ISP: CENTRAL

Craig Duffield

Group User Experience Manager of The Learning Hub

Craig grew up in Stoke-On-Trent in the UK, before his love for all things technology (and a strong aversion to needles) took him away from a future medical career and into a Software Engineering and Business degree at the University of Birmingham. He’s an avid follower of the newest technologies and his house is filled with gadgets both old and new such as retro gaming consoles, Chinese home automation equipment (with no English instructions), and at the last count four and a half 3D-printers.

His biggest ‘Amazing Learning’ experience of recent times came at, of all places, a birthday party. Craig’s wife is profoundly deaf and inevitably he ended up at a party as the only hearing person there, unable to sign. Having the tables turned that day was a shock; he couldn’t follow conversations, missed the jokes and felt like an outsider. It put him in the same uncomfortable position that his wife and many others face every day and he now takes pride in appreciating the importance of inclusivity, empathy and finding common ground with whoever he’s working and communicating with and applying that to his work. He’s now also learning to sign, albeit slowly!

Having completed a few circuits of the local musical theater scene around Berkshire, performing lead roles such as Danny Zuko in Grease, Stacee Jaxx in Rock of Ages, and Ren in Footloose he’s decided that taking direction and learning lines isn’t for him and so spends his spare time as lead vocalist in a local band.