Personal
Well, the story starts in Peterborough, Ontario. I grew up there, went to
St. Peters' High School, played all-star hockey and even worked at Canadian Tire
for a while. Is this interesting, really?
Education
I trained to become a Real Estate Appraiser (not real estate agent) through
the Appraisal Institute of Canada and worked in this field for nearly 10 years.
I achieved my CRA designation and only required completion of a final interview
to obtain my AACI designation. Having reached that level, I decided to formally
pursue a career in Information Technology.
Ever since high school my affinity for computer technology had been growing and
I tried new things on my own and learned alot along the way, always wondering how
I could use the latest gadgets or technology to improve productivity in the appraisal
office. In the last few years of that career, however, I began to notice that
I was spending more time with technology and was enjoying it more than the appraisal
work. In addition to this, I was also doing some consulting in my free time,
implementing small software solutions.
I decided to pursue a different career, Computer Programming. To facilitate
this change and minimize my time committment, I chose to attend the Institute for
Computer Studies to round off my self acquired computer knowledge and launch my
new career in the IT industry. I graduated in May 2001 and was immediately
offered a job at KiSP Inc.
Since then, I spent a few years working as a software developer, building distributed
web applications. I moved on from KiSP to work for ThinData for several years,
where I gained alot of experience in both development and team management. I had
the opportunity to grow in my position and eventually became the Director of Application
Development.
Following ThinData, I moved back to my hometown of Peterborough and started working
for Operitel Corporation as a Solution Architect. I later took on the role of Senior
Solution Architect / R&D Team Lead and I am now working to help define the architectural
direction of the LearnFlex LMS product, using technology from within the Microsoft
stack.
I love learning new things in the pursuit of meeting new challenges and
enjoy living and working in my home town.
Just For Fun
If you've already looked at the image galleries, you know that I enjoy being
active. I have spent downtime inline skating, playing hockey or taking back
country camping trips into Algonquin Park. I've also taken on the challenge of restoring
a Century home in my spare time.
Since moving back to Peterborough, I've joined Gold's Gym in an effort to fight
the middle age flab.
The computer nerd in me is never far away either, and I enjoy spending some
time with a variety of other things, including computer games, reading to keep myself
up to date with the latest in I.T. or catching an episode of The Big Bang Theory. There are a few other TV shows
that have caught my interest too, such as The Good Wife, Breaking Bad, Modern Family, In Treatment and Being Erica.
If you are interested in the canoe trips into Algonquin Park, I have written a few
trip logs. You can read about them
here.