Julian Linford graduated from Westminster University in 1984 with first class Honours in Computer Science and worked in UK computer industry as Systems Software Engineer, responsible for Operating System porting and maintenance on several different hardware platforms. During this time he obtained a Masters degree in Remote Sensing at University College London and in 1996 joined Serco SpA working at ESA-ESRIN, assigned to Multi-mission Catalogue Interface development. He collaborated on the development of the EOLI client User Interface to the multi-mission catalogues, from initial prototyping to the first fully operational release. He later took on a technical coordination role within the European DataGrid project, developing Grid computing techniques for Earth Observation applications. He is currently providing Grid application engineering support to ESA-ESRIN, for Grid-related projects and contributing to project proposals for EU IST and ESA Oxygen / GMES related studies. His main role in the DEGREE Project is to act as coordinator of WP4.