Obituary: the ASC's Mike Trotman

Mike Trotman, We Work With Data co-founder and long-time ASC committee member who worked on some of the standards which have guided the technical side of the profession over the past twenty years, passed away at the end of January.

Trotman was born in 1954, educated at Trinity College Cambridge and three years after graduating with a Maths degree began his career in research tech as DP and Coding Manager at London-based MR firm Professional Studies Ltd. After spending most of the 1980s as DP Manager and Systems Manager at pharma specialist MilPro Ltd he moved to NOP as Technical Director, then took the same role at TNS/Sofres and latterly RI, spending a total of ten years at the three top-5 agencies.

In the next decade he co-founded two companies: DataTree Connexions Ltd, a DP and analysis company focused on the pharma sector, in 2000; and nine years later (with Steve Taylor and Antony Saccomani) We Work With Data Limited, of which he was Technical Director. In between he joined the Association for Survey Computing (ASC), where he was to spend seventeen years as an Executive Committee member. Initially he worked on development of the XML MR industry standard as part of the Association's TabsML Group; later he (co-)judged the MRS/ASC Technology award, and from February 2019 he was ASC Secretary, before standing down at the end of 2020 due to ill health. A passionate and committed member of the association and an advocate for standards and better practice in our sector, he was also custodian of the ASC web site for over a decade.

According to his fellow committee members, 'In every role, Mike always got stuck in to the technological aspects of the work' and 'nothing was ever technically too fiendish for him to figure out'. However he was also 'the personification of good company, which he both provided and enjoyed greatly'. Every few months he organised 'DP drinks' - at a variety of carefully selected watering holes across Central London, 'greatly appreciated by many', and reflecting his family's heritage as Vintners in the City of London - his very first job was working in the family's wine bar.

Rebecca Cole, Co-Chair of ASC and Managing Director of Cobalt Sky, remembers: 'Mike was one of those people who was never too busy to find the time to talk to you. He had such a passion for new technology and took genuine pleasure in it, not just how it looked on the surface but with the minute detail of how it worked underneath'. Co-Chair Tim Macer says the organisation 'missed him greatly' when he had to stand down due to poor health, and describes him as 'a knowledgeable and genial presence on our executive committee for 17 years, always willing to step up when a job needed doing'.

In recent years Trotman was a volunteer with the Royal Courts of Justice, and his family have asked for donations in his honour to be made to the charitable organisation Support Through Court - www.supportthroughcourt.org .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.