I have worked in consulting and information technology for more than 25 years. If that has taught me one thing, it is that everything changes, and you have to keep learning.
That fits me well. I like learning new things, especially when I can combine what I already know with something I have not tried before. Most of my work sits around software architecture, search, AI, data, and cloud-native development, but the thread running through all of it is curiosity.
I also believe that sharing what you know is one of the best ways to grow. Over the years I have written hundreds of blog posts, presented at conferences, contributed to open-source projects, and helped with books and learning material. I hope to keep doing that for many years.
What I Do #
I help teams turn complex technology into systems people can actually use and maintain. Search relevance, Elasticsearch, Solr, retrieval augmented generation, AI agents, and software architecture are recurring themes in my work.
You can find more of that work in my posts, talks, projects, and publications.
Growing People #
Technical learning is only part of the story. I have also invested in personal leadership, communication, and coaching. In recent years I trained as a coach and helped colleagues grow into leadership roles.
That work matters to me. Good technology depends on good teams, and good teams need people who are willing to listen, challenge, teach, and keep improving.
Things I Am Proud Of #
Around 2021 I wanted to become more active in an open online community. With my background in Elasticsearch and Solr, the Search Relevance community felt like the right place. I started contributing to the Learning to Rank plugin for Elasticsearch and took on the task of migrating it to a newer Elasticsearch version. I finished the migration and got to know the maintainers along the way.
I had thought about writing a book for a long time. I contributed chapters to books like Elasticsearch in Action, but had not created my own learning material yet. Manning later asked me to write an online training course. A few months after launch, almost 200 people had started the training, and the feedback was positive.
In 2023 I was selected to speak at Haystack Conference in the United States. I had spoken at conferences for years, but this was my first search conference outside Europe. I took the presentation further by introducing two characters, Frank and Amy. The feedback gave me a real boost in confidence.
Outside Work #
I am a family man. I have a wife and two sons who now claim to be adults. I like riding my motorbike and taking my camera outside to photograph the beautiful things nature brings.
A few guilty pleasures: I still buy printed books, I play video games on the PlayStation, and I buy a T-shirt at every Hard Rock Cafe I visit.