Alex first became interested in structured markup when analysing literary texts for his doctorate (on early Shakespeare editions) in the late 1980s.

Following this he worked as a developer on heavily object-oriented C++ application framework for cross-platform multimedia publishing, at the height of the CD-ROM boom.

In 1997 Alex was one of the founding directors of Griffin Brown Digital Publishing Ltd, a UK-based company providing XML-based services and products. He is responsible for leading the company's XML consulting and implementation, and his work includes advising clients on XML/IT strategy and practice, mentoring clients' staff, writing DTDs and Schemas, and designing and developing XML software systems in C++, Java and other languages. In 2002, Alex was invited to join the British Standards Institute (BSI) Technical Committee IST/41, where he contributes to ISO/IEC JTC1/SC34 in its formation of the DSDL ISO standard, among other things.

Alex writes and speaks regularly on structured markup technologies and their application to information management.