Biography
Jared was born in South Africa in Johannesburg, at the age of seven, he and his family moved to England.
During his childhood in England, Jared had a garden full of old sheds that contained electronics and equipment left by the previous owner of the home who had passed away. Being inquisitive he would rummage through the sheds experimenting with the things he found. The resources at his disposal kindled his future interest in engineering and electronics as he was left to explore, understand, dismantle and build whatever he liked from what he had at his disposal. One of the garden sheds was left to his grandfather to use, his grandfather had an interest in remote controlled models and would build sailboats, submarines, and other devices in his shed. This intrigued Jared and his grandfather supported his interest by providing him with electronic parts to do what he liked with. The support from his grandfather coupled with the support from the owner a small electronics shop near his home resulted, through experimentation and observation with Jared teaching himself the fundamentals of electronics and design. This knowledge was constantly bolstered as he found new things to dismantle and rebuild (much to his parent's dismay). Jared's mother often recounts a story from his childhood of him upgrading a tea bag box to have an electronic door opening mechanism, she went to make tea and saw two wires poking out the front of the box when she touched them, the lid opened automatically, Jared had built into the tea bag box, a motor, battery and switch system coupled with the use of levers and string to create a tea bag box that could open its self.
Around his mid-teens Jared was entering the world of drones (multirotors), having had an interest in remote control models for years and owning several airplanes, he wanted to get his hands on a drone, but they were at that time very rare, extraordinarily expensive, and very basic, so he did the research and built his own. This was the start of a significant part of his life that would open doors to places he had never imagined.
The end of secondary school and the start of Sixth form was a difficult time for him. He wanted to progress in computing and learn to program "properly" however there were no courses available. As such the first two years of sixth form were focused on Design and technology, here Jared focused on manufacturing technologies and hand tooling, at the end of the second year, Jared had the choice to progress to university or take a third and final year of sixth form.
A programming course had finally been introduced on the third year so Jared chose to stay and take the course, the course itself was sadly a bit of a shambles as it had poor preparation and weak direction due to it being new to the school but Jared was hooked, so at the end of that year, he signed up to do a BSc in computer science at Oxford Brookes university. Jared Completed the first two years to gain a foundation degree with a distinction and was all set for his third and final year, however, during the summer, Jared noticed a casting call for drone pilots to be a part of a TV show called drone wars, Jared saw that the filming schedule was close but knew if it stayed to plan, he would be able to participate in the show during the summer and return to university for his final year, so he applied on the chance he may get the part.
For drone wars, there was a stipulation that he needed a partner for the TV show, not knowing anyone with drone knowledge, he asked a friend with zero skill or ability in flying or building drones (or any aircraft for that matter ) to join him, they sent in an audition tape and waited, a few weeks later they were informed that they had been giving the chance to be in the show. Originally it was meant to start filming early August 2016, however, delays resulted in it starting very late August, the problem with this situation was that Jared would miss his graduation ceremony and the start of his final year to get his degree, however, with such a huge opportunity, he decided to have a gap year, so he and his partner ( Yves ) packed their bags and flew to Croatia for Drone wars.
Drone wars was one of the most enjoyable periods in his life, he discovered new cultures, lived with people who had as much interest in drones as him and made great new friends. In addition to this, He and is friend Yves WON the show after weeks of hard work and creative design.
Jared did end up missing his graduation and start of his third year, so as planned he took a gap year. This turned out to be very good for Jared as he had several exiting and new opportunities present themselves during the gap year.
He got to go to Dubai to participate in a "Drones for good" competition, Canada to attend an LTX convention, all around England for job opportunities and much more.
