Hi Kevin - thanks for letting us get to know a bit more about you! Let's get started:
1. What’s your role at Mediacurrent, both internally and client-related?
I’m one of the Directors of Development here at Mediacurrent. Most of my day to day is ensuring clients have the right teams in place to meet their needs and ensuring the developers have what the support and resources to help our clients be successful.
2. Give us an idea of what professional path brought you here.
I came from the newspaper industry which was adopting Drupal back in the late Drupal 4, early Drupal 5 days. I was on the editorial team at the time and was brought in for the Drupal build to help ensure the CMS met the needs of the editorial team. In the end I ended up helping the dev team build the product and transitioned my career to full time development. Now I love being able to help newsrooms and media organizations use Drupal effectively for their ever-changing needs.
3. How did you first get involved with Drupal?
As rumblings of Drupal were coming at the newspaper I decided to try a personal project in Drupal. I hated it and thought it was way too complex for the simple project I was implementing. I dropped it and used Wordpress instead. Once I started using Drupal in a professional capacity I quickly saw its value and have never looked back.
4. Is there a go-to Drupal module that you like to incorporate whenever possible?
Recently my go-to has been Paragraphs and Field Group as I love the flexibility it gives for content editors and building dynamic content looks while still in the core node system. I also always like to include helper tools such as Admin Toolbar, Environment Indicator and Stage File Proxy.
5. Do you have any recommended reading or books that you would suggest to others?
I’m currently reading a great new book from a former coworker called “Lassoing the Sun” about a year in the National Parks. Single read books are my go-to instead of the long never ending series that have taken over recently and books that movies are based upon to see the contrasts.
6. Any mobile apps that you use regularly?
Besides all the typical social media (In ranked order: Instagram, Snapchat, Swarm, Untappd, Twitter, Facebook, all the others...) the most common apps I use are utility. Slack, Runkepper/Strava and Gmail are my most used. Also enjoy games such as Slither.io, DreamLeague Soccer and of course Solitaire.
7. What do you like to do in your spare time?
Since moving to New York at the beginning of the year I’ve been enjoying running a lot more. I also like exploring the parks, being outside and finding great places to eat out at. I used to do a lot of home renovation, some beer brewing, and volunteering at church in stage production.
8. What do you like about Mediacurrent?
Mediacurrent has a strong passion for helping not only our own team grow but clients as well. The team pushes clients to think of new ways of doing things, thinking of their problems but also internally pushes each other to learn and grow. Before I started a former employee said to me “You’ll learn more in the first six months at MC then in your entire career prior” and was completely right. You are always learning and always pushing yourself with a group of people that love what they do.
Awesome, thanks for being apart of the Employee Spotlight series!
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