I am delighted to welcome Canadian Dan Howe (@danhowe) to the Speed crew. He joined the tech team this week to bring his digital comms prowess to bear for Symantec and Virgin Media Business, among others.

Here’s a Q&A and dodgy snap that has just done the rounds of our internal newsletter. I thought it worthy of a wider audience.

Welcome Dan. Its really great to have you on board.

Q. Why isn’t Canada part of America, wouldn’t that be simpler?

A. It couldn’t happen. There are too many distinct cultural differences like poutine, beaver tail, touques and the metric system. Besides, Canada plays an important role as America’s hat.

Q. Who has most caught your eye at Speed so far?

A. John Brown (@brownbare) and his warm, welcoming smile.

Q. If you bumped into Ashley Cole in a pub tonight, what would you say to him?

A. I’m a bit ignorant when it comes to British celebs, I had to Google him. Perhaps I could ask for some mobile phone photography tips.

Q. What has been your biggest career embarrassment to date?

A. A dodgy webmail error caused journalists and bloggers to receive the same press release numerous times. It resulted in a lot of funny email exchanges and a #danhowe tag in my name, but I managed to turn it around and even secure a few briefings. The client thought the whole event was hilarious. No really.

Q. What, in your humble opinion, is the weirdest thing about British people?

A. Umbrellas and wellies when it snows. Do you know how silly you look?