Neal Cavalier-Smith - Skills and aptitude

Son of an eminent evolutionary-biologist Neal is valued by colleagues for the intellectual rigour and creativity he brings to an enterprise, but most of all, Neal loves a challenge.

Branding: As a lead consultant for Health Focus Europe and Design Bridges' Healthy Marketing Team Neal has built a special expertise on functional food branding and innovation, a subject on which he has spoken at numerous conferences and forums.

Vision and communication: Neal is valuable for his ability to see both commercial and consumer angles and to communicate solutions to people from both worlds.

Culture and languages Neal can get by in a number of languages and loves to travel - he has toured, climbed, hiked, biked, ridden or hang-glided, rafted, rickshawed or cycled in over 80 countries and has lived abroad in Asia and the Americas.

Photography Originally a hobby, Neal is now a widely published photographer. A selection of his popular travel images are available via: Chris Fairclough Worldwide.

Creativity: An ability to visualise and quickly map-out huge systems that would normally be undertaken by a larger team also makes him good value-for-money.

Technology: Neal shares Technical Consultant Adam Bovington's fascination for what is achievable with fast-changing web technology so he has developed many strings to his bow, but most relevant in todays technical landscape are:

- HTML, strict XHTML, DHTML and technologies
- Complex database design in SQL, MySQL or Access
- Cascading style sheets and image optimisation/animation
- Digital photography and visual design
- Search engine optimisation

Training & mentoring: A 'developmental trainer' Neal has recruited/trained teams to take over from him in-house after a number of major projects.