Chris started out life in 1962 in the small village of Essendon in Hertfordshire, from there his parents and his two younger brothers moved to St Albans, it was here that he was educated and grew up and cut his teenage years. An apprenticeship took him study electronics at college, at the same time to earn some much-needed money he took a role as a roadie for a local live music promotor, working with the likes of Motorhead, The Pretenders, Blondie to name but a few. Once he completed college, he joined the family electronics business. Alongside his father the business grew with the video age and was one of the first in the country to retail and hire Plasma and LCD screens. He was one of the first electronic businesses to retail on the internet. During this time, he furthered his knowledge by attending the Institute of Directors, he also volunteered for roles on boards of the Football Association and Consumer Credit Trade Association.
Chris now devotes much of his spare time to mentoring his two children (now young adults), they are both full time wheelchair users. Despite their disability they both love to travel; his son Jordan graduated with a degree in Sports Journalism from Solent University, he is now doing a masters in Sports Broadcast Journalism. Jordan has a passion for F1 and would like to take his degree and travel the world watching and reporting on F1. My daughter Tayla is a bit of a thrill seeker, she not only loves horse riding, but just to scare her father, there is nothing she likes more than being in her sit ski going down snow covered mountains at the speed of light! For his children to do this they need to fly, hence his reasons for pursuing a solution to allow them to fly safely and with dignity in their power wheelchairs.
Chris is now using his (nearly) three decades of experience as a full-time consultant in aviation accessibility, advising and helping create solutions to make air travel more accessable for wheelchair users, at the same time improving accessibility in aviation in general. He has been commended for his style of campaigning and lobbying, he says “I approached people as I would have liked to have been approached myself, discussing and understanding the challenges and focus on overcoming them”. Chris was awarded an MBE in Her Majesty the Queens Birthday Honours list in 2021, for his services to “Aviation Accessibility”.
Chris currently lives in a village near Amersham/Chesham.