About Me

Below you can find my resumé, and for those réally interested, also my Bio. For quicker navigation, jump to my:

 

Resumé

My full resumé can also be downloaded as pdf.

Summary

I am a software engineer with 15+ years experience as technical lead and CTO of startups around the world, of which the past 8 years focused on the renewable energy sector and smart energy management. I like the complexities of the domestic energy markets and finding technical solutions to real world problems and opportunities. My core technical strengths are in systems architecture, IoT, backend development and DevOps in Python and Typescript, but I also have experience in GIS, embedded development, electronics prototyping and frontend development. I speak my mind and collaborate well in teams where I can contribute my experience effectively. I have helped many startups through their initial startup phase, and have taken the technical lead in scaleups on various prototype software and hardware solutions, including one that lead to closing a $19M Series A funding. I assume people’s intentions are good, and as a result have managed to deescalate professional conflicts between partners.

Professional experience

Skills

Education and certifications

Bio

I hold an MSc in biology from Wageningen University, The Netherlands. My major thesis was on mangrove ecology in Mozambique and my internship on the mangrove dwelling iguana Ctenosaurus bakeri on Utila, Honduras. My minor thesis was on GIS and was a proof-of-concept on transforming 3D models from CAD programs to 3D formats usable in GIS for 3D visualisation on the web.

But well before uni I already started messing with computers, with one of my earlier accomplishments being screwing up my fathers 386XT computer by installing Windows 95 (it was running windows 3.11) and thus screwing up the harddrive drivers. Although a friend of mine fixed it, my father never trusted me with computers again.

During uni I started to teach myself web-design, system administration, Linux and later on programming. It resulted in different jobs as system administrator, and in me working as an independent contractor setting up and managing servers and networks for a few companies and later also doing programming and database work. It culminated in starting a company together with a friend that offered a business intelligence SAAS platform and consultancy for GP’s and other healthcare practitioners. I was the technical brains of the company. The majority of the work concerned extracting datasets from other applications and translating big unwieldy datasets, into real-life questions and answers for healthcare providers. On the presentation side we had a reporting web-application and a GIS web-application showing geographical representations of data. As a hobby I got interested in electronics and hacking, and became a member of the hackerspace NURDspace. After a few years my company grew to about 7 employees, by which time it was time for me to change my life and I left.

During my university years I did a fair share of travelling in the tropics and me and my wife were itching to get back into nature conservation again. So we packed our bags and left the Netherlands to go travel, volunteer and live abroad. We ran an environmental education project in Bolivia for half a year and volunteered for a marine conservation project in Cambodia. Being divers and ecologists, we wanted to work in marine conservation and found a job as science officer with Marine Conservation Philippines. My role changed from being in charge of the conservation and scientific side of the organization to more technical activities like data analysis and reporting, remote sensing and setting up a web-mapping system. This job was very diverse and ranged from designing scientific research, marine monitoring programs, scientific data collection, management and analysis (PostgreSQL and R), setting up the spatial data infrastructure and doing all mapping and remote sensing activities, supervising interns and volunteers, consulting local government and people’s organizations in their marine conservation activities and much more. On the technical side I also managed the IT infrastructure and developed and maintained a scientific data entry and management application.

In 2016 I decided that although there a there a lot of interesting projects I worked on at MCP, my skills were best used by using technology to support conservation organizations. I furthermore missed software development and more technological work so decided to become a freelance consultant. I have always enjoyed wrestling with and analyzing large amounts of data (geographic and otherwise) and visualizing it in user-friendly ways (usually web-based). From a scientific point of view, that is where I think I can be of most value. I also enjoy helping businesses become more effective/efficient by implementing technological solutions. So when I was asked by East Solar Works to become a partner and aid them with making their solar water pumping business more efficient by implementing remote monitoring and management software and optimizing their business processes, I accepted. Since the work is sporadic, it still allows me to operate as freelance consultant. And what started to be voluntary activities at Foundation University in Dumaguete in supporting a newly established hackerspace, quickly turned into an offer to be employed at the College of Computer Studies as a consultant for two days a week. They asked me to help start projects and support the establishment of a hackerspace/makerspace where we build “cool” technology stuff, preferably for environmentally or socially relevant projects. Most activities are extra-curricular for the students, but I also aid students with their thesis projects, and advise the college dean on research and education strategy. Recently we are trying to lift this initiative to a higher level with tighter cooperation with the industry and looking for grants to enable this. This job allows me to work more closely with young and enthusiastic Filipino’s and to finally give voice to my long-lived desire to show kids from all walks of life that with access to a computer and internet you can make a living, no matter what your education or upbringing. According to other people I can be quite hyperactive and passionate in my opinions (I still don’t believe them though). I love to try and learn new things and am quick to understand problems and new theory. I have a very analytical mind. I love solving technical problems much more than managing and having meetings. The more difficult the problem, the more I am committed in solving it.