Background and experience

ADP List profile

I am an Engineering Manager with 25 years of experience in full-stack web development, proficient in various tech stacks (JavaScript, and js frameworks, goLang, PHP, ColdFusion, Ruby). Notable achievements include restructuring a company's tech platform which was a finalist in TechCrunch's Startup Battlefield Africa 2017.

I've also led a cross-functional product team for several years, focusing on feature development to drive adoption and revenue growth. My expertise lies in enhancing team engagement, performance, and project delivery within an agile framework.

I make an effort to stay current with team and individual performance and growth research, applying practical interventions to implement initiatives for innovation and measuring the results.

My leadership style, centred on fostering individual growth and generative teams, has been instrumental in cultivating a successful team dynamic.

LinkedIn LinkedIn

  • Teamwork.com/Product team technical manager

    I was tasked with forming a cross-functional agile team for reporting and resource management features in the Teamwork.com product. As the lead, I assembled a diverse team with a startup mindset, utilizing a revamped, engaging hiring process now adopted company-wide. I introduced effective strategies based on collective intelligence research, fostering team motivation, skills development, and engagement.

  • Teamwork.com/Senior full-stack software developer
    I was responsible for maintaining and enhancing Teamwork Projects code, collaborating with product teams for seamless integration, and conducting code reviews. Proficient in front-end technologies like KnockoutJs, CoffeeScript, Sass/Less, and Vue.js. Backend development expertise in ColdFusion, goLang, and MariaDB, with additional experience in Electron.
  • Freelance and consultant

    Between 2003 and 2018, I worked as a freelance developer and consultant, working with clients from around the world and in various industries.

    Below are some of the highlights

  • SpecialT Occupational Therapy Platform

    SpecialT is a platform for special needs schools to manage the therapy with their therapists, pupils/patients, and parents.

    I consulted on and developed their web platform from the ground up. This included guiding SpecialT on the technical and UX considerations, as well as developing the entire system in React, Node/Express, and Mongodb.

  • TechCrunch Startup Battlefield Africa finalist

    The games platform I developed for Big5 Games was one of the few products (out of almost a thousand applications) selected for the TechCrunch Startup Battlefield 2017.

    Our slot can be seen here:

  • EU/South African Circular Economy Conference

    I developed a real-time web app using React and Firebase that allowed the delegates to ask questions from their devices to the panel experts. Questions were moderated and displayed live on screens in real-time.

    The app had to be able to change modes for all users instantly depending on what session was active. The entire app was developed in a few days

  • Big 5 Games

    I developed a new games platform for Ultimate Dream Teams that allowed them to rebrand as Big 5 Games. I also built most of the B5G games for customers like Kwese Sports, MTN, Vodacom, etc.

    Node, Angular, and MongoDB

  • Stonesoup Development Cultural Assessment web app

    Stonesoup Development needed to create a web application to run cultural assessments of organisations.

    Members complete two assessments of the organisation, present, and future, and see their results in a spider graph. Once the program is complete the app provides reports of the aggregated results across the various sectors of the organisation.

    The first program for SADC has been successfully completed

    React, Node, MongoDB

  • ApparrelX Web Ordering System

    ApparelX is a clothing manufacturer. I developed a web ordering system for their customers that integrates with their Pastel Evolution. The web application imports products and users from Evolution, places orders, manages users, and calculates various pricing categories.

    Apache, PHP, Laravel, MSSQL Server, Angularjs

  • Latest Sightings Web App

    A web app to post animal sightings in the Kruger National Park with a location so that people can help each other find animal sightings. Built on Laravel 4 with heavy use of restful APIs, Angularjs, Bootstrap CSS with angular bootstrap directives, in-browser image manipulation, and offline storage using localstore.

    Because mobile reception was poor in the Kruger National Park, I had to implement an offline cache and queue various image sizes to upload from smallest to largest when connected.

  • Ultimate Dream Teams (UDT) unified user portal

    UDT have various sports fantasy games, each built on Java back-ends with their own user databases. My task was to create a unified user portal in node.js with MongoDB that would handle all logins, registrations, user profile management, and authentication (via rest APIs) for all the games.

    With over 300,000 users, we expected to work furiously for the World Cup Soccer launch to manage performance. However, node.js/Mongodb turned out to be so scalable that it handled the traffic without breaking a sweat. No slowdown at all.

  • Jewish Interactive

    Developed various educational games for Jewish Interactive

    Games included Welcoming the Shabbat, Blessings app, Glossary app, Tefillah app

  • Thirst4Work

    Thirst4Work was a recruitment platform. I developed the Employer section with Codeigniter and implemented several features in the Job Seeker section including the LinkedIn profile import. I also redeveloped the Job Seeker section with Codeigniter.

    Apache, PHP, CodeIgniter, MySql, HTML, BackboneJs

  • Minsdet Learn

    I did various applicaitons for Mindset Learn, one of South Africa's largest online learning channels.

    Applicaitons included a learning platform built over Moodle and stand-alone CD-based learning apps.

  • Mobilized and helped coordinate the Kwazulu-Natal Midlands Investment Initiative
  • Co-ordinated the establishment of the Ilembe Growth Coalition
  • Rescued the Ilembe chili project

    Read the full write up here

    This is probably the thing I'm most proud of.

    Ilembe Disstrict Municipality had started a chilli farming project with African Farm (Taste of Thai) and two groups of disadvantaged farmers, one on the banks of the Tugela river and the other in the hills of Mpumalanga.

    The first year's crops had failed and the second year was a week away from failing as well.

    I was asked to go in an see if there was any way of rescuing it. After meeting with the growers, I realised that what was needed was a restructuring of the roles.

    I quickly organised a meeting with the municipality, African Farm (the sauce manufacturer), and the growers to sit face to face and negotiate - something that hadn't happened. Once roles were set aligned to incentives and motivations, the whole thing fell into place quickly.

    In the following week, and for every week after that, the growers made more money per week than in the entire first year.

    In one week, the project went from failure to success.

    Lesson learned: people become what you expect them to become.

  • Created PACAmate software for documenting PACA workshops (stand-alone PHP application)

    PACAmate was a stand-alone app I created for capturing PACA workshops in real-time and generating documentation

  • Coordinated the Ilembe Agri-Processing PACA
  • Coordinated the Isithebe Manufacturing PACA
  • Coordinated the Ilembe District Agriculture and Tourism PACA (Participatory Appraisal of Competitive Advantage)

    I worked largely with Dr Jörg Meyer-Stamer and was involved with developing new Local Economic Development (LED) methodologies, co-ordinating initiatives to identify competitive advantages of a sector, facilitated stakeholder workshops, mobilisation, and communications.

  • Dot Com World/Managing Director & lead developer