Co-founder and Executive Director
'As technical lead in a fast-paced industry, Patrick recognises the importance of striving for greater competitive advantage and efficiency by continual learning and evaluation of current processes to maximise customer value, and business profitability'
Patrick has over 7 years experience in Internet development and software development. Since his first web-development project at the end of 1997, Patrick has been continually involved in the industry, starting his own business in 1998, to forming a partnership with two others mid-year 1999. This partnership was maintained until mid-2004, after which it was dissolved, and Patrick and Glen Johnson formed Future Medium (FM), which has been trading solidly since.
Present
Patrick has always been the technical lead for the business, with skills ranging from server administration to software architecture. His focus is on developing products and libraries for underpinning business growth and efficiency, and as Future Medium, it has now been possible to pursue this to a much greater degree.
His time is divided between research and overseeing development for our flagship product 'autopublish', while also pursuing opportunities to work on new technologies that can open new growth areas, or provide significant differentiating factors to existing projects. Finally, he still maintains close relationships with FM's most technically demanding clients, and directs much of their projects.
Awards, recognitions, and achievements
- Developer of Macromedia International Site of the month - for Positive Information Technology - in 1999
- Architect of the Autopublish product which featured in the technology section of The Age newspaper under 'websites as easy to update as chewing gum' on Dec 3rd 2002
- Under intense time-pressure, rescued the development of a large project and developed a system which, 4 years later, is only just being equalled
Education
Patrick has always had an interest in computers, and has pursued various projects before starting a formal business career.
Educated at the FriendsSchool from Grade 7 to 12, Patrick spent some time afterwards working for a microfilm bureau. During that time he began a degree majoring in Computer Science.
As the degree progressed he began working in the software industry, in particular the area of Internet development. Working as an independent contractor at the time convinced him that self-employment was a real option going forward. As a result he broadened the scope of his degree to include some management and accounting subjects.
As business began to grow, he dropped university a little over half-way through to run the business full-time.
Since then he has undertaken a course of continuous learning, not only in the area of software development, but in business and personal development.
Highlights include:
- 'Managing Projects for Outcomes' course (officially endorsed by the Australian Institute of Project Management)
- 'OOAD with UML, Java & J2EE Design Patterns'
- 10 week K2B course run by Intellinc and Department of Economic Development, covering all aspects of business, targeted at the IT industry
- Brian Tracy's 'Focal Point Advanced Business Coaching Program' - 12 month program held quarterly in Sydney, with monthly sessions in Melbourne
Notable Projects
- Developer of distributed, transactional system for online access to superannuation data for listed super fund administrator Select Managed Funds Ltd. This has been an ongoing project, with the next stage involving the development of web-based systems to replace internal legacy systems
- Architect of Autopublish content management system, currently in use by about 60 clients in Tasmania and Interstate. Second version in development, which will be rewritten from the ground up to provide enterprise-strength capabilities and scalability
- Development of a next-generation rich internet application interface for the mortgage industry, in collaboration with a company based in Singapore
