Simon is the odd man out on the TrackMe NZ team. He’s not outdoorsy. He’d much rather be safely indoors caressing a keyboard than out and about in the Kiwi wilderness. Simon is your typical geeky nerd, and as such, he’s just the sort of bloke that’s needed to run the complex software behind the TrackMe systems – the important software that’s keeping all of the outdoorsy adventure types safe and connected out in the wilds.
Simon is a self-taught software developer who suffers a little from imposter syndrome. But he’s a very clever guy, so he shouldn’t. He studied Law and Commerce at varsity and while working in systems integration for Bankers Trust in the UK in the 1990s, he developed software that, in his own words, “Sped things up.” This well received work saw him head hunted by The Dodge Corporation, a US based multi-national software vendor in the UK.
Eventually Simon felt ready to branch out on his own, creating software for a number of small companies, always working on making their core business easier for the company to manage. He has been working with TrackMe for about ten years, but strangely, he’s actually known TrackMe’s Chief-Thinking-Guy Tony’s wife Jane for slightly longer than he’s known Tony, because Jane and Simon used to work together at Deloittes here in NZ.
“I worked on some spreadsheet development for another of Tony’s companies, and then on something else that the earthquakes put an end to. I’ve been involved in TrackMe from the outset creating the software that drives the business. I really enjoy doing this. Coding is my happy place. I’ve been lucky to work with some fantastic Microsoft tools which have made my job easier and let me meld together all the strands of what we have. I live, breathe and sleep this stuff. I never turn it off.”
Simon admits that in the past he has done some mountain biking but really, he’s not an outdoorsy person. He lives with his wife Michele and three kids, some of whom do do outdoors stuff like biking and hiking. Simon is happy to be the odd man out.
Leave a Comment