CEO, Debenu -- Entrepreneur and industry analyst
Melbourne Area, Australia
- Current
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- Blogger at 4xPDF at 4xPDF.com
- Blogger at Digital Documents
- Founder, Director, CEO at Debenu Pty. Ltd.
- Past
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- Non-Executive Board Member at Nitro PDF Software
- Founder, Director, CEO at Nitro PDF Software (formerly BinaryThing, and previously 'A Round Table Solution')
- Editor at Planet PDF division of Nitro PDF Software (formerly BinaryThing)
- Speaker/Moderator/Host at Seybold Seminars
- Systems Engineer at ANZ Securities
- Troop Commander/Lieutenant at Australian Army Reserve 126 Cdo Signal Squadron
- Officer Cadet at Monash University Regiment
- Education
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- Monash University
- Monash University
- University of Melbourne
- Recommended
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25 people have recommended Karl - Connections
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216
connections
- Industry
- Computer Software
Karl De Abrew’s Summary
* Executive director/investor/officer with broad experience in founding, driving and directing technology-based startup businesses.
* Interested in effecting mergers and acquisitions of entities which represent greater value as a combined operation.
* A seasoned speaker, having been an expert panelist, moderator and track chair at conferences and seminars globally.
* Driving force behind the success of high-traffic websites such as Planet PDF, boasting six-figure visitors and millions of page views each month.
* Targeted consulting within the associated skillset of document information/management, ebooks and other final formats such as PDF.
* Application developer, designer, and project manager in a wide variety of business applications.
Karl De Abrew’s Specialties:
* Kick-starting a business, affecting mergers and acquisitions, public speaking; industry commentor and columnist writing for a variety of publications, targeting consulting. PDF/XPS-related development.
* Very focused ability to identify, aim for a task; and then follow through regardless of circumstance.
Karl De Abrew’s Experience
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Blogger at 4xPDF
4xPDF.com
(Computer Software industry)
August 2008 — Present (1 year 4 months)
Provides up-to-the-minute coverage of the goings on in the PDF community. Includes rants, tips, tricks and the latest news. With over 12 years experience at the heart of the PDF community, if something is happening with PDF, you're bound to hear Karl talking about it here.
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Blogger
Digital Documents
(Internet industry)
July 2008 — Present (1 year 5 months)
Co-conspirator with Debenu Product Architect -- Rowan Hanna. We've been in digital document-related businesses since 1995. We cover all sorts of digital document related news, and more... at http://digitaldocuments.debenu.com/
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Founder, Director, CEO
Debenu Pty. Ltd.
(Information Technology and Services industry)
July 2007 — Present (2 years 5 months)
Karl is currently the Chief Executive Officer of Debenu Pty. Ltd. (www.debenu.com), a company he founded with Rowan Hanna in July 2007 -- responsible for two major products: Benubird, an easy-to-use personal document management system that allows you to collect, organize and archive documents. Once archived, documents can easily be retrieved using a special combination of searching, tags and browsing. Karl also manages Debenu's other product QuickPDF - recently acquired from SedTech (Pty).Ltd. - a powerful library which allows developers to create, manipulate and render PDF files.
You can find more about Rowan at http://www.linkedin.com/in/rowanhanna -
Non-Executive Board Member
Nitro PDF Software
(Privately Held; Computer Software industry)
July 2007 — September 2009 (2 years 3 months)
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Founder, Director, CEO
Nitro PDF Software (formerly BinaryThing, and previously 'A Round Table Solution')
(Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Computer Software industry)
July 1997 — July 2007 (10 years 1 month)
Karl founded BinaryThing (now 'Nitro PDF Software') with a goal of producing high quality software that achieved a more efficient workplace focused around the use of electronic paper such as Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF). During his tenure, Karl achieved the following milestones:
• Launch of Nitro PDF Professional (www.nitropdf.com), the first true alternative to Adobe® Acrobat®
• ARTS PDF (www.artspdf.com) -- one of the world's leading PDF software developers for the last 8 years. Developer of award-winning and industry standard plug-ins that extend Adobe® Acrobat®.
• The most popular website for the PDF community, Planet PDF (www.planetpdf.com) and its sister site PDF Store (www.pdfstore.com).
Karl is a seasoned speaker, having been an expert panelist, moderator and track chair at conferences and seminars across the planet; as well as being an industry commentator and columnist writing for a variety of publications including Adobe’s website and Planet PDF. -
Editor
Planet PDF division of Nitro PDF Software (formerly BinaryThing)
(Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Computer Software industry)
July 1997 — July 2007 (10 years 1 month)
Karl De Abrew's experience driving Planet PDF extends back to the very beginning of PDF. He watched the development of PDF as a standard document exchange format, and gained experience and expanded his knowledge through the day-to-day, hands on experience using the technology.
With his vision, Planet PDF now caters to anyone and everyone with an interest in PDF - from professional Web or print publishers seeking appropriate tools, to rank beginners wondering exactly what "PDF" stands for. -
Speaker/Moderator/Host
Seybold Seminars
(Computer Software industry)
1999 — 2003 (4 years )
Karl De Abrew acted as a PDF program track coordinator, host, moderator, and speaker for events including Seybold San Francisco, Seybold New York, Seybold Amsterdam, PDF Conference, and Adobe® Acrobat® & PDF Conference.
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Systems Engineer
ANZ Securities
(Public Company; Computer Software industry)
1993 — 2000 (7 years )
During his work with the ANZ Investment Bank as a Systems Engineer, Karl developed a PDF-based electronic workflow which replaced a system for the production of paper-based reports. Each night, daily reports on listed companies were produced for analysis by institutional and private client advisors. This was a heavily paper-oriented process which had been conducted for years and Karl had been involved in the late-night duplication and distribution of these documents for years.
The new workflow involved professionally published documents being converted to PDF, indexed, uploaded, and stored within a database system for distribution on the Web. Whilst this may be passé now, at the time it was quite a slick system and provided much of the impetus for basing Nitro PDF Software (formerly BinaryThing) around PDF. -
Troop Commander/Lieutenant
Australian Army Reserve 126 Cdo Signal Squadron
(Government Agency; 10,001 or more employees; Defense & Space industry)
January 1996 — January 1999 (3 years 1 month)
Management of a troop of signalers to provide specialist communications in support of 1 Cdo Regt; including a manpack, battery operated equipment, and dictated manual encoding, I also provided specialist training in Windows 95/NT.
Commandos require the ability to undertake new tasks quickly, respond effectively to challenges and to adapt to different environments including the ability to operate effectively and without signs of undue stress, panic or excessive fear. -
Officer Cadet
Monash University Regiment
(Government Agency; 10,001 or more employees; Defense & Space industry)
January 1994 — December 1995 (2 years )
Australian Army Reserve Officer Cadets use the rank of Officer Cadet for officers undergoing initial training. Training is conducted on a part-time basis at various University Regiments around the country. They must pass various training courses (conducted at different barracks around Australia) throughout their training with the final module completed at the Royal Military College, Duntroon before being commissioned.
Karl De Abrew’s Education
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Monash University
Masters of Information Technology ( , Information Management , 2000 — 2007
A flexible, broad-based program in enabling students to select specific areas for in-depth study or to complete pre-determined professional tracks (specialisations) focused on industry-relevant topics. I am taking a particular focus on information management, user interface design and cross platform development.
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Monash University
Bachelor of Digital Systems , Information Technology , 1994 — 1997
Focused on computer hardware and software design with an emphasis on embedded digital/computing systems including robotics and control systems, graphics and image processing.
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University of Melbourne
Law/Commerce , Torts, Criminal Law , 1993 — 1994
