John Smullen BSc, MA, MSc, MBA was educated at the London School of Economics, Birkbeck College and the London Business School. From 1973 to 1986 he held a number of academic post teaching economics. In 1986 he joined Abbey National plc to establish a linear programming system to analyse the efficiency of their branches and subsequently developed delivery systems for financial management information. When he left to set up his own consultancy, he was senior finance manager responsible for product, customer and organisational unit performance. In 1994 he set up John Smullen Consultancy and Training, which provides financial management information and training consultancy services to the financial services industry. He is also a visiting professor at the Catholic University in Uruguay and visiting lecturer in finance at De Montfort University and the Economics University of Cracow. John is also Senior Academic Associate at the University of Greenwich.