Interview with Jonathan Krause, Managing Director, First Response

Jonathan, we last interviewed you back in 2008, what have you been doing since then?

In early 2008 I started Forensic Control after four years as a computer forensic employee. It began as a vehicle for my contract work but soon developed into a business in its own right, becoming relatively well known – albeit within the fairly small world of computer forensics! I moved further and further away from my roots in public sector work, and found myself really enjoying the faster pace and challenges in the corporate world; there was no going back for me. During this time I was fortunate enough to work on some very interesting cases including the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and the estate of Elvis Presley.

You recently became the Managing Director of First Response. Tell us more about the company and your involvement.

First Response was set up in January 2012, and at present is being run alongside Forensic Control. There are three joint owners of the company; myself, John Douglas and Bill Lindley. John (the Operations Director), Bill (the Chairman) and I bring together over 30 years’ experience of working in the industry. We decided to bring the forensic operations of our separate companies under one roof which was a natural progression for each of our companies. We think we complement each other very well! There’s some more background on First Response in the recent Forensic Focus news item.

I’ve known Bill and John professionally and socially for years; as well as offering what we believe is a first-class service, we enjoy our work and enjoy working with each other – for me, this is of fundamental importance.

In terms of my involvement, I’m a typical managing director/CEO though with a very much hands-on role. You’re as likely to find me imaging an unusual server configuration, analysing the content and reporting back to the client as much as dealing with the behind scenes management.

Can you give us some recent examples of cases First Response has worked on?

Sure. I think First Response’s main strength is in having both a great technical depth and an ability to communicate complex matters in a way that an average lawyer or director can easily understand and then act on. This helps our clients tremendously as it did in the two examples of cases I'll outline...

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