Andrew Westgarth

Current

Developer at Hydratight

Past

Chairman at VBUG
Web Developer at Canford Group PLC
Analyst Programmer at International Paint Ltd

Web Developer at South Tyneside Council
Systems Developer at Cheviot Foods
Customer Trading Support at Sainsburys
Junior Web Developer at Freecom.net

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Education

University of Sunderland

Recommended

2 people have recommended Andrew

Connections

126 connections

Industry

Internet

Websites

Andrew Westgarth’s Summary

I spend all day working with ASP.NET code. I am proficient in both C# and VB.Net having worked with both languages in a number of roles.

I have recently been given a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional Award for Internet Information Services. This reflects the contribution I have made to the IIS Community in the UK over the past year. I have presented at numerous User Groups and Conferences in the UK and Ireland over the past 12-18 months on the subject of IIS7 for ASP.Net Developers

I am now Chairman of and the North East Regional Coordinator for the Visual Basic User Group (www.vbug.net). I cover the North East of England and organise developer support meetings, throughout the year, bi-monthly although now increasingly in frequency. These usually take the form of having a guest speaker attend the meeting to present a topic and receive questions. Plus there's refreshments and a chance to talk to other developers from around the region. Swag permitting, there are also prize giveaways.

I graduated from the University of Sunderland in 2002 with a 2:1 BA (Hons) in Business Computing. I continue to keep abreast of new developments in Microsoft Technology, I am currently working towards the Microsoft Professional Web Developer Qualification.

Andrew Westgarth’s Specialties:

Programming:
• Visual Basic.Net vs. 5-8
• Visual Basic
• C#
• ASP.Net and ASP.Net AJAX
• Internet Information Services
• ASP
• HTML/XHTML/CSS
• JavaScript
• SQL Server 7 - 2005
• Oracle PL/SQL
• ColdFusion (Up to and including v4.52)
• XML/XPath/XSL/T
• Payment Solution Integration including WorldPay and NetBanx
• W3C Standards

Andrew Westgarth’s Experience

Developer

Hydratight

(Internet industry)

December 2008 — Present (1 year )
Chairman

VBUG

(Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Information Technology and Services industry)

2007 — 2009 (2 years )
Web Developer

Canford Group PLC

(Public Company; 201-500 employees; Paper & Forest Products industry)

January 2008 — December 2008 (1 year )

Overseeing and developing Canford's online presences. Working with VS2008 - VB.Net; ASP.Net and SQL Server 2005. Administering IIS6 shortly due to upgrade to IIS7
Analyst Programmer

International Paint Ltd

(Public Company; 5001-10,000 employees; Internet industry)

January 2006 — January 2008 (2 years 1 month)

Development and maintenance of existing all International Paint’s Intranet and Public Websites. Instrumental in movement to .Net 2.0, implementation of AJAX and part of working group to migrate existing ASP Internet Sites over to Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Platform. Delivered Furnace Test Results application for the storage and reporting of Furnace Testing on Products. Took over and put live International Yacht Paint Trade Support Site – http://trade.yachtpaint.com/gbr utilising Microsoft Content Management Server 2002 with CMS Rapid also in use. Currently involved in Proof of Concept work to look at methods to consolidate data over WAN and LAN links and how best to make use of this data in the MOSS 2007 environment.
Web Developer

South Tyneside Council

(Government Agency; 5001-10,000 employees; Government Administration industry)

January 2005 — January 2006 (1 year 1 month)

Development and maintenance of existing Intranet and Public Website, www.southtyneside.info. Migration of platform from ASP to ASP.Net running on version 1.1 of the .Net Framework. Working with multiple Directorates and Services to provide systems and services to assist in providing excellence for the public of South Tyneside. Administration of Web Hosting platform, initially single server IIS5 platform, now running on a dual server IIS6 Web Farm. Currently utilising SQL Server 2000, Indexing Server.
Systems Developer

Cheviot Foods

(Public Company; 201-500 employees; Food Production industry)

August 2003 — December 2004 (1 year 5 months)

Development of company website, administration and development of company Intranet. Using Various tools to represent data pulled from Ross system. Currently involved in migrating from basic ASP scripts over to .Net framework in VB.Net. Administration of email system, domain and Novell Netware environment. User support and diagnosis and solution of problems. Monitoring of Backup routines and storage of backup tapes.
Customer Trading Support

Sainsburys

(Public Company; 5001-10,000 employees; Supermarkets industry)

September 1996 — August 2003 (7 years )

This is a senior position and forms part of the store’s Management Team. Primary Role is to deliver excellent availability and customer service by controlling and developing a group of individuals. Have responsibility of running department of 30-50 colleagues in the absence of line manager. Store Key holder. Given responsibility for the security of the store after the close of trading and the safety of the staff. Flexible and able to assist in a wide range of departments when called upon and work as part of a team.
Delegated responsibility for cash handling, branch keys, security of the branch, Health & Hygiene, delivery and stock acceptance. Worked under pressure and gained time management skills in controlling studies whilst also employed with the company.
Committee member of Staff Association as department Representative, having organised and contributed towards successful social activities. Produce a monthly newsletter for my department. Health & Safety Representative.
Junior Web Developer

Freecom.net

(Privately Held; 201-500 employees; Internet industry)

July 2000 — September 2001 (1 year 3 months)

To assist in the development of sites and indeed whilst working within Product Development the development of commercial packages from inception to total realisation and presentation to market. Involved with Operations, administering servers. For eight months worked as part of the Research & Development team, developing the company’s core systems.
Skills: ASP, SQL Server, Intershop, ColdFusion, HTML, JavaScript, Visual Basic. Evolved strengths in applying theory to business solutions. Managed training sessions with staff and increased communication skills when liaising with departments, customers and colleagues. Enjoyed the challenge of dealing with small to medium enterprises at various stages of their IT Development.

Andrew Westgarth’s Education

University of Sunderland

1998 — 2002

Additional Information

Andrew Westgarth’s Websites:

Andrew Westgarth’s Interests:

• Enjoy a full complement of sporting activities, such as Football, Cricket, Snooker, Pool, Table-Tennis and Badminton. • Huge Sunderland AFC supporter, attending matches and collecting memorabilia. • Take pleasure in films, reading a variety of texts, listening to various types of music. • Interest in the wartime efforts of RAF Bomber Command during the Second World War and in particular the exploits of 617 Squadron. • Monitor major developments in the field of Information Technology main attraction being the pace in which advances are made. • Keen interest in Accessibility, W3C Standards and methods in which to improve a user’s experience on the web and increasing levels of usability and learnability of interfaces and applications.