Jon was a trailblazer in every sense of the word. He gave up his career installing sound desks in recording studios for many famous pop musicians to concentrate on writing programmes and designing web sites before they were available off the shelf.
The first thing he did for County was to develop our website, writing the programme and designing it from scratch – we were one of the first brokers to have a website.
He joined the family run brokerage fulltime shortly after that and built all of our computers. It was not uncommon for large deliveries to arrive with all the necessary components ready for installation. What he did not know about the inside of a computer was not worth knowing!
Jon took a great interest in our long running Thatch and non-standard household scheme and designed and wrote the underwriting programme for it. He continued to maintain this until the very end, when he gave his full support for a new system being developed, which will make life much easier for staff, brokers and clients.
He had 3 computers on his desk at home, which often resembled a complex control centre more than a home-office. When there was a problem with IT, not matter how large or small , he spent a great deal of his time working out of hours, sometimes all through the night and at weekends so that the staff were not affected.
Jon was very interested in management information and spent hours pouring over the thatch scheme statistics as well as the company accounts, cash flows and profit and loss. We had many a lively debate at our board meetings and it was very difficult to prove him wrong.
He was an integral part of the firm, loved working for County, especially working tirelessly, for the schemes department, meeting up in the City with our insurers, having lunch and discussing all aspects of life.
Jon, you will be sadly missed.
Author – Malcolm Sydenham