Andy is the visionary and leader of the U-Explore team. In his previous role, Andy was the Deputy Chairman of the Music Factory Entertainment Group where he started his career as a Sound Engineer at the age of 16. He then spent the next 25 years working with his family to develop the business into an international entertainment company. During this time, Andy became a successful music producer selling over ten million records, most notably with the famous Jive Bunny and the Mastermixers. From music producer, he went on to run Tidy Trax, one of the UK’s most successful independent dance record labels which developed into one of the country’s most iconic clubbing brands – Tidy. 

It was during Andy’s time running the record label that he first became aware of the possibility of creating a product to support young people’s understanding of business and from here, Andy became more involved with schools and the idea for U-Explore started to develop.  

Over the coming years, Andy continued his role as Deputy Chairman of the Music Factory and started to build up his knowledge of the education sector, developing U-Explore Interactive, which eventually led to the creation of the education division within the Music Factory group. This grew into a division employing 15 people and U-Explore Interactive, as it was known then, developed into an award winning product. 

In addition to his role as Chief Executive, Andy is Lead Sponsor and a Governor for Maltby Academy, which opened in January 2010, and due to his passion and vision for education, Andy is regularly asked to speak at national business and education events. He also advises the Government on matters of work-related learning.  

A proud Yorkshire man, Andy follows Leeds United and his favourite quote is “life’s not fair, get used to it.”