James Valentine

As an owner and director of Solstrand, I enjoy huge latitude in defining objectives and setting the strategic direction of this aerospace-focused precision engineering firm. It's very enjoyable to see the company grow after years of missed investment opportunity.

Kohera is my own consultancy - the company I work outside of IR35 through. It's also how I structure my work with contractors and business associates to provide novel technical solutions to business problems. Kohera is much more than the sum of its parts and is becoming a familiar name in the industries we've worked in.

The name comes from the Esperanto word for 'coherent' - a value which has always been at the heart of how I engage with my clients and associates.

4iforum seeks to disrupt modern business practice by delivering high-impact interventions at senior management and board level. Through a dialogic session we call a "Thought Forum", we help business leaders challenge themselves and their organisations by asking themselves the difficult questions. By thinking creatively about the internal and external environment, new strategies can be formed, and, with 4i's expert team of industry specialists, peer-learning and best practice are always within reach. I handle tech strategy and implementation in this small and highly active team, working especially closely with the marketing lead to produce an engaging online experience for our personal growth-focussed professional network.

WhatCourses.org targets a niche in the personal development space - a place to not only track your career development and training, but to find online and offline training which matches your skills deficits. Using graph database technology, users are linked to carefully curated course selections from partner companies. Our curators are experts in their fields and keep a keen eye on the new courses coming to market, saving hours of often fruitless searching. I take on the CTO responsibilities, working with my co-founders, Simon Cooper and Gary Ford, both former Managing Directors in JP Morgan's Global Technology division.

Requirements gathering and business analysis feeding into a large-scale review of the legacy ERP system of a major UK Contract Electronics Manufacturer. This lead to UI/UX workshops and a comprehensive report into replacement options. The proof of concept of our recommendation, a NodeJS server and client-side implementation, is ongoing. I have advisory involvement currently, on a contract basis.

As CTO I have overseen rapid growth in UME, culminating in the recent sale of the business to a Frankfurt-listed competitor (Bloomberg) in July 2017. In this role I:

• Shape the high-level technology strategy.
• Take responsibility for all procurement, infrastructure selection and the management of key third-party relationships (primarily with external consultants).
• Continually modernise the company's software development, testing and deployment processes.
• Lead internal and client-facing application development, providing hands-on management
• Play a key leadership role within the business, driving all technology-related aspects of growth with the senior management team at board level.

Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) (hons.) Exon.