He qualified at Bristol University, and after completing house officer posts at the Bristol Royal Infirmary, worked at Bristol University as an anatomy demonstrator to undergraduate medical students. He subsequently undertook a PhD in cancer molecular biology at Oxford University in the laboratories of the Institute of Molecular Medicine at the John Radcliffe Hospital. He carried out initial surgical training in Oxford, and then moved to Cambridge for senior surgical training. He completed his specialty Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary and liver transplant training by carrying out a fellowship at the Centre Hepatobiliaire at Paul Brousse Hospital in Paris. He is a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, a member of the International Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Association, and his specialty interests are surgical treatments of tumours of the liver, biliary tree and pancreas.