About

I’m Justin

Father to Cerys & Caitlin. Husband to Rhian. We live in a small village between Cardiff & Newport.

me, cerys, and caitlin sat on the spanish steps

I’m a data consultant

I specialise in Business Intelligence and the Modern Data Platform, I focus on Microsoft products but my specialisms can be applied across other areas. I’m also a Microsoft Certified Trainer. I’m collecting badges, some are below, you can see more here . My latest certs are…

my latest microsoft certifications

I’m a community advocate

I’m active in the data community, I’m co-organiser of an online data conference called DataWeekender and I’m a co-organiser of the Data South West user group that is located in Cardiff. I also volunteer at SqlBits and Data Toboggan . I’ve recently become a STEM Ambassador and have clocked up over 15 hours of volunteering time with local schools.

stem badge

I started my own business

I co-founded Metricy Ltd with Ryan Gillett we are a Microsoft partner in Data Platform & Analytics. We provide consultancy and training services.

I’m a friend of Redgate

I have been accused of being a Redgate fanboy in the past AND THEY WERE RIGHT. Redgate are a fantastic company and I’ve historically been a huge ambassador of their products. They continue to make ingeniously simple tools and it was a huge honour for me that in 2020 I became a friend of Redgate . You can read more about that here . I’ve been renewed for 2021, hopefully this image will continue to increment over the years :)

friend of redgate badge

I love what I do

I’ve been on a fantastic journey in the world of tech. My Dad bought our first computer, a Texas Instruments TI99 in 1986, when I was 6.

my first computer the TI-99

I was interested in tech from a young age, and curious at breaking down stuff to understand how it worked - I remember being sent to the headmaster in primary school for exploring the operating system on one of the school’s Macintoshes despite us all being told explicitly not to click on the apple logo.

the apple macintosh

My game playing years were spent on a Commodore Amiga.

the glorious commodore amiga 500

I was building machines in my early teens. It took me a few more years to realise that tech was to be my career (I thought I wanted to go into Accountancy or Law until it was too late for my A-Levels), but once the journey started I never looked back. I’ve run down a few dead ends and have missed a few junctions along the way. I’m extremely lucky to have eventually fallen into a career that I love.

I’m trying to work in tech whilst not being consumed by it

Josh Duffney’s blog post popped up at the right time. Lockdown left me in one long, always-on, plugged-in day from the moment I get up until I eventually drag myself to bed…and it was exhausting. Reading his digital declutter led to a few trials of different approaches and I’m still learning to remain as unplugged as I can.

I’m a huge football fan

I am obsessed with football, I’m still dragging myself around a 5 aside pitch despite Rhian insisting I’m too old for that sort of thing. My local team is…Manchester United. I’ve watched Ferguson propel the club to lofty heights and watched everyone since dismantle it. Ole gave me the most incredible (football) night of my life in 1999.

and solskjaer has won it!

That was until the night Hal Robson Kanu sent the Belgium defence for hot dogs and scored the greatest goal in Welsh history.

robson kanu sending the belgium defence for hotdogs

I’m starting on a family quest

The Bird Family Quest was inspired by reading Brent Ozar’s Epic Life Quest and in turn, Steve Kamb’s Epic Quest of Awesome . I’ve always loosely kept a bucket list but never really dedicated time to it. I started putting the foundations of our quest together with my kids to give them something positive to focus on during lockdown. They were promised a special 2020, it’s been anything but .

I planned to document much of this, I wrote out many goals, just never got round to properly document it. I’ll start putting this together soon.

I’m trying to stay healthy

I’ve been working remotely for several years - albeit not permanently like I am now - and during that time I’ve introduced various apps and working practices to help me work effectively. I returned to work towards the end of lockdown and I’ve found that permanently working remotely and being socially distanced has had an impact on my personal and mental wellbeing.

At the start of 2023 after several false starts, I set about making running a habit. That started with the Couch to 5k programme and I’ve been running regularly since.

I ran my first 10k for Cancer Research in July 2022. I’m now training for the Cardiff Half which I’m running on behalf of Mind . You can track my progress on Strava or read about my progress here . If you really want, you can sponsor me here .

I’m a Star Wars fanboy

I grew up with the original trilogy. If I wasn’t a data consultant I’d probably have been a Jedi…who could fly the Falcon.

Get in touch

If you want to get in touch, please use the contact form .