I undertook research on strategic environmental litigation, including prospects for bringing an action in tort against the UK government for breach of a duty of care over air and water pollution. I also investigated how the Public Trust Doctrine might be re-established in common law.

I set up and ran Mango House, a top-ranked hotel business in southern Sri Lanka. I was responsible for the legal and accounting affairs, as well as eight full-time employees and a annual turnover of around £120k. As a founding member of Greener Galle, I helped set up the first dedicated recycling centre in Galle, winning sponsorship from local businesses.

After contributing reporting from Syria, Yemen and Lebanon since 2005, I led coverage of Syria’s uprising for The Sunday Times, the UK’s best selling quality Sunday broadsheet.

I wrote and produced multi-media coverage of the Middle East for America’s first online news company dedicated to foreign affairs. One of my films, ‘Inside Assad’s Torture Chambers’, in which a torturer and a survivor of torture describe the horrors of life and death inside the Assad regime’s prison system, was part of GlobalPost's entry that won a 2011 Peabody Award.

With a former CNN producer I set up an independent documentary film company. I was the director, cameraman and script editor. Over three years, our films included the following: ‘Little Dictator’: 25 mins: A film about political satirists swept up in the debates that divided Syria’s revolutionaries. Commissioned and broadcast internationally by Al Jazeera English’s flagship documentary strand, Witness. ‘Yemen’s School of Democracy’: 30 mins: The story of school children campaigning through the highs and lows of the only free and fair election in Yemen. Bought by Al Jazeera Witness then Australia’s SBS and the Guardian. ‘Syria’s Youth Revolution’: 12 mins: The stories of three young protesters who helped start the uprising against the Assad regime, commissioned by France’s ARTE Reportage, later broadcast on America’s PBS Newshour. ‘Hunger in Yemen: A Silent Emergency’: 25 mins: Travelling into remote, rural Yemen to highlight the little know humanitarian crisis in the country, bought by the World Food Programme and sold through JourneyMan Pictures. ‘Al Qaeda in Yemen: A New Frontline’: 10 mins: Analysing the dangers faced by the US-backed Yemeni Counter Terrorism Forces, broadcast by America’s PBS, Denmark’s TV2, Sweden’s SVT, among others.‘A Force is Born’: 5 mins: The first footage of the rebel Free Syrian Army, broadcast on the UK’s Channel 4 News and later on America’s PBS Newshour and on Denmark’s TV2.

Reporting from Damascus, Beirut and Yemen, I covered Iraqi refugees, upheaval between Syria and Lebanon, the War on Terror, poverty and development, and the Syrian uprising.

I recruited a team of reporters in Damascus and Beirut, editing breaking news on the rebellion in Syria. Our coverage was shortlisted for the 2012 Amnesty International Media Awards.

I was Lebanon and Syria editor for the UN’s award winning humanitarian news agency. I wrote and photographed over 200 reports on development issues, and the July 2006 War in Lebanon, and established and trained a network of journalists.

I was Syria-Lebanon correspondent for The San Francisco Chronicle covering the aftermath of the 2006 Hezbollah-Israel July War, US military and security issues, and human rights.

I produced daily reporting and editing of international news, and ran the foreign service to the media group.