Next to me, Yvonne, Llinos and of course Jacqui, Neil has been our longest serving staffer. So it was sad to see him stride off to exciting new challenges last Friday. He’s been with us for nearly three years, joining us part time while he was still at Uni, then coming on board as soon as he graduated.

We’ve been lucky to have him. He’s highly intelligent and competent, he swims in the Ocean of Common Sense every day, and he was damn good at his job. We didn’t want to lose him, but you can’t argue with a 300% salary hike.

Mind you, everyone in his new Soho-based office is allegedly bald; whether by choice or design we can’t say.  It’s probably stress. We find the office cat does much to relieve the load.

Bodoni using Neil’s desk as a motorway

Hang about — he told me he was a dog lover. Maybe that’s why he left?

Anyway Damien, our new Technical Development Manager, is settling in well. Thanks to him, fotoLibra members and buyers can now riffle through collections and lightboxes of image previews with speed and ease.

And the cat loves him.