Security Check:
I’m the Director of Operations at the Platform Innovation company Applico, overseeing the development of all mobile apps and platforms for clients like Google, HP, Disney, The FBI and a ton of awesome startups that are on their way to really great things. I also write about technology for Business Insider.

I was born in Germany and grew up in England. In 2009, when I was 20 years old, I moved to New York City for a 3 month internship. 5+ years later, I’m still here and absolutely loving it.

What’s your historical London and New York connection?
The English economy was doing awful back in 2009, and I didn’t know what I wanted to do, and I wasn’t having the best of luck finding the career of my dreams. With a month to go before I graduated, I was fortunate enough to get an internship at a boutique product development company in Chelsea, NY. I impressed them and they hired me full time as a a Product Development and Brand Manager, and even sponsored my visa.

How can New York and London better engage with each other?
They really should improve the ease of coming over to New York to work. For example, the US has an agreement with Ireland that allows Irish citizens to work for 12 months after they graduate and vice versa. It would be great for both countries if the US and UK government came to a similar arrangement. Also, New York needs more Sunday roast spots. Very few Americans understand the sheer delight of Yorkshire puddings smothered with gravy, which is a massive shame.

Favorite NYC secret spot: The Brooklyn Rod and Gun Club. Perhaps the least pretentious bar you’ll ever go to. It’s like being in someone’s home where they play the best live acoustic sets, folk and bluegrass. They only serve beer, whiskey, and wine because come on, what else do you really need?

Favorite London secret spot: 
I know it’s not a secret, but Gordon’s Wine Bar. It’s the oldest wine bar in London, an underground cellar/cave completely lit by candle light…it’s so English and authentic and it’s always somewhere that leaves out-of-towners gobsmacked.

*Want to follow all of our secret spots on Foursquare? Check out our London and New York lists.*

If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be and why? 
Besides New York and London? Since I work in the tech scene it would have to be San Francisco.

In flight entertainment: 

• What’s playing in your headphones right now?Depending on what mood I’m in, it would either be my favorite song by the American great Bruce Springsteen “Racing in the Street ’78”, or it would be “Reckoner“, my favourite song by Radiohead, the best British band of all time.
• And what are you currently reading? Big Data at Work by Thomas H. Davenport.