984 and, at the age of 30, turned his back on enterprise systems for the delights of business intelligence and the life of a consultant, a move he has never regretted.

In 1986 he designed a star schema database for the AA without realising that was what it was! After eight years at C&L he joined Dun & Bradstreet, rising to become a VP of Technical Strategy and Quality – in which role he worked in the US as a pioneer on very large data warehouses. Returning to Europe, he worked as an independent consultant before joining Tandem to look after Telco BI, specialising in operational data stores and near real-time warehousing. As a result of acquisitions David ended up working for HP. With David approaching 50, he decided a change of career was called for, and he now works as a contract PM and more recently Scrum Master being an avid fan of Agile as a means of delivering software.

Away from work David is a very keen cook, listens to his collection of 4,500 CDs mostly jazz and opera, collects model soldiers, and is an avid supporter of Barcelona FC, West Ham and the Wasps.