Twitter: @mattslight
Email: matthew@slight.me
LinkedIn: linkd.in/mattslight

 

2012
Current Study: MSc Economics
Work: Partner, Incite ICT // Private Consultancy

HQ: London, UK // Walton-On-Thames, Surrey, UK

Projects: London Computing Education (Chairman) // Young Rewired State (Mentor) // Queen Mary, XING Business Competition (Regular Judge) // Hackful.eu

Hobbies: Scuba Diving (beginner) // Golf (novice) // 5 A-side football // Amateur Dramatics (Actor and Director)

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Bio

I am Matthew Slight, married to Sarah and I am a private IT consultant and partner in London based IT Support and consultancy company – Incite ICT.

This year I will be advising teams of young technologists at Young Rewired State 2012. I also provide advice and mentorship for technology, web and software startups.

I enjoy the theatre and have directed and acted for London theatre companies; I was Technical Officer for KDC Theatre between 2009 & 2012.

Most Saturdays you’ll either find me playing football at Westway sports centre in London or teaching young kids to code; I am an Arsenal fan, and secret Fulham FC follower.

I am a beginner golfer – coached by close friend and PGA Professional Jon Wells, who runs the Golf Plaza indoor golf centre in Surbiton, Surrey. I am currently using my local Sandown Park Golf in Esher for driving range facilities.

I have a long relationship with business and technology.

Early Career

My parents worked extremely hard to ensure my sister and I were the first generation of our family to attend university (for which I am eternally grateful).

Whilst at university I was able to work on a number of commercial projects. I was able to forge strong relationships with enterprises working on technology and business research and development. At university I met Ryan Cole and our independant ventures became the IT services and online consultancy firm Incite ICT.

As a Technologist

I’ve never been able to put anything down – my first home computer was an Acorn Electron at age three and I have been programming ever since (on a wide variety of computers some of which people have long forgotten about). My younger years were spent learning and understanding technology thoroughly, then at university I worked for a number of companies undertaking project co-ordination, both with software and hardware projects (finally I could ear a living out of taking things apart). Childhood car journeys were spent programming on a Psion Series 3 and some Tetris on the Gameboy! My Granddad had a cellar full of wonderful old radios, typewriters and paint tins.

London Computing Education (LCE) is a think tank focussed on tackling the issue of teaching software development and computer science to young adults (16-25 year olds); I am the group’s Chairman. LCE meets in a round table debate format of teachers, software programmers, professors and individuals interested in taught computing disciplines. The group is loosely affiliated with the Coding For Kids initiative and CoderDojo – both projects focussed on teaching software programming to young children. LCE is a feeder for a social enterprise project being set up to provide a software programming academy for young adults; it is the result of the joint efforts of various groups and individuals.

As a Mentor

Young Rewired State 2012 is a movement to encourage young people to apply their skills in technology and engineering to entrepreneurship. It is organised by the Guardian’s Emma Mulqueeny. I will be mentoring teams of young people during the summer of 2012

I support the Coding For Kids initiative. The idea is to make one personal pledge with the aim of getting more and formal teaching of computer programming in schools. I am in discussion with my local school to see how this can be achieved as far down as primary level.

I have judged for the Queen Mary, University of London XING business competition series. The competitions run monthly across the university departments during the academic year. Teams of students from each of the university’s faculties are pitched against one another to plan and form a strategy for a given business need.

For a collection of hand picked younger startup teams and founders I provide advice on technology and business.

CV

My LinkedIn profile details my professional work history.

I have a degree in Mathematics, studied for a Masters in the same and I am now studying Economics and Economic change.

Most importantly, I would like to hear from you.