A brief profile

  • Producer and Director of award winning films, videos and webTV programmes
  • Co Founder of World Happiness Project and Chairman, Global Happy Cafe
  • Presenter of NHS Dorset HealthCare online Happy Cafes
  • Chief Executive of International Media Communications Companies:- Agri-Visual, Video at Work, Video Newsreels, Virtual Media
  • Organiser of conferences, product launches, exhibitions, press and public relations, corporate hospitality and team building events.
  • Freelance Photojournalist for Time Magazine, Riviera Times and various news, leisure and lifestyle magazines.
  • Artist, Sculptor and Designer of Sculpture Parks and Memorial Gardens 
  • Director of Arts and Music Festivals, Bournemouth Jazz by the Sea Festival and The World Jazz Jamboree.

Biography

Gerry grew up in the bombed-out suburbs of London after the Second World War. His ambition was to escape the urban environment and see the world. He joined the local scout group to experience some fun and friendship and quickly discovered the satisfaction of helping other people in life.

Educated at a local grammar school, he then went on to study Agricultural Botany at University in the mountains of North Wales. He took a student vacation job in Canada and travelled across America. It was his first big adventure, stopping off in New York for the World’s Fair before taking a Greyhound Bus across the prairies to Alberta and on to San Francisco and California. His eyes were opened to a big wide world out there beyond the British Isles……..

After graduating, he joined the Commonwealth Development Corporation and was posted to Swaziland as a young trainee manager on an agricultural estate. Never having travelled south of the Isle of Wight before, it was his second big adventure, this time to Africa.

In 1968 he was sent to the West Indies to run a banana plantation in Dominica where he found many of the local workers were indigenous Carib Indians whose ancestors were cannibals and his neighbours were Christian missionaries sent to pacify them. After taking a post graduate course in Tropical Agriculture at the University of the West Indies in Trinidad, he returned to Africa and researched food crops to feed the growing population. He discovered the power of media communications and designed a mobile PA system for the King of Swaziland that enabled him to speak directly to the Swazi people. Gerry’s interest in the use of modern technology to inform, educate and motivate people was awakened.

Whilst in Africa, he created his first sculpture, a giant metal structure depicting the production of sugar.

He then joined the World Bank as Agronomist on a mission to The Philippines and produced a report on the use of modern farming methods to support the Country’s Green Revolution. What he discovered gave him the idea of forming Agri Visual, the company he launched to produce films and training programmes to teach farmers around the world how to grow more food and improve their lifestyles.  

During the next 25 years Gerry established his reputation as a film director, creating highly effective films and multimedia productions, working for international organisations, government departments and commercial companies. He travelled to various parts of the world and became a pioneer in the use of modern media technology, founding Video at Work and later Video Newsreels to create innovative employee communications and promote a wide range of products and services. Whilst researching for a video about the Internet he discovered a new way of working and in 2000 he moved to the south of France and launched Virtual Media.

Since moving back to the UK, he developed his unique creative skills: as a photojournalist, writing articles for magazines such as Time International, as an artist and sculptor, creating works of art reflecting nature and the environment, as a director of arts and music festivals generating opportunities for artists and musicians and presenting a series of online Happy Cafes to help improve staff wellbeing in the NHS. In 2018 he co-founded the World Happiness Project with a vision to increase happiness and improve mental health and wellbeing in the home, the community and the workplace. The project continued to grow and develop, reaching over 1000 subscribers around the world.Following major back surgery in 2022, he drafted a book on convalescence and produced a podcast about the ten keys to happier living.  Recently, he has returned to his global travels, visiting new parts of the world and researching for a sculpture park to celebrate the life of Queen Elizabeth ll. Following the recent floods in the UK, he is designing an innovative new electric pontoon boat, aptly called Clarke’s Ark.  

Listen and watch Gerry’s podcast at: https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-p6b6x-115374c  or  https://youtu.be/Zjzi2L9vXvQ