The Tribe

I started out in high-end retail before finding out that listening to the same Christmas CD on repeat every day for 2 months isn’t very fun. I then discovered programming and taught myself alongside a job in the banking industry before joining Neontribe. I work on the tech-for-good side of Neontribe and mostly enjoy frontend work.

I became interested in tech by working on the reform of the GDPR in 2013. Yet, only in 2018 did I decide to make a career of it. I took a break, quit my London job, moved to Norwich; to self-learn how to code. After meeting Neontribe at codebar, I landed a PM job (and hopefully soon, a software developer one!). From European charities to UK/USA start-ups, I have held a diverse range of positions (project management to sales) in several industries (Human Rights to cybersecurity). Third culture kid, I am a hitchhiker, a privacy advocate and ballet ecstatic, who has lived in five countries on two continents.

I was adopted by Neontribe in 2012, rescued from redundancy. I have been working in the industry for two and a half decades. Neontribe also sponsors my degree in Computer Science with the Open University. I love working on tech-for-good projects and building infrastructure from open source components. Working with the other members of the tribe opened my eyes to working in an environment that fosters growth and teamwork. When I'm not working I'm Interested in cooking, gaming and slouching. I am a host for the Lave Radio podcast, and occasionally can be found streaming on Twitch.

After a decade developing IT capabilities at a sector-leading claims management company Charlie briefly tried his hand directing an SME focused IT services company. He now enjoys writing web things for Good Causes to both pay off karmic debt and explore ways of thinking about software development, mostly in PHP and JS. He’s into collaborative storytelling (with dice and cake), poorly defending liberal politics, online security/digital privacy and nursing a mild addiction to certification to bluff his way as an InfoSec pundit. He swims regularly for the secret pleasure of meditating on a problem while the body is on autopilot.

After years of writing, playing and teaching electronic music I pivoted into a career in coding by way of an intense bootcamp experience. I’m interested in group culture, emotional intelligence and helping younger generations to realise the world of possibilities that coding offers. I’m currently occupied with trying to be a better developer than I was yesterday.

I completed my Masters degree in Computer Science from the University of East Anglia in 2014, and shortly after (and ever since!) have been at Neontribe, mainly as a front-end dev. I enjoy using React & GraphQL, which is what I currently mainly work with. I have plenty of other hobbies/interests: SCUBA diving, bouldering, most sports, playing piano, travelling, and floating.

I helped found Neontribe after a pre-to-post acquisition tour of duty on a fintech start-up. I’ve discovered you don’t need to be able to draw to design, and that life is journeys and pain points. I love to solve the latter and find listening always helps.

My background is in Design for Publishing but during my final year at university I discovered user-centered design. I found it interesting how putting the user at the forefront of all design choices changed the way I worked. I enjoy working on social good projects as I love to use design to make a positive impact. When I am not working I’m playing board games or video games, watching American Football (Go Hawks!) and looking at Hedgehog gifs.

I decided not to go to Uni after school; so I worked in Customer Service Management, self-taught SQL and ended up in Management Information Systems. Falling in love with all things Data I went to Uni as a Mature Student, graduating Computer Science in 2018 and am now working towards my PhD. I joined Neontribe as an Intern in 2016. I love tech-for-good projects or anything peopleware and process-related; as Neontribe’s resident Chameleon I take on any task from coding to testing to policy writing. Outside of work I like music that goes Oontz, cuddling my French Bulldogs and drinking Tea.

Washed up from the Royal Broke of Scotland after 15 years in test and delivery management roles. Thankful to be employed, not interested in looking down once outside the office however. Neontribe has really helped with my work-life balance when it comes to juggling childcare/school runs etc. Outside of the office, I’m interested in - Blue skies. Roast duck and rioja. Hoyo De Monterrey. Champagne tasting at sunrise. Ian Fraser Kilmister. Handmade Italian leather boots. The pride of East Anglia. Dad jokes. Hurting myself and getting a high at the local bouldering club.

I had a 15-year career in the arts and local government and a short time in the world of performance storytelling before I realised that user-led service and strategy design suits my eclectic skill set. I’m a believer in tech for good, I shout about the need to allow projects to fail and I get vitriolic about only measuring things that you’re actually going to learn from. I can frequently be found doing game design to entertain 2000 people in muddy fields, or ranting on the subject.

At Neontribe, I mostly build web apps that aim to improve the reach of small charities. I work iteratively with clients and users to get as close as possible to what people need. My choice of tools (apart from Vim and Linux) depends on the project, but I often write APIs in PHP and frontends in Javascript (when I have to) and Elm (when I can). I value stories, community, open-source, transparency, integrity, generally sharing stuff and giving everyone a voice. Daily mission: contribute towards removing clusters of despair from the world and adding back chunks of empowerment.

After studying computer games programming for several years and completing a computer science degree, I found web development to be where I was able to express and utilise my design and programming background most effectively. I have interests in human psychology, nutrition, bodybuilding, enjoy bouldering, board games and sometimes take battle royale games far too seriously 😐 oh yeah, and by the time you read this I will probably have a pet hedgehog.

As the youngest surviving member of the original founders of Neontribe, I still remember when Norwich didn’t have broadband (which was this century). Fortunately, times have moved on and I now help Neontribe and our customers manage Cybersecurity, ISO 27001 and GDPR plus all the other required bureaucracy. As some light relief, I take scouts away on summer camp and help ensure my hobby of live-action role-play runs smoothly by deploying camping and scouting skills in fields throughout the year.

After experimenting with online coding courses, I committed to becoming a developer by undertaking a Computing & Game Development degree as a mature student at Plymouth University. After graduating, I started my own one-person game development company and met Neontribe by chance while exhibiting a game at a local conference. I’ve been working for Neontribe ever since, mostly on the front end of social good projects. I enjoy playing and making video games, board games, most sports and opening new tabs.

I developed an interest in programming at an early age, making small games in QBasic. Everything changed in 2012 when I discovered Neontribe through their role as a host for a week-long national hackathon for young people. Neontribe helped me to discover the joys of collaborative software development and they haven't been able to get rid of me since! These days you can find me finishing my degree, posting nonsense on Twitter and working at Neontribe whenever I have time on the side.

After becoming an accidental chef, I had the opportunity to leave the catering industry. I have been writing code since I was 14, building game cheats in VB6 and plugins for Counter Strike Source. Since then I've been working with a variety of languages to build accessible applications. I enjoy the challenge of keeping up with new tech and immersing myself into the culture. I have enjoyed supporting less experienced colleagues and leading a range of projects to architect and build interfaces of all sorts, whether that be application to application interfaces or web and voice interfaces.

After spending over 4 years in the charity sector, in a range of organisations from student unions to mental health, I found myself drawn to digital. During my time in the sector, I was unknowingly dabbling in user research and UX design. Falling into all the pitfalls that you can make when doing digital in the charity sector for the first time. Learning from my mistakes led me to Neontribe and I now enjoy making as many as I can quickly and failing upwards with the aim of hopefully making the world a little better.

I ran away from the theatre to become a web developer at the turn of the century. Since then I’ve been making mistakes at Neontribe as fast as I can, learning from a reasonable percentage of them. Recently I’ve been using Javascript to help teenagers talk to doctors, Americans to buy airline tickets and everybody to find their way to the loo.

After working as a designer in London for 5 years, I decided to make a change and pursue my real passion, frontend development. I love data wrangling in JS, CSS, animating things, the outdoors, animals, well-designed forms, compassion, equality, veganism, feminism and quite a few other ‘isms.

After graduating in computer science in the early 90s I joined an eCommerce startup that was eventually acquired by Sun Microsystems. I was lucky enough to work in Sun's professional services for five years and delivered the iPlanet applications all over the world. After leaving Sun I qualified as a teacher (PGCE) and went on to be one of the founders of Neontribe. Outside of work I hold an ERCA level 2 and coach two age groups of children at Norwich rugby club where all four of my children play.