What has become of me? .. and who am I anyway??...

OK, I acknowledge that I'm probably not one of the names that springs to anyone's mind when they think of well known MySQL community folks. So for the vast majority of you out there that have no idea who I am, I'll try to bring you up to speed.

I have been working with MySQL (the product) since the end of 2000. Originally I did LAMP development for various businesses in Australia up until September 2004, when I had the opportunity of a lifetime - the chance to join a little database company that could called MySQL AB as a MySQL Support Engineer -- the first one south of the equator, I might add!

I was nicknamed "the guy doing support upside down".

As the support organisation grew along with the company I was later made manager of the Asia-Pacific MySQL Support Team at the beginning of 2007. I continued in that role right up until the end of 2009.

I'll spare you from too much gushing, but I will tell you that my time with the MySQL folks was the most rewarding in every way I have had in my professional career.

So anyway, the point here is that unless you worked in MySQL/Sun or were a MySQL Support customer over the last 5 or so years, you probably have not heard of me. Now that I have left MySQL/Sun, I aim to change that.

So where am I now? and why did I leave?

Well to keep the story short, I had traveled to San Francisco from my home in Melbourne, Australia a few times and really grew to love the place. During a longer visit earlier this year, I decided it was time for a change and began looking for a job in SF.

I found a smallish company (<100 ppl) in downtown San Francisco doing some pretty interesting stuff in the Search Engine Marketing (SEM) space called Marin Software Inc. You can follow the link to read some more about them if you're interested.

Marin were looking to bump out their Operations team with someone with strong MySQL skills and after a series of interviews it seems that I fit the bill.

I'm now living in San Francisco and just on day 2 here at Marin, but as time progresses I plan to post various MySQL-related stuff and contribute back to the MySQL Community where I can.

Stay tuned!...