About Us
Andy McKay
Andy's main passion is programming with a higher purpose. He likes to become an expert in the field while actively contributing to and building the community. He has worked very actively in the Open Source community, focusing on web application development using languages such as Django, Python, Plone, Zope and more. He was a key contributor to the Plone development community including contributing to the source code, VP on the Plone Foundation board, authoring the first book on Plone, "The Definitive Guide to Plone", creating local user groups, giving training, speaking at conferences and mentoring.
His company, Enfold Systems, co-founded with Alan Runyan, quickly became the premier Plone web application development company. Andy worked through Enfold to design and implement content management systems for Disney, eBay and others. By managing global teams he was able to provide solutions quickly, efficiently and cost effectively.
His current company, Clearwind Consulting, has Andy deeply involved in the Django development community. Alongside several projects, he was recently involved in UNICEF Innovation Group and the Earth Institute's RapidResponse development and implementation in Kenya. He flew to Kenya to help the project set up infrastructure that allowed community health professionals to communicate quickly via the RapidResponse SMS system, allowing low or no cost SMS with group and health issue logging features. He is giving two talks at DjangoCon 2009.
Andy continues to train, speak, mentor and consult on web application development. When not kayaking someplace, he lives in Vancouver, Canada with his wife and two young daughters.
Seth Immell
Seth has been hooked on computers since his father brought home a mainframe terminal in the early 70's. Programming on TRS-80's led to a career in technology through college and beyond. He supported and presented Apple training/marketing sessions throughout the US. He went on to continue with technical support in advertising and publishing. A move to London brought him into the investment banking world. He managed the technical support team for 200+ foreign exchange traders at UBS before being moved to Tokyo to run a technical support team during an integration of two banks and a move to a new building. He then led the team that implemented and managed IT Change Management throughout the Asia Pacific operations of UBSW.
A sabbatical allowed backpacking around the world for two years. Settling in Vancouver, Canada, Seth worked for Electronic Arts leading quality assurance teams and co-producing a PSP game.
A stay at home father after the birth of his second son, he still kept active in travel and became a mystery shopper of high end hotels and cruises. Seth evaluated four star hotels and cruises in Europe, Asia and North America for clients.
Now at Clearwind Consulting, Seth contributes his project management, quality assurance and marketing skills to Andy's programming expertise.