Throughout this site I stress the wish to develop long-term working relationships with my clients. This page is designed to give potential clients an insight into my personality, my work and qualifications to do their job.

To learn more about my CV and interests, click the tabs marked ‘CV’ or ‘Pastimes’ above the images on the right-hand panel. I have also provided links to two facebook sites – my own and that of the charity Tanzania Development Trust, as well as importing my recent tweets. These may also be helpful in suggesting a couple of the many ways on which social media can work alongside a traditional web site.

Communication is a thread that runs through my CV. After early journalistic training, in the world of horse racing, I became a research analyst within a City stockbroking form. This required a thorough understanding of businesses, finance and business models, and an ability to communicate that understanding through various media.

Various managerial posts gave the opportunity to turn theory into practice. In particular, as Chairman and Managing Director of one of India’s leading investment banks, I arrived in the teeth of the Asian crisis. Working with a very talented team of financial and operational colleagues, we took a business with a powerful market position, but in development phase and thus loss-making, forward into profitability.

I created my first web site in 2003, to market a holiday apartment in our house in Cornwall. Fascinated by the process, I realised immediately that my skills would atrophy pretty quickly if I didn’t take on some new sites, and so I took on a handful of clients. Over the following years, starting with the basics of HTML and CSS, I have added skills in Photoshop, Javascript, PHP, WordPress, Joomla!, Highcharts and other technologies, to be able to offer a rounded creative package to our clients.

In 2010 Dovedale Design was set up, to pull together our various web activities.

 

Dovedale Design co-directors Robert and Lynne Gibson

Education

A levels in French, German, History

MA (Hons) in History from Jesus College, Cambridge

 

Employment

1980-1983: horse racing journalism:
member of editorial team of Timeform horse racing publications, Halifax, W Yorks.

1983-1988: joined City stockbroker Fielding, Newson-Smith & Co, subsequently purchased at ‘Big Bang’ by Natwest Bank, became County Natwest.

1988-2002: Flemings Group, latterly purchased by Chase Manhattan Bank and merged with JP Morgan.

  • 1988-1995: UK Industrials analyst; #1 rated analyst, 1995 Securities Institute survey of UK finance directors
  • 1993-1995: Head of UK and European Research
  • 1995-1997: Head of German Equities
  • 1997-2001: Chairman and Managing Director, also Head of Broking, Jardine Fleming India Securities
  • 2001: Managing Director, Pesaka Jardine Fleming Sdn Bhd, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
  • 2001-2: Head of Equity Research, Singapore and Malaysia
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    • 2003-2009: Cornwall, ran own holiday business. Developed our own website, led on to various others. Voluntary roles included editing local community magazine, Treasurer of village recreation hall, and village bingo caller!

    2010-date: co-director (with Lynne) of Dovedale Design.

    2010-date: Treasurer, Tanzania Development Trust

    Sporting preoccupations include the turf as a one-time journalist, one-time owner (actually, several times – to my cost!), and rather too regular Betfair punter. Cricket: still playing when my local team lets me, and 30 years+ member of MCC – Great Missenden enjoys an (almost) direct railway connection to Lord’s Cricket Ground.

    In the garden, I am largely the brawn to my wife’s brain and design ideas. Formerly had 4 acres in Cornwall, now enjoying restructuring a more sensibly-sized garden in Great Missenden. Big enough still for ‘his and hers’ areas: Lynne has the beautiful new greenhouse, me the DIY polytunnel!

    Grandchildren are a constant delight. Move back ‘up country’ from Cornwall partly due to 800-mile round trip. Best decision we made!

    On a voluntary basis, I am treasurer of a charity called Tanzania Development Trust (see facebook link on this page). In Cornwall, my voluntary roles included editor of the local community magazine, and treasurer of the village recreation hall – which brought with it the job of village Bingo caller!

    Also a member of the improbably-named Campaign for Real Gin.

    Enjoy all the usual things besides. We’ve been lucky to have travelled a lot in our lives, for work and pleasure. But I’m sure we’re not alone in having become disenchanted with airports and flying. Hence, we have dipped our toes into cruising. Made our first trip in 2011, aboard Cunard’s newest liner, Queen Elizabeth. We both loved it, despite the initial misgivings over cruising’s traditional image. Has cruising changed, or are we getting old(er)?