NML People

Paul Cartmel – Managing Director

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Paul has had an interest in the internet since programming basic text based browsers at UCT. He made the career transition from his electro-mechanical engineering education to web programming while working in London in 1999. An exciting time, where he was fortunate enough to work for TransWorld International Interactive (TWIi) a division of IMG, that owned the official web publishing rights to Manchester United, Brazil Football, British Open Golf and Wimbledon to name but a few. For TWIi he also architected and developed the early interactive TV channel NOW.com that was possibly as many as 10 years ahead of its time.

On returning to Cape Town, Paul worked as Senior Software Architect and developer for Delos Technology. A business systems development company that focused on a business intelligence, data quality and data integrity product known as Consolidate Manage eXchange (CMX). Delos received venture capital and expanded to Europe and America. From Delos Technology, Paul moved to AFA System/Microgen as a Senior Architect where he designed the .Net version of the Neural Framework. AFA-Systems financial services products on the Neural Framework specifically for the Asset Management sector. The product was used by over 30 financial services companies in 4 countries.

Following AFA-Systems Paul archietected software for one of South Africa’s most successful travel portals, SafariNow.com, before helping found Silverminute in 2005, where he played a role as Technical Director and Senior Architect. At Silverminute, Paul acted as Technical Architect for a five-hundred-million Australian dollar, smart card, ticketing and micro-payments system. Silverminute was sold to the Altron Group In 2007 and later that year Paul founded New Media Labs.

New Media Labs has a team of developers who keep the thriving services business busy. NML has recently had a successful exit from AfricanTourismPortal.com (now WeTu.com). New Media Labs’ research and development efforts are invested into a Social Media (SM) framework called The WeLove Framework, which has given rise to their Location Based Service (LBS) platform WeLove.Net. Not only is the WeLove community growing at a nice pace, but New Media Labs has been able to sell the LBS SM framework as a platform to their existing clients.”

Richard Schroder – Architect

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Richard graduated from the University of Cape Town with a Masters degree in Computer Science, which was sponsored by Microsoft Research and the National Research Foundation. The fact that his Masters Research project centered around mobile technology makes Richard a perfect fit for NML and one of its core business focuses – mobile technology. Richard is a work hard, play hard kind of guy, where work is often hardcore mountain biking (as a Cape Epic and Sani2C finisher) and play is tinkering with new technologies. Richard is the type of person who gets upset with himself if he sleeps late (anything after 6am) or when he can’t find any props (front rankers for the UCT rugby team he coaches). A regular Dean’s Merit list candidate whilst a student Richard is a very well balanced guy. He’s also a brilliant software architect.

Rogan Flitton – Architect

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Rogan is an energetic and enthusiastic software developer, with extensive experience both locally and abroad. Born and schooled in Johannesburg, it was in the summer of ‘86 that his eager little fingers touched a computer keyboard for the first time, spending many hours playing on the Spectravision SVI-728 MSX his father bought for Christmas.

This early fascination with technology later manifested itself into a B.Com Informatics degree from R.A.U. After graduating, he joined Hollard Insurance as part of their graduate recruitment program and over the following 2 years was involved in various key projects. He then decided to venture overseas, and spent 3 years working in London for a number of multinational companies.

Deputy Head Boy at both primary school and high school, a keen cricketer, traveller, surfer and part-time guitarist, it is Rogan’s all-round ability in life and his passion for technology and web2.0 that makes him a perfect fit for NML.

Tracy Stallard – Office Administrator

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Tracy worked as a PA in some of the top US law firms in the UK for 12 years (with a 6 month working stint in Australia and a 6 month shopping-round-the-world tour thrown in for good measure).  A bit jaded with all the legal to-ing and fro-ing, Tracy returned home in July 2009 looking for a new environment to use her PA skills and finally found it at New Media Labs.  Tracy joined NML in June 2011 as office administrator and oversees the day-to-day runnings of the office with everything from accounts and finance to managing Paul’s diary and issuing the beer fines! It’s Tracy’s job to ensure NML is a fun place to work.

Raoul de Jongh – Project Manager

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Raoul de Jongh is a peoples person and as such plays that vital link between company and client, providing business development, project management and sales to the companies he has worked with in the past 12 years.

Having worked with corporates in the publishing, distribution and eventing industries he has a key understanding of what it takes to keep both sides of the relationship happy. After a hiatus from the corporate environment Raoul is now at New Media Labs as Account Manager to work with existing clients as well as procure new business for the team at NML.

Raoul is an active multi-sport athlete who loves sleep almost as much as he loves wine and almost as much as he loves pushing the boundaries of fatigue.

In 2010 Raoul was the 2nd fastest amateur in the world in The Double, which comprises of the Ironman World Championships (3.8km swim, 180km cycle and 42km run) and the Xterra World Championships, raced 2 weeks apart in the Hawaiian Islands.

In 2011, Raoul will be the world’s first carbon neutral athlete, part of an awareness campaign called Pure Planet Racing, which he helped co-found at the end of 2010.

He lives by the motto Assume Nothing, Pursue Everything, Experience Now. Read his blog Urban Ninja.

Andrew Arnott – Senior Copywriter/Project Manager

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Andrew’s appreciation of online communication was borne out of extensive travel, and the need to intermittently plug into the web to share his experiences with friends and a somewhat concerned family. From writing to blogging to an expanding array of social media platforms the web’s ability to lubricate communication and revolutionise interaction has grown from a useful commodity into an exciting profession.

Andrew has employed his trade at several multinational financial institutions in the UK, two South African production houses, an online travel and e-marketing company, and intermittently as a dive master and snowboard instructor. Andrew currently writes for Flagstone Wines and winemaker Bruce Jack, as well as script for documentaries, the Private Edition Magazine and the blog Bowl Philosophy.

Besides digital media, you’ll pique Andrew’s interest with good wine, great literature, inspired music, snow covered peaks, anything aquatic and ironically, counter culture.

Willem Odendaal – Senior Software Engineer

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Willem is living his dream.

Bitten by the programming “bug” in primary school and captivated by technology ever since, Willem is fascinated by technology’s progression and flux. He possesses an avid thirst for knowledge and an appetite for challenge which keeps him abreast of the latest developments in the tech world.

Willem’s passion is rooted in security, in delivering great user experiences and writing elegant and innovative code, aspirations which he has employed for a number of prominent websites and companies in his capacity as a professional software developer. Willem believes in working closely with clients, being honest, efficient and doing the job right. You can find a first hand account of Willem’s passion for coding on his blog The Coder’s Perspective

Martin Kirsten – Senior Software Engineer

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An intellectual property lawyer in a previous life, Martin has upgraded his childhood hobby of programming in Basic on a Commodore 64 to a career in Software Development by completing an Honours degree in Computer Science at the University of Cape Town, bringing his flush of degrees to five.

Martin has programming experience in a variety of technologies and languages, including Java, C++, C#, PHP and JavaScript. A Microsoft .NET junkie at heart Martin loves finding user friendly solutions to problems using the latest technologies. When not coding, you will find him either working on his photographic skills, experimenting with some new concoction in the kitchen, or spending time with friends and family.

John Murray – Software Developer

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John has been addicted to the internet ever since he was introduced to the web at the age of 12.  At 16 he taught himself HTML and started building websites in his spare time.

From Usenet, IRC, Blogging and IM, to Facebook and Twitter, John grew up with the social web.  Pursuing his love of mathematics, he studied Actuarial Science, Maths and Economics at UCT, but ultimately found his way back to being creative with code.

Because most of New Media Labs work centres on the social elements of Financial Services and Insurances, John finds opportunities at New Media Labs where he can combine his coding skills with his knowledge of economics.  John loves C# and PHP, and is fluent in the entire stack of web development skills, from SQL to CSS, which makes him a great resource for the team.  When restricted to the smaller screen of his mobile, he enjoys exploring beautiful places, eating good food and drinking good red wine.

Johan Venter – Junior Developer

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Johan’s interest in computing started when his dad introduced him to their 486 computer, playing pacman off a 5 ¼-inch floppy from MS-DOS.  Coding followed in high school when Johan started writing scripts for the IRC client mIRC, this developed into a BSc in Information Technology and a BscHonn in Computer Science at the NWU-Pukke Campus in Potchefstroom. Johan’s honours centred on an in-depth study into games development, not only of games but also of how people play and what entertains us.  Making case studies on the different approaches toward making games, the narrative and the ludological.  Making use of modeling software and scripting we are also to create a game for the Xbox using the Unreal Development Kit and Autodesk’s Maya.

Johan received a bursary from Shoprite for his final year at NWU and began working for Shoprite Head Office in 2011, seven months later Johan joined the team at New Media Labs as a programmer working on .net, javascript, jquery, css, and html development.

Johan enjoys the vibrant journey that is his train ride to work, as well sport, gaming and playing club rugby.

Eckardt Kasselman – Head Designer

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Eckardt is a professional designer specialising in design for both web and print.

He studied BA Visual Communication at The Open Window School of Visual Communication, majoring in both 3D animation and photography during his four years of study.

His design-process involves traditional media during conceptualisation phase and the use of custom layouts combined with tactile graphic elements to convey relevant info and ensure ultimate user experience. He believes in an industrious approach and thrives under pressure, also a strong believer of the concept that form follows function and that each project is unique in its most intrinsic form. He’s a creative problem solver and great at managing a magnitude of projects simultaneously. His experience working with developers contributes significantly to the effective design for development.

Besides his love and passion for design Eckardt also has the ability to build front-end platforms suitable for every browser and device. He codes perfectly optimised sites by taking full advantage of bleeding-edge technologies such as HTML 5, CSS 3 and CSS media queries.

Eckardt regards himself as a pursuer and purveyor of knowledge and had the following to say: “I aim to create interface designs and visuals that are eye-catching, memorable and modern, yet timeless. In an industry that so often falls victim to repetitive design, I strive to create something notable every time, all the time…”

When he’s not working on projects at New Media Labs he kills time doing digital illustration and private photography projects and exhibitions, he strives to capture real-life moments and direct scenes that create alluring imagery. He’s been involved in photography for about 7 years and enjoys doing fashion and editorial, landscapes and miscellaneous subjects. He collects and restores old cameras, shoots digital DSLR, medium format 120 and 35mm analog. He calls himself a “Camera geek at heart”

A selection of his work can be viewed here.

Justus Burger – Developer

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Justus developed an early interest in IT after an introduction to the family computer. He started fiddling with Turbo Pascal programming at the age of 12 after discovering his older brother’s computer studies handbooks.

Justus jumped dove down the Java rabbit hole at the age of 15 and soon started earning extra cash for doing everybody’s matric programming projects. After school he studied and lectured programming at IT Colleges across South Africa and Zimbabwe. Justus studied and lectured across a wide range of topics including Java Enterprise Programming, .Net Distributed System, ASP.NET, PHP,  Javascript, SQL, Network  Penetration Testing, Hacking Forensics and more.

When not behind his Mac, you might find…but probably not catch him on his Kawasaki Ninja.

Bruce Thwaits – Developer

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Bruce was enthusiastic about computing from a very young age, beginning when his dad first brought home a ZX-spectrum. His love of computing is deeply rooted in his love of gaming, which continues to be a passionate hobby. What began as curiosity as to how computer platforms work from a gaming point of view, quickly snowballed into fascination as to how computing works on a larger scale.

Early in High School, Bruce was taught some basic Pascal programming, and became instantly hooked. This interest developed through Computer Science as an after-hours extra subject at school, and later Bsc and Bsc(Hons) Computer Science degrees through UCT and UNISA. Bruce’s honours project centred around writing a Genetic Algorithm which was used to evolve a parametric scene using procedural scene generation. This project was such a success that one of his team members later developed the project into a PhD thesis.

Bruce has an extensive support background, having worked in both the hardware and software arenas, working in industries from Law Enforcement to Real Estate. As such, he brings a unique perspective on usability and how users view application platforms.

Bruce currently leads a South African World of Warcraft guild of over 200 players, and is a blogger on one of the biggest WoW blogs, restokin.com. As such, he has a huge presence in the South African gaming community, which he remains very active in.