This week we’d like to introduce you to Jack, one of WeAreBrain’s co-founders and the brilliant CTO mind behind our most exciting product builds. With a long-established career in technology and a PhD in mechanical engineering, we couldn’t possibly have a better person guiding our tech teams in Kiev. When asked what role he plays as co-founder and leader of our technology and R&D departments Jack explains “I’m committed to helping our clients and team’s professional dreams come true. As a management team we really try to create an environment that sparks innovation. We do our best to support and implement the great ideas our team’s come up with.”
Jack began his career at Quartsoft and swiftly moved up the ranks from developer, to team lead, to general management and then finally becoming the company’s CTO and CMO. “I believe this experience, working my way up through a company provided me with the ability to apply engineering thinking to solving all kinds of problems, both within in the tech space and the more general arena of business management.” This ability has afforded WeAreBrain the opportunity to work with some incredible clients on some really groundbreaking products including clevergig, a startup that offers staffing solutions for the gig economy and our own, recently launched, Tur.ai platform, that we use to build Robotic Process Automation solutions for our enterprise clients.
Jack also sees a big part of his role as being our ‘Ask Why?’ gatekeeper. “We should never just do a task or a job because it’s what we’ve been told to do. It is important to ask why we’re doing the task in the first place. We need to really investigate if this is the best possible solution to the problem we are trying to solve. I always try remind the team that we are building products not just completing projects. Building a product involves finding a solution to a pain point or problem for the user, a project is about budgets, timing and scope of work. Assessing all of those elements are important but that should never be the focus of the work a tech team does, improving a users experience is where the focus should stay. I believe this shift in mindset helps us look at everything we’re trying to achieve in a more holistic way.”
One of the things that Jack appreciates most about the team that he and the other co-founders of WeAreBrain have put together is how truly dedicated they all are to creating technology products that are meaningful and really provide value for users. “It’s incredible being surrounded by such a bright and inspiring group of people everyday.” says Jack
In our conversation, Jack took some time to reflect on some of the products that WeAreBrain has developed based on the principle of improving users’ lives and experiences. “We have been lucky enough to work on various initiatives with clients that were very community driven and one of my personal favourites was developing the DIY community for one of our longest standing clients, Maxeda. The platform we have created allows those people who have a passion for working with their hands a space to experiment with new projects and share their personal knowledge with like-minded individuals.”
Another of Jack’s passion projects has been Tur.ai, having worked on the Robotic Process Automation system for more than two years it was a great win to finally bring the product to market this year in April. The drive to bring Tur.ai to life centers around fundamentally changing the worst part about working in corporate. Processes! That work that is so repetitive that it is practically soul destroying. “The way we see it is, people are naturally born to be creative and innovative. By building AI that takes over that work that is boring and really doesn’t need human intervention, we free humans up to truly reach their potential. It’s all very exciting!” smiles Jack
When Jack is not leading a team that is changing the world one product at a time, you’ll find him digging into contemporary art. He is inspired by the beauty and elegance of Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh and the abstract brilliance of the work by Wassily Kandinsky, who is credited with painting one of the first recognised purely abstract works. He also lists the work of Andy Warhol and Damien Hirst among his favourites. Not surprisingly, if Jack could switch places with someone for a day he would love to step into the shoes of a famous artist and paint the day away on the biggest canvas he could find.
Jack is an avid reader and loves to consume all future and tech focused content. Techcrunch and Adventurebit are among his favourite publications. Throughout his career Jack has also followed the work of futurist and inventor, Ray Kurzweil inspired by the work he has done in the fields of AI, nanotechnology and speech recognition technology.
Even though Jack is almost 100% future focused if he did go back in time there are two events that he would love to see. The first would be when Einstein developed and presented his probability theory and the second would be Martin Luther’s publication of the Ninety-Five Theses, which started the reformation of religion that radically changed the practice of religion in Europe, beginning in 1517.
At the top of Jack’s bucket list is to take a trip to Jamaica, learn Dutch and do a presentation on the best of WeAreBrain’s work in front of crowd of more than two thousand people. With the great work WeAreBrain is doing at the moment I’m sure the third item on his list will be something he gets to tick off the list in the not too distant future. As for the others I have no doubt we’ll receive a postcard from Jack in Jamaica soon, saying “Wou dat je hier was!”
Jack is an excellent leader and his passion for innovation, creativity and building user centric products is one of the key reasons WeAreBrain is doing such imaginative work.
