Alan Miles

Just a follow up to this, his Bio on Amazon reads:

“Alain Miles was born in Kent in the black and white era, and now survives in Cambridge. In between, he has had a colorful, occasionally glittering career as an English language teacher and coursebook writer, radio and TV presenter, events organizer, publisher, computer manufacturer, HR specialist and web designer.

Very little of the above would have been possible if he had not spent most of his career in the Mid-East, where no questions were asked. He maintains that writing is a new and exciting option, categorically denying that all other career paths are now closed to him.

His first novel, “The Lebanese Troubles” mirrors the eclecticism - indecisiveness - of his working-life. It’s a story set in a time of war, yet not a war novel; it’s an adventure lacking a hero; it’s a romance without a lead. Alain himself calls it a comi-tragedy. But whatever the genre, if you love Hardy, Fowles, Camus, you won’t be disappointed.”

Source: Amazon.co.uk

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Alain-Miles/e/B003HDDF54/ref=nttdpepwbk_0

Nice to see a certain R J Jowett use his forum there as some kind of machine code support group ;)

It’s interesting to see where people end up who have somehow influenced your life. The Sam Coupe played an influential part in my life from the age of 13.

I have found Alan Miles entire career info on a professional connection network:

Summary

I’m an entrepreneur who loves the challenge of new ideas, and building new businesses. In the 1980s I took my award-winning UK computer design business from a 2-man partnership to a public company. In the 1990s my pioneering job creation business put thousands of unemployed school and college-leavers to work in the Arab Gulf. For 15 years my custom-designed HR software application was used by prestige clients in the Middle East - banks, hotels, airlines, construction, hospitals, government agencies.

My latest project, The HROomph Initiative, takes a fresh look at the way businesses manage people. Time and again I’ve seen companies taking on board new theories, purchasing expensive software, and then getting bogged down in the detail. Instead of driving the business forward, HR seems to be holding it back. slowing it down, adding unnecessary levels of complexity. What I want to see is ‘less HR, more achievement’.

I’ll be expanding on these ideas on the HROomph website and then, by mid-2013, launching a set of management tools that’ll put theory into practice.

Experience

Project Co-ordinator
The HROomph Initiative
January 2012 – Present (1 year 4 months)Tonbridge, Kent, UK

At present, this is a think-tank, not a company. We’ll be presenting and discussing new approaches to HR in the HROomph blog, developing management software to put the principles into practice, and asking for feedback from like-minded HR specialists who’d like to get directly involved.

Owner
PQS Associates
September 1998 – September 2012 (14 years 1 month)

* HR Consultant and Software Designer.
* Designer of Prospero - an integrated HR, Admin and Payroll package for business in the Arab Gulf.
* Sold the product to leading businesses - banks, hotels, hospitals, construction, airlines government agencies in Bahrain, Dubai and Oman.

Director
CareerCraft
1992 – 1997 (5 years)

Pioneered a job creation initiative for unemployed Gulf nationals in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Kuwait - through a three-month classroom-based, project-oriented programme, followed by three months of mentor-assisted work experience.

Successfully put 3000 people to work, despite employers’ reluctance to hire Arab nationals, in jobs ranging from bank auditors to van delivery drivers.

I founded the business, shaped the program, wrote course materials, and designed the program management software - which was the foundation for the software used in my next venture.

Director
Miles Gordon Technology
1986 – 1991 (5 years)

Joint founder of the UK company that designed and built the Sam Coupe computer.

Voted Best Computer of the year and Best Newcomers by the UK’s Leisure Software industry in 1990. Disappeared almost without trace shortly afterwards - has a way of happening to plankton when there are big fish around.

Mid-East Manager
Sinclair Research
June 1984 – April 1986 (1 year 11 months)

Introduced the Sinclair range of home computers across the Mid-East, Pakistan, Turkey, setting up agencies in 12 countries.

Mid-East Manager
Macmillan Press
1983 – 1984 (1 year)

Lead negotiator on a contract that successfully supplied English-language coursebooks to all Saudi schools.
Station Manager
Capital Radio, Abu Dhabi
1981 – 1982 (1 year)

Radio and TV presenter, journalist, events organizer - first in Qatar, then Abu Dhabi.
Author
OUP/ELTA
1976 – 1980 (4 years)

Author for Oxford University Press on the Crescent Course - English language course-book series for schools in the Arab Gulf.
Teacher Trainer. Teacher
International Language Centers (ILC)
1972 – 1976 (4 years)

English As A Foreign Language teacher/ teacher trainer
* At International House, London 1972 - 74
* Transferred to Beirut, 1974.
* Helped open Cairo school 1975/6

Publications
The Lebanese Troubles (an adventure novel)(Link)
Amazon Kindle
April 15, 2010

Reviewers say:

“Miles draws heavily on his extensive Middle East experience to bring each scene in the book vividly to life, with detailed and authentic descriptions of both Lebanon and its people that kept me fully engaged. He effectively uses the subject of war as a metaphor to explore the theme of disintegration of intimate relationships, and the reader is left contemplating the nature of loyalty and trust in everyday life.”

“Miles’ descriptive skills make Lebanon herself into the main character, brimming with magic and mystery. A great read.”

“As the field of indie publishing broadens it will be books like this that will shape it … one of the best choices available to put on a Kindle.”