A self confessed techie geek with Otaku tendencies. Graduated with honors in computer science from Lancaster university, worked for Hitachi as one of only three computer system engineers ever employed in Japan, and has since consulted on technology strategy to the major Japanese corporations Sony, Bandai, NTTDoCoMo. Ashley has appeared on BBC television in features about Internet startups insidedot coms for the BBC2 producer Jeremy Jeffs.