Wim: Co-Founder
Now: Living the dream, trying to become a developer
Before: Wim spent a couple of years as an investment banker at Morgan Stanley, co-founded an internet start-up in DVD Rental, and spent a year in Shanghai with a Chinese rapid prototyping startup. Before all this, Wim got a MSc. in Aerospace Engineering (all pretty useful these days..) and took a gap year to travel the world.
Enjoys: Start-up life, jumping out of airplanes, adrenalin, daring his friends
Bertrand: Co-Founder
Now: Getting a new business off the ground, there's nothing more exciting...
Before: Bertrand started more conventionally as a strategy guy at The Boston Consultant Group, and a Harvard MBA. But the blood from his entrepreneurial dad started boiling, and Bertrand helped co-found a biotech company (Agrivida) with MIT PhD's. He then joined Amazon.com in Seattle before coming back to London to launch and run the DVD rental group across EU.
Enjoys: All sports that involve a ball, marathons
Peter: VP of Development
Now: No Peter, no bragster.com - it's that simple. It would still be a powerpoint slideshow. Peter, or PVDB, is a worldwide Ruby on Rails guru. Oh, and a proud Belgian too, with all the good things that come with it.
Before: Peter experienced the big American corporations (AT&T Wireless, Walt Disney, Fannie Mae). After declining to join a tiny start-up called Amazon.com in 1995, he found his entrepreneurial side, as a consultant and with start-ups like Flutter.com (acquired by Betfair).
Enjoys: Shiner and Stella
Adam: Senior Web Developer
GBNow: Responsible for XHTML/CSS wrangling, general design/creative stuff and otherwise attempting to make the user interface as good as it can be.
Before: Adam was the lead developer at Net Effects, where he did pretty much everything tech-related. He made the move all the way from Newcastle to join the bragster team (it was getting clear that he wouldn't stay for the football team).
Enjoys: Newcastle United Football Club, photography, design, and Maseratis.
Chris: Senior Developer
Now: Chris wrangles ruby in the back end. Not like that. Get your mind out of the gutter.
Before: Chris worked on the delights of billing systems for the Man.
Enjoys: footy, not being at work late, in theory being married - not that he's seen her since he got back!!
Andy: Web & Flash Developer
Now: Andy creates our flash applications as well as doing lots of web development. His epic front-end skills also include XHTML, JavaScript and CSS.
Before: Andy has a degree in English, which led seamlessly into a career in web design.
Enjoys: West Ham United, quitting smoking and then starting again
Darshan: Grandmaster of Content & Commissioning
Now: Anything to do with content, programming, editorial, searching for talented bragsters, drinking tea with Adam, and generally causing havoc...Nice!
Before: Darshan worked in finance before and when he's not in the bragster garage...he's still on the stage hitting the stand-up comedy scene.
Enjoys: Arsenal FC, any sort of comedy, pranks, chocolate bourbon biscuits and performing!
Brittney: Head of Keeping It Real
Now: If you contact us, you contact Brittney. She also ensures that everyone's independent clauses are joined by coordinating conjunctions.
Before: Brittney cannot confirm nor deny anything.
Enjoys: Ebony Bones, Iced Coffee, Christopher Hitchens and Grizzly Man.
Luke: Lead Designer
Now: Luke was brought on board to design the new bragster. He also makes sure the bragster merch’ is up to scratch and occasionally edits as well.
Before: His best brags are graduating from Ravensbourne College of Design and Communication with a first class honors degree and having lived in Brooklyn, New York for 7 months.
Enjoys: Effective information hierarchy, alignment, chunking, consistency and function-specific constraint. A big fan of the principle of affordance. He also "likes to party".