About Me

I have been living in Mexico for over four years now. Most of this time has been spent living in Ciudad Guzmán, a small city of about 100,000 people, which is the principal city in the region of the south of the state of Jalisco. For me, it has a great location, being midway between Guadalajara (the second largest city in Mexico), and beautiful Pacific coast, both about an hour and a half away, and is surrounded by hills, a large lake and two volcanoes. One of these volcanoes, the Volcano del Fuego (Fire), is the most active volcano in Mexico.

I have also lived in Cuernavaca for a year, where I worked for the Mexican Institute of Public Health, and have travelled extensively in Mexico, mainly in the centre and south. I have yet to find the interest and motivation to visit the north, especially with the recent wave of violence engulfing the northern states. The picture of me above was taken at one of the eight waterfalls at Las Pozas, an extraordinary surrealist garden and collection of buildings created by my fellow Englishman, Edward James, in the Huasteca region of the state of San Luis Potosi.

I am involved in four main areas of activity:

1. As a ‘Profesor Honorífico’ at the regional centre of the University of Guadalajara based in Ciudad Guzman. Profesor Honorífico means that I give one class per term – in the Masters in Business Administration Programme – without being paid (though this is set to change soon), in return for which the University gives me an office, and use of the facilities, which means I get to hang out at the University. For a short clip of my recent teaching, see the video below.
2. Working with local organizations, including the university, to set up and support social and environmental projects.
3. As one of four investors in a business called TEFL Training Mexico, running four-week Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) courses which are internationally validated by Via Lingua.
4. Continuing the consulting work I was doing in England and Europe before I came to live in Mexico in leadership, teamwork, organisational development and sustainable development.

I see this blog as continuing to express some of the themes and interests that I wrote about in my Doctorate, which is called: “Emerging Selves in Practice: How do I and others create my practice and how does my practice shape me and influence others”. It can be found here on the University of Bath’s web-site.