Meet the WhereScape team this August

Craig started his career in a support capacity in a major multi-national hardware manufacturer. Realising his dedication to customer success, he was quickly transferred to the software side to run their Presales division. His enthusiasm for customer success grew from strength to strength, with Craig continuing to champion the customer cause throughout WhereScape in the last 5 years.
Now as the Director of Customer Experience Worldwide, Craig has the opportunity to deepen our passion for customer success throughout the WhereScape community.
In this new position, Craig will initially focus on enhancing our education offerings and opening the doors on the WhereScape University enabling an improved customer experience to all.

What do you love about working at WhereScape?

I love working at WhereScape as we have an inbuilt drive to do the right thing and make our customers successful.  Employees are encouraged to challenge the norm and are trusted to make decisions with the best possible customer outcomes in mind.

How do you handle difficult situations with your projects?

Difficult situations are inevitable but the most common cause of heat in these situations is communication. Whether this is a lack of communication or simply the way in which communication fails is important to address so at WhereScape we train our employees to understand the importance of communication and look at each situation from the other person's viewpoint.

What are your thoughts on the future of BI?

I worry that many companies have lost the focus on getting value out of the data they have and are rushing into the Big Data arena as the latest 'must have'. Understand what you are lacking, get the best from what you have, then add Big Data into the fold when it starts to add value to you.

What do you like to do outside of data?

I am a very keen runner but hate running on my own; in fact if there's not a coffee shop at the end, I ain't doing it!!

If you were a superhero what power would you have and why?

I would like to have the power to help people keep things simple. People get stressed with big topics and complicated situations but, just like we do at WhereScape, breaking things down into manageable chunks allows much bigger challenges to be accomplished quickly and easily with lots of quick wins and continued focus.

Four Quick Facts about Craig:

1. I conquered my dread of water at the ripe old age of 42 and learnt to swim.  I now regularly swim in the sea and have swam from Rangitoto to St Heliers twice; a distance of 4.6k across a shipping channel.
2. I am not a technical person but a business facilitator with a technical knowledge.  In fact techie stuff generally turns me off; I need to see the business benefit as well as the product feature.
3. I lived and worked in France for a year where I co-created the Press Pack for the Albertville Winter Olympics of 1992.
4. I am very loyal to my wide circle of friends scattered round the world and rely heavily on Facebook to help me keep in touch.

Tim started his career as a software developer (COBOL of all things!) and then quickly moved into database administration. Since that time his career has been focused on databases (administration, design, development and consulting) across multiple database platforms.
Tim has been impressed with the capabilities of the WhereScape products since he first had the opportunity to use them almost 10 years ago. Initially working in our consulting team Tim took the opportunity to move into support to get exposure to a wider and more varied range of technologies. He is now Director of Customer Service Worldwide.

What do you love about working at WhereScape?

The people. I work with a great bunch of talented people. There’s always someone to learn from, and always someone to help with the more complicated issues.
Our customers are great as well. They are doing some amazing things – which mean some difficult questions. But I enjoy the challenge.

What do you like to do outside of data?
Family are very important to me. Spending time with my wife and 6 kids seems to swallow most of my spare time. Other than that, I enjoy going to the movies, and I love a good cup of coffee (trim latte – extra hot in a takeaway cup!)

If you were a superhero what power would you have and why?

Super speed! Then I wouldn’t have to spend the time travelling to work and back. It would also mean quicker trips to the coffee shop.

Four quick facts about Tim:

1. In summer time I love to head out to the Coromandel, get out on a boogie board, and catch some waves.
2. I’ve been married for 25 years (to the same lady) and we have six amazing young people.
3. I enjoy swimming – and hope to conquer the challenge of an ocean swims in the near future.
4. I have recently joined the board of a community organisation helping parents who have children with special needs.

Before joining the management team, Stewart was a Microsoft Certified senior BI Consultant with experience in all aspects of Business Intelligence (BI). His experience spans many database developments using both dimensional and relational modelling. He has seen many projects through the whole life cycle from architect, analysis & design to successful completion right through to BAU handover.
Stewart started his relationship with data many years ago from the perspective of a data consumer and switched over to the dark side when starting his new career in IT Consulting.
Based in the UK at the time Stewart worked on and was directly responsible for delivering some high profile Data Warehouse projects including BBC, Ireland's National Asset Management Agency and EasyJet to name a few.
When he shifted back to New Zealand, he discovered WhereScape and realised that they were working the same way he had throughout his career by hand crafting solutions leveraging many different ETL tools. Stewart was instantly sold on the WhereScape way and felt he had landed on his feet when starting his career with WhereScape.
Starting as a Consultant within the Auckland Consultancy team Stewart was able to grow with the company progressing through the ranks to Senior, then Principal and now Consultancy Manager.
The progression has been natural and seamless by being able to build on the foundations and hard work laid down by his predecessors which are an integral part of WhereScape Consultancy. No man is an island and Stewart attributes his growth and success to the growth and success of WhereScape which has been through many successful deliveries and the high calibre of people he works with.

What do you love about working at WhereScape?
The people. WhereScape is made up from a tight knit group of highly talented people who just want to get on with it. The company has a fun and friendly atmosphere that makes it a pleasure to turn up to work regardless of what’s going on. This attitude is translated to whichever client site we work at. It’s who we are.
How do you handle difficult situations with your projects?

Always do the right thing. If this is your focus there is usually a very clear and logical path to follow. It then becomes a lot easier to articulate and move forward. It removes emotional responses and defuses many situations.
What are your thoughts on the future of BI/Big Data?
Big Data tends to mean many things to many people and this is the largest challenge. For me Big Data is going to form a very big part of the future of BI. I like to think of Big Data as just data. Once you do this you address every situation on its own merit. The primary directive “what do we want to do with this data” will drive how you approach it.
What do you like to do outside of data?
There’s nothing outside of data…All WhereScapers live and breathe data.

Although when I retire I will be off skiing (both types), surfing, mountain biking, kayaking, scuba diving and anything else that involves New Zealand’s great outdoors; with the family.

I also like to play around in my workshop building things. Latest project was a suit of armour made of plywood for my 10 year old son (who has a fantastic imagination).

If you were a superhero what power would you have and why?
Time travel. I would use it to go back and re-experience times in my life that had an impact on me. I wouldn’t go back to change them, just re-experience them. The past drives who you are and what you do in the future. I’ve been fortunate enough to have mostly good experiences…mostly.

Four Quick Facts About Stewart:

1. I’m a Kiwi not British like everyone thinks (not that being British is a bad thing).
2. I still think I’m in my 20s (my body thinks it’s 80).
3. Everyone loves my jokes and encourages me to tell more and more often.
4. I tell way too many stories from my past (please refer to super power).

Send an email to Stewart