Born and grew up in South Africa where he did his BVsc at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Onderstepoort, University of Pretoria. Emigrated to Norway in 1972 where he did a PhD in Physiology and Endocrinology, specialising in hormone regulation of mineral metabolism at the Royal College of Veterinary Medicine, Oslo. After attaining PhD in 1976, he worked for 2 years at the University of Tromsø, Faculty of Medicine and Institute of Arctic Biology where he did research into mineral metabolism of reindeer. Moved in 1978 to the University of Bergen, Faculty of Medicine where he worked for 20 years as the University veterinarian and led the Laboratory Animal Veterinary and Science Service at the University until being recruited to industry. Has led laboratory animal programs at Rhone Poulenc Rorer (London UK), Aventis (Frankfurt Germany), Sanofi-aventis (Montpellier France) and since 2010 has worked at Glaxo Smith Kline holding the post of VP for Laboratory Animal Science, Europe and now acts as VP for Global Laboratory Animal Science.

In addition to his professional roles he represented the Pharmaceutical Industry during the negotiation of the European Convention on the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals revision of Appendix A (ETS 123). He is a diplomate of the European College of Laboratory Animal Medicine and has been a member of the Boards of the Scandinavian Association of Laboratory Animal Science and the European Society of Laboratory Animal Veterinarians. He has also been a council member of the Association for the Accreditation and Assessment of Laboratory Animal Care International (AAALAC) since 2004. He was section head of the European Council of AAALAC International form 2010 to 2011.