Craig Taverner

Current

CTO at AmanziTel AB
Owner at Amanzi

Past

Senior Software Architect at Actix
ComOpt Research Director at Actix
Research Director at ComOpt

Project Manager at Agilent
Software Development Manager at SAFCO
Software Development Director at ComOpt
Software and IT Consultant at ComOpt
Postgraduate at University of the Witwatersrand
Software Development Contractor at The Internet Solution
Student employee at AECI

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Education

University of the Witwatersrand
University of the Witwatersrand
University of the Witwatersrand

University of the Witwatersrand

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1 more...

Recommended

8 people have recommended Craig

Connections

133 connections

Industry

Wireless

Websites

Craig Taverner’s Summary

Before starting AmanziTel AB, the bulk of my recent experience comes from my 10.5 years with ComOpt (including the days when it was owned by SAFCO, Agilent, and most recently Actix). This experience covers three particular areas:

Management:- as a member of the core team and executive, I was active in both team management (managing active software development teams), as well as company strategy (supporting corporate decision making).

Software Development:- in this role I was both active in the actual process of developing software (design and implementation) as well as research into new product areas (mathematical models, algorithm prototyping, field trials, customer feedback). I have exceptionally broad knowledge of software development technologies allowing me to adapt quickly to every specific need.

IT:- in this role I was responsible for building the original ComOpt IT infrastructure on minimal (almost zero) budget, and then scaling it to match company growth. This covered network infrastructure, internet facilities and data management. More recently I have made use of these skills to architect hosted, cloud and web 2.0 solutions.

Goals:- From a personal perspective I would describe myself as a 'creator'. This means I derive satisfaction from the creation of facilities and products that provide a valuable function. From a company perspective this translates into a direct interest in the success of the company both in terms of the efficiency of internal operations and the success of the products marketed to our customers.

Past experience:- my previous experience in pure scientific research provides a solid groundwork for most R&D activities I undertake, but more importantly allows me to scale across to pure research when necessary. My previous experience with internet development has scaled into my current deep knowledge of IT systems down to the hardware and protocol level, which proves handy when making effective technical IT decisions.

Craig Taverner’s Specialties:

Software Development in Engineering Applications. This covers the range from coding, design and problem solving to managing, team development and agile processes.

Languages very familiar with: Java, Ruby, C#, Perl, C
Other languages: C++, VB, Python
Technologies: Ruby on Rails, Eclipse RCP, J2EE, .NET, Databases, Web, Linux/UNIX, Windows

Additional expertise in IT, from analysis, setup and development through to management, mostly on UNIX and Linux systems, from intranet to internet.

Craig Taverner’s Experience

CTO

AmanziTel AB

(Telecommunications industry)

November 2008 — Present (1 year 1 month)

Software consulting, engineering and system integration services for radio planning professionals in the cellular and mobile industries. Specific focus on data management and product integration in the domain of frequency planning and network optimization.
Owner

Amanzi

(Information Services industry)

August 2007 — Present (2 years 4 months)

Technology incubation for interesting ideas, prototypes and projects in several domains, with specific interest in mobile communications, website development, internet telephony and converged media devices and services. Products and ideas that arise from these research activities are usually licensed out to product and services companies for commercialization.
Senior Software Architect

Actix

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

March 2005 — January 2008 (2 years 11 months)

New product research and integration projects within the companies software portfolio, with special interest in GIS
ComOpt Research Director

Actix

(Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Wireless industry)

February 2004 — March 2005 (1 year 2 months)

Research director managing research into new products and technologies focusing on the CellOpt product suite.
Research Director

ComOpt

(Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Wireless industry)

November 2001 — February 2004 (2 years 4 months)

Managing research into new product ideas in the wireless optimization and planning industry.
Project Manager

Agilent

(Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; A; Wireless industry)

August 2000 — November 2001 (1 year 4 months)

Project manager in charge of software development of CellOpt optimization products (CellOpt AFP, CellOpt ACP and CellOpt MDA) in the WNS (wireless network solutions) division of Agilent which aquired SAFCO. This involved managing a team of about a dozen software developers, including team development, product technical design and specification and QA management.
Software Development Manager

SAFCO

(Public Company; 201-500 employees; Wireless industry)

March 1999 — August 2000 (1 year 6 months)

Managed software development of the CellOpt optimization products developed in the Helsingborg, Sweden office, including CellOpt AFP and CellOpt MDA. This involved developing a team of about half a dozen software developers. Also coordinated efforts to initiate product integration projects with the Wizard and Opas32 projects in the Florida and Chicago offices of SAFCO.
Software Development Director

ComOpt

(Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Wireless industry)

December 1997 — March 1999 (1 year 4 months)

Managed software development of the CellOpt AFP optimization product. This involved managing a team of 2-3 developers, doing a substantial amount of the core design and programming myself, and starting a project for scaling up the development team to cover future potential products.
Software and IT Consultant

ComOpt

(Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Wireless industry)

January 1997 — December 1997 (1 year )

Provided consultancy services for IT and software development. In IT, this involved setting up a complete infrastructure for email, web and software development environments. For product development this involved design and implementation of the core client-server architecture for the CellOpt AFP 2.x series product.
Postgraduate

University of the Witwatersrand

(Educational Institution; Higher Education industry)

February 1992 — December 1997 (5 years 11 months)

While studying as a postgraduate I took part in many teaching activities, including lecturing in crystallography and quantum mechanics for chemists, and running a 3rd year physics workshop for five years on 'holography'.
Software Development Contractor

The Internet Solution

(Internet industry)

February 1996 — April 1997 (1 year 3 months)

Writing internet software in C, C++ and Perl for advanced internet applications, including an email-SMS gateway and a micropayment authentication system
Student employee

AECI

(Public Company; Chemicals industry)

December 1988 — January 1990 (1 year 2 months)

Summer jobs in chemical research.

Craig Taverner’s Education

University of the Witwatersrand

PhD , Theoretical Chemistry , February 1995 — December 1997

I did not complete my PhD. Instead, after completing all research work and writing the first 20 pages of the thesis, I started working at ComOpt in Sweden, and this was sufficient destraction to prevent any further effective work on the thesis.

Activities and Societies:

Tai Chi, Kobujitsu
University of the Witwatersrand

MSc , Chemistry (Crystallography) , February 1992 — November 1994

Activities and Societies:

Tai Chi, Kobujitsu
University of the Witwatersrand

BSc (Hons) , Physics (Theoretical and Experimental) , February 1991 — November 1991
University of the Witwatersrand

BSc , Physics, Chemistry, Advanced Biology , February 1988 — November 1990

Activities and Societies:

Gymnastics

Additional Information

Craig Taverner’s Websites:

Craig Taverner’s Interests:

New technologies, especially in the fields of software development, internet and wireless (actually interested in anything really high tech.) Photography, digital and computer editing Casual sports, like snowboarding, rollerblading, swimming Investing, mostly in speculative high tech. fields.