Gavin was born in Devon and spent most of his childhood in Cornwall. He took a degree in Spanish and French at the University of Birmingham and worked initially in the field of graphic design and advertising before training in the field of ELT. He has worked as a teacher and teacher trainer in Spain, France, Brazil, Australia and India, primarily for the International House group of schools. He worked as head of the New Technologies Department in International House Barcelona and as Lead Developer for Netlanguages, directing the activities of the computer team. A regular contributor to the IATEFL Computer SIG group and conference speaker, his writing credits include The Internet and the Language Classroom (Cambridge University Press 2000). In 2003 he set up The Consultants-E, an online training and development consultancy and has worked as the Project Director since then.