An intense journey through the years, connecting with wonderful people and working together with unique professionals.
(It’s all about people, isn’t it?)
Croissants Au Beurre
And it all began in Paris, France in 2001 at Schlumberger*. My first job, my first international trip, my first french immersion, and my first software developer role. At Schlumberger I started working with smartcards (carte à puce in French) and joined the R&D team to work, create and develop tech solutions and applications for them. A very tiny computer, present in so many mobile phones and devices, used all around the world. What a great responsibility!
It was a marvellous time, with so many great people. Lots of different cultures, from different countries working together, for a common goal. An amazing job, a wonderful work culture and a beautiful place.
* Schlumberger’s smartcards division became Axalto/Gemalto, a separate company, late 2004
Brazil Connection
The year is 2004 and I was invited to join Schlumberger Brazil. My role: bringing the smartcards knowledge to a local team of professionals to support the growth and expansion on the Latin America market. At the same time, becoming the connection between the R&D in France and the local teams.
Moving back to Brazil was both a personal and professional doubt. An uncertainty feeling took me over for a few days. However, the proposal to create a local team to support the Latin America growth and be part of an business expansion, helped me to make my decision.
Mission accepted.
ad Infinitum, ad Venturus
After 10 years working with smartcards and telecom operators, I realized I needed more. Or at least something different but not away (never) from tech. I just needed a new challenge. So, I got hired by Venturus, a tech innovation consulting company in Brazil.
I joined Venturus late 2007 as a lead software architect and through the folowing years I had a very intense journey having the unparalleled opportunity to work closely with international companies around the world, ranging from mobile manufacturers, and mobile applications to payment solutions, and consumer electronics.
Early 2013 I was promoted to Program Manager and my responsibilities started to get bigger and bigger. New clients, additional projects, more teams and tech professionals.
I am so thankful for all professionals I worked for and with, supporting me during all these steps. Having such support and freedom to make decisions is priceless.
The 100
At this time, late 2017, as an Executive Manager I was managing around 100 tech professionals, including UI/UX designers, software and hardware developers, DevOps engineers, testers, project managers, and so many others roles.
This became a personal and professional achievement in many ways. I love to work with, and inspire people. I do believe that being a supportive leader creates high performance and engaged teams. Listen and trust them and they will listen and trust you back.
Unique people. Astonishing professionals.
A Crypto Deep Dive
Venturus is a company that fosters innovation and I, as a tech lover, started to dedicate myself to understand the crypto market and blochchain domain. Au fur et à mesure I became its big fan and tech advocate.
My interest in the topic, my social media posts and articles about the business and technology together with some personal marketing gave me a certain visibility. I was invited to speak at a Campus Party event later 2017 and to speak at some other events and companies in the following months.
Believe me or not, despite the fact I dove into crypto, I’ve never bought one single Bitcoin nor altcoin.
Even though this crypto work was intense and grateful, I always had this strange feeling that my current journey was coming to an end.
The Sabbatical
July 2018: time for a professional break. A few personal challenges, excessive work, and some professional frustrations… it all came together and made me think on stepping back and stay away from work for a while.
After years working at Venturus with wonderful people, leaving them behind was really a tough and hard decision. And it still hurts, badly.
But, it was an important step to stay close to my family, my wife, my kids (I have two wonderful boys), to think about literally nothing, to take care of my health, and to reflect what to do next.
Flights scheduled. Hotels booked. Bags packed. My sabbatical period has now officialy started.
L’entrepreneur
The sabbatical period was indeed a great pause and a good refresh to my mind and health. It was early 2019 and I realized I was missing all the action, the tech action.
So, why not try a startup? My own startup. I noticed that this was the right time to try (and eventually fail).
Putting together my Blockchain knowledge and a tech friend, we entered the unkown. A real problem to solve, a business plan, a strategic definition, a bootstrapped company, and, at that time, a not so explored domain: Blockchain in the HealthCare industry.
Work, work, work. More work, more work, more work. And… a failure.
Despite the failure, it was a good experience and I could learn a lot from it. Curious about what went wrong? Send me a message. It will be a pleasure to talk about the details.
The Pandemic
It’s now late 2019 and the pandemic outbreak was just around the corner. Right after my failure at the startup, I received a job opportunity to join a brazilian tech consulting firm, Yaman, to create and develop a software development & product department. At that time, Yaman was very known as a QA and Performance consulting firm and expanding business to engineering and software development services would allow it to achieve its mid and long term goals.
So, I joined it as a Director of Software Development & DevOps ready for a new challenge and excited to meet yet more people. Yaman has solid relationships with the largest private and public banks in Brazil so I knew I would need to learn a lot more about the banking market, challenges, and business.
Then the pandemic began. The WFH policy arrived. And the world changed forever.
Following My Heart
Yaman is a great company, and I met very unique people there. But my heart was somewhere else. Not sure exactly where. Or why. I believe I was going through a period of self discovery, instrospection. Some close friends would say I was in the midlife crisis period, which is characterized by a strong desire for change. I don’t know, really.
At the same time, a few job opportunities knocked on my door but none of them got my attention.
I was still looking (or maybe waiting?) for something different, a new industry, an unlike business segment. And them it came. A job opportunity to work as Director of Engineering with a SaaS product in the insurance and benefits market, meaning a total fresh start for me. A challenging move, more specifically on an insurtech, called Oliver, and located in Vancouver, Canada.
Oliver is a insurtech startup with close partnerships with Group Health Family of Companies (GHFoC) and Munich Re.
So, I followed my heart, and we (me, wife and kids) arrived in Vancouver in April 22nd 2022.
And The Journey Continues…
Stay tuned for new updates and if you’re really curious about details of my journey, my current work, or my next steps, feel free to contact me here! Maybe we can have a cup of coffee together.