Ken spent 9 years as Head of Wildlife and Storage Biology Department, ADAS, Starcross. He was senior adviser in Devon and Cornwall on wildlife management, conservation, wildlife and pesticides, and public health/food storage pests, before becoming , Head of Infestation Risk Evaluation at DEFRA's Central Science Laboratory, (now the Food and Environment Research Agency) managing 35 research scientists working on food storage pests, public health pests and agricultural pests. Ken was appointed Director of the International Centre for Safe Commodity Storage, based at CSL's headquarters near York.