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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.
Period | Role |
2019 — 2024 | Quality Assurance Engineer, Echoview Software Pty. Ltd. |
2015 — 2019 | Global Partner Manager, Echoview Software Pty. Ltd. |
2011 — 2015 | Global Sales and Marketing Manager, Echoview Software Pty. Ltd. |
2010 — 2011 | Sales Support (Infrastructure and Asia/Pacific), Echoview Software Pty. Ltd. |
2006 — 2010 | Project Manager, Myriax Software Pty. Ltd. |
2003 — 2010 | Manager of Quality Assurance and Documentation, SonarData Pty. Ltd. |
2002 — 2003 | Manager of User Support and Training, SonarData Pty. Ltd. |
2002 | Test Engineer, Dytech Solutions Pty. Ltd. |
2000 — 2002 | Software Engineer, Larrisun Pty. Ltd. |
1998 — 2000 | Customer Support Engineer, Landis and Gyr Communications |
2000 — 2001 | Traveller Australia |
1997 — 2010 | Company Director, Larrisun Pty. Ltd. |
1997 | Technical Consultant, BHP Research |
1995 — 1996 | Telecommunications Engineer, Swiss Telecom PTT |
1995 — 2003 | Contributing Editor, Suite101.com |
1993 — 1995 | Traveller Asia and Europe |
1992 — 1993 | Research Engineer/Liaison Officer, BHP Sheet and Coil Products Division |
1991 — 1992 | Traveller Europe |
1986 — 1991 | Research Engineer, BHP Sheet and Coil Products Division |
1983 — 1986 | Mechanical Engineering Trainee, BHP Coated Products Division |
1979 — 1980 | Newspaper delivery, Northwest Star |
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:
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:
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.
Customer Support Engineer, Landis and Gyr Communications 1998-2000
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.
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:
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.
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:
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.
Newspaper delivery boy, Northwest Star 1979-1980.
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.
Master of Engineering (Information Technologies and Telecommunications), Flinders University of South Australia 1995-96 |
Bachelor of Engineering (Mechanical), Honours class II, University of Wollongong 1983-86 |
Higher School Certificate, Physics prize, Engadine High School 1981-82 |
Junior School Certificate, German prize, Mount Isa State High School 1978-80 |
Robotic Vision MOOC, Queensland
University of Technology, 2015 |
No nonsense web
intelligence, Online
Impressions, 2010 |
People in Projects,
The Training
Consortium, 2008 |
High Performance Communication, High Performance, 2005 |
High Performance Sales,
High
Performance, 2005 |
Practical Project Estimation, SEA Education services, 2004 |
Project Management Advanced, SEA Education services, 2003 |
The Landmark Forum, Landmark Education, 2003 (corporate sponsored management program) |
CMMI-SE/SW for Senior Managers, European Software Institute, 2003 (part of the SoftwareMark program) |
Steel Group Management Course, BHP Steel (now Bluescope steel), 1992 (in-house program) |
Priority Manager training, Priority Management, 1992 (personal time management skills) |
Bronze Medallion, Surf Life Saving Australia 1992 (rescue and first-aid skills) |
Classic Challenge Course, Outward Bound Australia 1991 (a world famous personal development course) |
Date of Birth: | November 12, 1965 |
Place of Birth: | Kempten, Bavaria, Germany. |
Nationality: | Australian, Swiss |
Marital Status: | Married (de facto) with three children (2003, 2013, 2017) |
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.
I have yet to start a Youtube channel (one of my boys wants to be a Youtuber when grows up).
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).