 Brett Lonsdale
Brett co-founded Lightning Tools in 2006 with Nick Swan. Brett is involved in all aspects of Lightning Tools with a primary focus on marketing and evangelism. Brett specializes in Business Connectivity Services (BCS) and co-authored Microsoft Press – “SharePoint 2010 Business Connectivity Services” and “The Developers guide to the SharePoint 2007 Business Data Catalog”. Previously Brett co-founded Combined Knowledge and spent twelve years as a Lotus Notes/Visual Studio/SharePoint technical trainer. Brett is often heard co-hosting the SharePoint Pod Show. In his spare time, Brett enjoys hanging out with his daughter Rio.
 Nick Swan
Nick founded Lightning Tools with Brett in 2006 and now mainly looks after product development and can often be found answering support questions. He graduated from University after studying Software Engineering. Nick has been working with Microsoft development technologies for 10 years with the last 5 being focused on SharePoint. Nick lives in Reading, UK with his fiancé Sophie and their cats Fluffy and Carragher. A keen golfer and football fan, he enjoys watching Tiger or Liverpool FC win.
 Andy Carter
Andy joined the Lightning Tools Team in January 2012 as Chairman to assist the Board in defining and implementing the challenges and enormous opportunities that lie ahead.He comes with a wealth of experience as the owner of a Management Consultancy for 10 years that has helped many Companies from diverse sectors rapidly grow, profitably. Previous to Andy’s Consultancy work he owned several Importing Companies which he sold before founding his Consultancy Company. As a hands on individual Andy also has direct responsibility for Finance and Sales. Andy is happily married to Judy and has 5 nearly grown up children his hobbies include: Golf and Travel.
 Richard Young
Richard is responsible for our sales and CRM. He has gained his knowledge in this area by working for a range of companies from new start ups to ftse 100 companies. He says ‘The most important aspect of any company is its passion for its customers and exceeding their expectations. Nick, Brett and the rest of the team have this at the heart of the business and I was only too pleased to join this bright, vibrant business.’ Richard lives in Gloucestershire with his family and Max the dog and three chickens. He is a highly qualified Cricket coach, a supporter of Gloucester Rugby Club and keen to bring his golf handicap down to two figures!.
 Diana Candida
Diana has over 11 years of experience in the software industry, starting off as a Junior Lotus Notes Developer, and then moving to Inside Sales, Maintenance Renewals, and Project Coordination. Diana is Italian and considers herself a citizen of the world, having travelled extensively and lived in seven countries. She currently resides in Houston, Texas and loves travelling. Her other passions include dancing and Scrabble.
 Dmitry Kaloshin
Dmitry has been working with SharePoint since 2006. He is Microsoft Community Award Recipient in 2011. Dmitry started his development career with C++ and Java more than 10 years ago, working on mobile device applications. A dedicated student, Dmitry earned his Doctor of Philosophy degree from Moscow State University in 2004. Dmitry lives in Moscow, Russia with his family and cat Athena, and loves playing football and watching football, ice hockey and biathlon.
 Michael Gamza
Since 2007, Michael has been working on the Lightning Conductor Web Part and LT Data Viewer Web Part for Lightning Tools. After graduating from university where he studied computing machinery, complexes, systems and networks faculty, Michael spent some time working as LAN administrator and VBA programmer in different companies. He lives in Khabarovsk (eastern Russia) with his girlfriend Marina and son Igor. Michael is a big fan of his family and beer.
 Ashot Abrahamyan
Ashot is the lead developer for the Lightning Storm Forums for SharePoint. He graduated from Yerevan State Engineering University in 1993 and continued his education at American University of Armenia and earned his Master's Degree in 1998. He started programming in 1997 when the primary language was Java, but for the last five years has been enjoying working with SharePoint and Lightning Tools.
 Karen Khumaryan
Karen has been working as QA engineer for 6 years. He graduated from university with a Bachelors degree in Physics of Semiconductors and with a Master's degree in Informatics and Applied Mathematics. He lives in Yerevan,Armenia with his family and spends his free time playing football and Russian billiards. He is also a fan of FC Barcelona and Liverpool.
 Zorayr Zakaryan
Zorayr is originally from Yerevan, Armenia and now living there. He graduated from university with a Masters degree in Informatics and Applied Mathematics. Zorayr has been greatly interested in computer programming since he was a kid, especially in making computer games. He has been working as a WinForm developer for about 3 years and after that 2 years as a SharePoint developer. He enjoys spending weekends visiting the countryside and also likes music, art and photography.
 Karen Cook
Karen has been working with Lightning Tools since January 2011 and looks after the Administration of the Company. Karen is originally from Leeds, Yorkshire has two daughters and 4 grand children but now lives in Reading, Berkshire with her Partner Martin. She has a passion for Spain and Music.
 Ara Arakelyan
Ara is living in Yerevan, Armenia. He graduated from Yerevan State University in masters degree from faculty of informatics and Applied mathematics and in 2011 got degree of Candidate of Physico-Mathematical Sciences in field of Logic. He started programming in C++ 10 years ago. Soon he became .NET developer and has been working with SharePoint since 2007. Ara also loves music, nature, playing and watching football and is a fan of Armenian national team and FC Real Madrid.
 Sandy Ussia
Sandy has been working with SharePoint since 2007, when she implemented MOSS in the manufacturing company she owned at the time. She has been active since then in the SharePoint community and the Pittsburgh Area SharePoint User Group, and has attended and presented sessions at several SharePoint Saturdays. Sandy earned a Master’s degree in Computer Information Systems from Robert Morris University in 1992. She lives near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (US) with her husband, and enjoys backpacking, travelling, and rooting for all Pittsburgh sports teams. Follow her on Twitter: @SandyU
 Giles Richards
Giles works with Lightning Tools as an Account Manager. Giles worked for 12 years as a Recruitment Consultant before joining Lightning Tools in May 2012. Prior to this, he was a Business Development Manager with a French software vendor. After leaving school, he studied to be a Cartographer, which introduced him to the world of GIS and relational databases. Contrary to popular belief, he once worked as a Software Developer, but decided wisely to make a career move into Pre-Sales support. He has been mistaken in public for Jason Statham (I know, it’s an uncanny resemblance) and has been known to give autographs to adoring female fans.
 Jack Edwards
Jack joined the Sales team in November 2012. After recently graduating with a 2:1 from the University of Hull with a degree History. In his spare time, Jack likes to play all kinds of sports, especially rugby and has just started boxing. He also enjoys going out, socialising and travelling.
 Matt Creasey
Matt joined the Sales team in November 2012. After recently graduating from Sheffield Hallam University with a degree in Business and Operations Management, Matt moved back home to Lutterworth where he found the opportunity to start his career with Lightning Tools. In his spare time he loves watching and playing football and going to the pub.
 Ailish Ford
Ailish has been working since finishing her A-Levels and has worked for an IT Consultancy firm in Northamptonshire and an IT Reseller in London. She has a history of working on sales teams as their support and speaking to customers on a daily basis. Ailish has joined the sales team at Lightning Tools. She has 3 brothers, a twin sister and a younger sister with a dog, hamster and budgie to complete the family! She is a classically training singer who loves to dance, act and play rugby too. |
