Mike was born in the post-war baby boom to a Scots mother and French father. They struck a deal to live in England only if their five children were brought up completely bi- lingually. French was, and still is, spoken in the Derome parental home in Cambridge.

At Imperial College London, Mike obtained his first degree and Ph.D. in the Physics Department, and is happy to be labelled as a "mathematical physicist". After a short period of postdoctoral research he joined the Central Research Labs of EMI to work on the new CAT scanner. By the mid-1980s Mike moved onto help develop a prototype encryption chip which, sadly was not taken into production. In 1993 Mike became a victim of the ongoing Thorn EMI redundancies as its science-based companies were sold off.

After setting himself up as an engineering consultant, he networked furiously and after a three-month contract with the Defence and Evaluation Research Agency, was offered a permanent job with them. Mike is now a long-distance commuter travelling out to Portsmouth each day, and hears Big Ben strikes seven o'clock morning and evening as he crosses Hungerford Bridge! In 2002 DERA split into a government agency `dstl' and a plc `QinetiQ'. Mike joined the latter, giving him a chance to do innovative commercial work.

Shortly after buying his flat in 1977, Mike was recruited on to his residents association committee in Queens Club Gardens. He is now vice-chairman. In those days he busied himself running up and down the stairs of the 550 flats of this four-storey Victorian estate to sign up new members.

About 1980, the then FPRA Chairman Mr James persuaded Mike to join the committee. He became Treasurer after successfully apportioning the bill after a post-committee meeting dinner! Although FPRA has often been near to going under financially - it has survived. Mike always remembers the AGM where he helped to justify a 60% increase in annual subs.

To keep fit, Mike plays tennis, swims 50 lengths every Friday, exercises at his local gym on Saturday and runs seven miles every Sunday. Most of us would find this schedule rather punishing, but Mike actually thrives on it!