About Me
Growing up in the South African bushveld, I got pretty good at figuring things out with limited resources. That environment shaped my resilience, sharpened my problem-solving skills, and gave me a can-do attitude that’s stayed with me through every chapter of my career.Believe it or not, I started out as a rock ‘n’ roll saxophonist. But through a musical connection, I got an unexpected opportunity; a local optometrist invited me to help launch South Africa’s first bespoke eyewear brand. I leapt at the chance, mastering CAD, CNC machining, and 3D printing to build a fully automated eyewear factory from the ground up.My pivot to cybersecurity came after a major wake-up call—a sophisticated man-in-the-middle attack on our eyewear brand. That experience pulled me into the world of defensive security and led to a role as a Technical Support Analyst at DigiCert, where I quickly climbed the ranks to lead the Public Key Infrastructure division. I got hands-on with encryption, authentication, and protecting data integrity.But I wasn’t done yet. I wanted to understand the mindset of a hacker and explore the offensive side of security. That’s when I joined Kontra Application Security and later ThriveDX as a Senior Solutions Engineer, where I dove into simulated cyber attacks and provided application security training to organizations worldwide. My passion for strategy and team building helped me grow and manage all technical operations in South Africa, completely remotely.Today, I’m proud to lead the technical teams at ThriveDX. We’ve cut costs, enhanced customer satisfaction, and I’ve had the privilege of mentoring some truly talented professionals.From the bushveld to the boardroom, my journey’s been about embracing challenges, staying curious, and saying “yes” to opportunities I never expected.
Work Experience
Head of Technical Support
Nov 2022 - Present
Built Technical Support operations in South Africa, 38% reduction in staff overheads, 24% increase in customer satisfaction within 3 months.
Consolidated 4 independent Support pipelines and reduced 1400 unresolved cases to 120 in 3 months.
Primary technical advisor, driving product enhancement through proof of concept deployments, and actively collaborating with the CEO on significant commercial ventures.
Provide mentorship and continuous training programs for internal teams.
Senior Solutions Engineer
Mar 2022 - Jan 2023
Demonstrate and deploy social engineering programs (Pre/Post Sales).
Manage security awareness programs for banks, airlines, government entities and financial institutions.
Threat researcher and developer of simulated attack strategies, tailoring security awareness programs related to current exploits.
Work closely with the Content teams to create security awareness training content.
Enabled Solution and Commercial teams to better demonstrate our products by creating internal guides, technical handbooks and video repositories.
Technical Support Manager
Jan 2023 - Jan 2024
Built Technical Support operations in South Africa and India.
Deployed new Service Desk operations, implemented automations and created Service Level Agreements.
Technical advisor to the Product Manager and CTO.
Evaluate and respond to RFI/RFP requests
Senior Solutions Engineer
Mar 2022 - Jan 2023
Demonstrate and deploy application security training (Pre/Post Sales).
Manage application security awareness programs for banks, airlines, government entities and financial institutions.
Administrate the creation and rollout of SCORM content.
Established a continuous feedback loop between customers and content teams for OWASP categories.
Technical Support Engineer - Public Key Infrastructure | Team Lead
Oct 2021 - Mar 2022
Primary escalation point, driving Proof of Concept demonstrations and writing internal technical documentation.
Assisted clients including governments, banks, and enterprise-level entities with integrating architectures to encrypt, authenticate, and protect data integrity.
Proud recipient of the highest customer satisfaction award in 2021.
Technical Support Engineer - Team Lead
Feb 2021 - Sep 2021
Managed Level 2 escalations, technical writing, certificate revocations and new-hire training.
Recipient of two awards in six months due to performance excellence.
Technical Support Analyst
Mar 2020 - Jan 2021
Supported clients with the implementation of SSL, Code Signing, and User Authentication certificates.
Highest rated Analyst in 2020 for customer satisfaction.
Founder
Jan 2017 - Mar 2020
Created and implemented a strategy for manufacturing Eyewear and Jewelry with additive manufacturing.
Built all manufacturing machines to reduce importation costs by 62%.
Created the first Eyewear/Jewelry brand to produce products from ethically sourced animal bone and horn.
Developed in-house Electro-plating facility to plate Gold, Rose Gold, Silver, Ruthenium.
Developed in-house precious metal casting facility.
Operations Manager
Nov 2017 - Jul 2018
Operational Manager to oversee all day-to-day manufacturing of bespoke eyewear.
Designed machines and fixtures to limit human involvement by means of automation.
Reduced operational overheads (32.4%) by designing and implementing custom manufacturing machines and fixtures.
Represented the South African Eyewear manufacturers in Milan (MIDO) and spearheaded research projects in France (Jura).
CAD Designer and CNC Programmer
Jan 2017 - Jul 2018
Implemented a Vertical production system.
Designed 10 Eyewear ranges to go to market.
Programmed all workflows in G-Code for CNC operations.
Introduced machine automation by means of 5-Axis milling and automatic tool changing.