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ABOUT ME

My name is Fred Harding and I moved to Barnstaple, Devon, England in October 2009 from Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire where I had lived for 34 years. I have been married for 35 years and have two daughters and one grandson. My hobbies include fossil hunting, metal detecting and investigative journalism. I am an author of non-fiction, an award winning software developer and web designer.

I was apprenticed between 1968 to 1972 at EMI Hayes in military electronics, before moving into the communication and computer industries, where I excelled. I was EMI's top apprentice in 1972 and I obtained the qualifications of C&G Diploma for Industial Elecronics (with distinction) Mathematics and Electrical Engineering. both with credits. I also obtained my O Level GCE English Language qualification at college which I had failed during my public school years.

Over the course of my career I have participated in leading edge technical projects such as Philips telecommunication operated dictation machines, the first Video Recorders, Ansafone Answering machines, Teletext televisions and the first IBM PC computers. I first learned to program in Microsoft Basic and many of my games I developed were published in computer magazines of the time. Later I became proficient in Borland's Delphi RAD programming language, which I use to this day. With Delphi I have developed a leading Kindle Writing product called Kindle Writer, which is sold all over the the world today and has helped hundreds of budding authors to realise their dreams and get their books published on Amazon.

I have been Technical Director of a major PC manufacturer at the time called Western Systems formed in 1993. Western Systems was formed out of distributor Cal-Abco and was formerly the original UK distributor for Packard Bell. In 1994 the company had a turmnover of £24 million of which I won contracts in excess of £5 million to supply IT equipment to Strathclyde Regional Council, then the largest council in Europe.

I have been involved in numerous board level IT projects. However, my preferred interest has been developing bespoke software and websites and over the years I have acquired a wide range of programming skills in these areas as Software Development Manager for a number of companies.

Before establishing my IT and Publishing business in Devon (Tekline Publishing) I had previously worked twelve years for for Sypol Limited (now called Alcumus), a leading Safety and Environmental Consultancy in Aylesbury. At Sypol I occupied the position of Software Development Manager and I headed a team of three programmers working on various software projects related to the Safety and Environmental sectors. I was not a pen pusher but was actively involved in developing software myself, as well as website and online e-learning products.

I wrote the original award winning CMS (COSHH management System) and AMS (Asbestos Management System). For a number of years the Windows version of AMS was used extensively and it created assessment reports sometimes exceeding 500 pages. AMS online, a web based version was last program I exclusively wrote before leaving the company at the end of October 2009.

I Win an Oscar

I have a confession to make! I did not win an Oscar because that is an award that is awarded to those in film industry for best actors, movie etc... and I was not in that industry. However, within the IT Industry there is an award that is no less as prestigeous. It is called the British Society Industry Awards for Information Technology innovation.

Established in 1957, the British Computer Society (BCS) is the leading body for those working in IT. With a world-wide membership now over 60,000 members in over 100 countries, BCS is the qualifying body for Chartered IT Professionals (CITP).

BCS was incorporated by Royal Charter in 1984. Its objects are to promote the study and practice of computing and to advance knowledge of and education in IT for the benefit of the public. The awards are given to those applying IT best practice to deliver tangible benefits to their organisations and their clients.

In the spring of 2003 two representatives of the BCS visited Sypol where I worked to do see what we do and to investigate if the COSHH Management system called CMS was worthy for being put forward for an award. Besides us, about 120 companies were investigated for the technology applications award, but only four would be chosed as finalists. As the software writer for CMS and the person who was liased with the investigators, I awaited with bated breath the outcome of their research. Then on 17th July 2003, a letter arrived. With shaking hand and heart thumping I read the letter ....