Bernd Wechner
A Professional Résumé

Headline

A multifaceted professional with experience across a range of industries (steel production, telephone systems, fisheries science, software production), a broad range of skills (math and science, telecommunication, communication, management, IT project management, training, sales, marketing) and a persistent yen for learning, creation, positive contributions and making the world a better place.

Skills

Career

Experience

The SonarData/Echoview Years

Quality Assurance Engineer, Echoview Pty. Ltd. 2019-2024

Having revised all the sales processes, infrastructure, tools and built a solid reseller network empowered to demonstrate and quote independently, I yearned for more creative expression once more and negotiated a return to the development team into one of the least developed areas therein, Quality Assurance. In my tenure there I focused on:

1. Automation: Using Python to integrate with our existing infrastructure including integration with Microsoft Access, Subversion, Gitlab, Jenkins and UIA (to automate User Interface testing) and more.
2. Rigour: hand in hand with reducing manual steps to automated steps in test procedures much greater rigour (reduction in human error and human limitations)
3. Data Science: Complex (in both senses of the word) mathematical implementations like wide-band analyses (analysis of wide-band hydroacoustic data) were in my camp as well as binary data file analyses (echosounder data files supported by Echoview).

Departure: position declared redundant in response to poor revenue performance the year prior.

Global Partner Manager, Echoview, Echoview Pty. Ltd. 2015-2019

With an expanding reseller network and related work, I focused formally on the growth and support of the reseller network across the globe and strengthening the relations we had with echosounder manufacturers and collaboration with them. I managed individual Sales representatives employed for the distinct Regions of North America, Europe, Asia/Pacific and Latin America.

Departure: Desire to move back into a creative role within the development cycle (out of the sales and administration areas)

Global Sales and Marketing Manager, Echoview, Echoview Pty. Ltd. 2011-2015

Promoted to global sales manager, in my tenure there I brought the business over the $2 million annual revenue threshold and set it on a trajectory to reach $3 million annual revenue by augmenting and altering the preexisting direct sales approach with:

1. Branding revision (uniforms for direct sales staff, conference bling, DL format brochures and more)
2. Investing in marketing (hiring a marketing professional, website revision, research into ROI of various marketing channels)
3. Review of pricing (moving from a very complicated pricing model that required resellers to request quotations from us, to a much simpler model that empowered resellers to quote from a price list)
4. Revision and expansion of our reseller network and the contracts we had with them, empowering them to demonstrate and quote more independently.
5. Strengthening ties with key hardware suppliers whose products we complement, at the outset Simrad (Kongsberg Maritime), BioSonics and HTI, courting also Sound Metrics and BlueView.

Departure: Growth of sales team, acquisition of a new Sales manager and desire to focus on our greatest opportunity for growth.

Sales Support (Infrastructure and Asia/Pacific), Echoview, Echoview Pty. Ltd. 2010-2011

Moved into Echoview sales, to enhance and maintain the in-house developed License manager (ASP, C# .NET) and support direct sales taking on the Asia/Pacific region of direct sales and managing a small number of resellers in that region. Continued to maintain the in-house License manager until 2024.

Departure: Resignation of existing Sales Manager created an opening. Invited to fill that (best candidate)

Project Manager, Eonfusion, Myriax Pty. Ltd. 2006-2011

With Eonfusion project running behind schedule, over budget and at risk of failure I was appointed project manager to bring this product to market. I implemented Steve McConnell's three-point estimation, training staff in its use and subsequent application to confidence based forecasting and budgeting. Using that with team support we got the product to market and a version 1.1 service release reliably budgeted and delivered on time. Sales however under-performed (too little too late) and capital ran dry.

Departure: position declared redundant after radical team size reduction in response to poor revenue performance.

Manager of Support, Quality Assurance and Documentation, SonarData Pty. Ltd. 2003-2011

Managing the Support, quality assurance and documentation (SQuAD) needs across three corporate divisions (Echoview, AQ1 and Eonfusion) with team, of up to 10.

Departure: position redundant after sale of AQ1 and radical reduction in Eonfusion team

Manager of User Support and Training, SonarData Pty. Ltd. 2002-2003

Tasked with the design and delivery of a three day training course in basic hydroacoustics and Echoview software, with 12 weeks lead time. Managed customer support and worked on the Echoview 3 help system in parallel to garner the skills needed. After a very successful and well received course delivered in Seattle and Anchorage, continued managing the ongoing user support, training and documentation needs, delivering this training course as needed.

Departure: growth of business and demand for user support, documentation and quality assurance created an attractive opening there.

The Telcommunications Years

Customer Support Engineer, Landis and Gyr Communications 1998-2000

Technical and administrative support of customers for telecommunications software systems, including:
• product documentation (developing and maintaining user and installation guides),
• product packaging and delivery (personalised for large corporate clients),
• customer training (designed and delivered 2 to 4 day courses to 2 to 20 engineers at a time),
• post-sales consultation and warranty management (telephonically and on-site)

Two major products and a few minor products with around 30 active customers (national Telecoms in Europe, Asia, North Africa and Latin America). Delivered courses on site predominantly in English and German, occasionally in French, produced documentation in English.

Departure: resigned with a desire to repatriate to Australia and travel less. This job eventually saw me in planes every weekend for a year, eating into opportunities to build local relationships.

Telecommunications Engineer, Swiss Telecom 1995-1996.

Developed a GSM tuning package (Tuny) for the display and navigation of measured radio signals and simulation of GSM handover decisions based upon them. Extensive work with GSM radio resource management and Visual Basic. This project was highly successful, and provided the basis for winning further contracts for the radio-tuning group at Swiss PTT Research (now Swisscom).

Departure: fixed term contract for a fixed delivery.

On the Move

Test Engineer, Dytech Solutions Pty. Ltd. 2002

A two month contract with Dytech Solutions filling a necessary quality assurance role on two key products (LeX and Quest) in the company's history (both web based information services for the Australian government).

Departure: fixed term contract

Software Engineer, Larrisun Pty. Ltd. 2000-2002

Developed, under own initiative:

• a generic on-line database system intended for the public domain
  (a non-profit motivated venture used by the Tasmanian Greens)
  with Perl, HTML, and Apache on Linux and Windows 98.
• an enhanced web based email client
  (a personal contribution for use by my University Alumni )
  with PHP and Apache on Linux.

Departure: Larrisun was a shelf company I purchased to operate under as a mattter of necessity (in delivering consultation services to BHP). These were side jobs I did on a volunteer basis while travelling and between jobs.

Contributing Editor, Suite101.com 1995-2003

Contribute a monthly article to the travel section of this magazine-style web directory. Appointed by invitation.

Departure: Had a child, settled, and ran out of time for writing monthly travel articles. Suite101 later folded, for lack of a viable monetisation model.

Independent Traveller, 1991-2001

Three roughly year-long trips and various shorter journeys through Europe, Asia, North America, Australia and New Zealand with a strong focus on peoples and cultures. A profound experience in personal development, notably communication skills, cultural awareness and languages.

Departure: Enough is enough ... settled, built a family.

The Steel Years

Technical Consultant, BHP Research 1997.
Company Director, Larrisun Pty. Ltd. 1997-2010

As the sole director of Larrisun Pty. Ltd, provided consulting services to BHP over two months, developing a strip flatness prediction model (used in the rolling of sheet steel), implementing a prototype and training production and research personnel with regards to rolling automation software and theories. Purchased a shelf company (Larrisun) for the delivery (ultimately folded in 2010 for lack of utility and maintenance overheads).

Departure: fixed term contract for a fixed delivery.

Research Engineer, BHP Sheet and Coil Products Division 1986-1993.

Research and development work in cold rolling technology, specifically applied to the five stand tandem cold mills at the Port Kembla and Western Port steelworks. Extensively involved in the commissioning of the Coupled Pickle Line-Cold Mill (CPCM) at the Port Kembla works, a unique project in its time.

Responsibilities included:

• mathematical modelling of cold rolling processes
• development of predictive software
  (for off-line analysis of mill behaviour and product quality)
• implementation and maintenance of automation software (for on-line prediction of mill set-up parameters and dynamic adaption of the supporting models)
  
• construction of a mill database and associated software (for the collection, retrieval and analysis of data)
  
• liaison with production personnel on behalf of the Research and Technology Centre
• management of the Internet and Usenet interfaces.

During the course of my work at BHP I developed one of the earliest event-driven languages in my experience, to facilitate the development of user interfaces on VAX machines. Similar and much more expansive systems have since appeared on the market, of which Microsoft's Visual Studio languages are a strong example.

I was appointed liaison officer between the Production crews and the Research and Technology Centre. The two cultures did not communicate well, factory floor culture vs. the math whiz culture, and I bridged them well.

Departure: resignation on account of a deep desire to travel and see the world.

Mechanical Engineering Trainee, BHP Coated Products Division 1983-1986.

Three months work experience (a summer at a time while studying at university) in each of the:
• engineering drawing office - technical drawing work;
• spares and maintenance office - contributed to the compilation of a spares registry;
• research and technology centre - mathematical modelling work.

The Beginnings...

Newspaper delivery boy, Northwest Star 1979-1980.

• A 10km after school ride on a daily afternoon newspaper deliver run to earn some money during high school.
• Inherited a much more lucrative spot selling newspaper at the mine exit, but didn't last long, resigning as it was so boring (just sitting there watching miners drop 20c into the tin)

Publications

A modest body of developer oriented essays at dev.to.

Moderately active on the Stack Overflow group of sites. As at 2024 I'm the 6th most active Tasmanian user in fact, which a Stack Exchange query can reveal.

A modest collection of Python packages published to PyPi.

Moderately active on GitHub.

Extensive publication of end user documentation including Echoview help, Eonfusion Help and AQ1 documentation.

An entire series of 82 research essays published at Suite 101 in the 1990s.

Many internal and confidential research reports have been published as well as design documentation, user guides, course material and travel articles (on-line and in zines) as well Wikipedia contributions ( many more anonymously than credited).

The following co-authored papers:

W.Y.D. Yuen, A. Duval and B. Wechner, A New Formulation for the Analysis of Strip Flatness in Strip Rolling, 7th International Conference on Steel Rolling, 1998.

W.Y.D. Yuen and B. Wechner, A Physical Model for On-Line Roll Bending Set Up in Cold Rolling, 5th International Steel Rolling Conference, 1990.

Education

Selected training courses

Personal Details

Other Interests

I am a keen creator on-line, working extensively with Python, JavaScript, PostgreSQL, Celery, run a home LAN with a good many servers (router, firewall, web, NAS, HTPC, Nextcloud and more, and a handful of registered domain names pointing to my basement IT sector).

I am also an environmentalist, a cyclist, a swimmer, an in-line skater, a gamer, and enjoy small team sports though lost all time to indulge in them since children arrived.

I've held a long lasting passion for travel, social and cultural exchanges, international contacts, language, and philosophy all on the back burner while raising children.

I founded the Hobart Games Society (HoGS) in 2004, which we incorporated in 2009 and I presided over for 2 years before focusing on special interest subgroup of Competitive Gamers (CoGs). I have been treasurer for the Hobart Bike Kitchen since 2017. Treasurer for HoGS between 2021 and 2023, and presently Public Officer.

Have participated in two Tasmanian Men's Gatherings (2006 and 2008) and participated in and hosted a men's group from 2009 to 2013 (that is a weekly gathering of men in a safe confidential context encouraging all to speak openly about their lives and learn sharing and listening skills). I have been sitting at a Men's Table since November 2022.

Inspired by street libraries during the COVID lock-downs, providing an excellent reason to take my children for walk through our neighbourhood to explore books on the few permitted exercise outings at the time, we built one. It's easily the largest street library in a large radius and is heavily visited. It's on Google Maps as The Montagu Street Library, on streetlibrary.org.au and has its own rudimentary website.

I have yet to start a Youtube channel (one of my boys wants to be a Youtuber when grows up).

Referees

Provided on demand. Most former employers available for comment (the further back in time the harder that gets, but can be done as I've always held warm ongoing relations with my colleagues and employers and let's face it LinkedIn is pretty good even if I've never quite fully invested in it).