Phil initially joined the Yorkshire Electricity Board as a student apprentice engineer. Graduating from Bradford University, he became a Research Officer at the Electricity Research centre (now EATL). He received his PhD for work on the development of an automatic high voltage cable fault locator, based on digital electronics and went on to design various low and high voltage cable fault location instruments before joining Biccotest Ltd as Chief Engineer. He was directly responsible for the introduction of GPS based fault detection and location techniques for high voltage AC & DC transmission lines. In 2003 he established Kehui (UK) Ltd designing and manufacturing equipment for locating intermittent faults on energised underground low voltage cable networks. He has been closely involved with Shandong Kehui Automation from its inception and served as a director of the company during its time as a Sino-American joint venture.