Brian Webb – CEO/Founder

Having majored in civil engineering and minored in computer science, Brian has always dabbled in both realms. After college, his career began with five years designing scaffold, shoring, and formwork structures as an engineering intern under David H. Glabe, P.E. dhglabe.com, as well as software projects with equipment companies. Before founding Avontus, Brian was employed by Autodesk and worked on the AutoCAD team to release AutoCAD 2000 through 2002. When there is free time, Brian travels and tries to spend all of it in the water, either scuba diving, enjoying the pool, or (preferably) taking a long open-water swim.

Andrew Smith – Vice President of Operations

Andrew started his technical career as an Artificer in the Royal Navy and, following his service, immigrated to Canada in 1995. After several years managing manufacturing companies in the material handling sector and working for 11 years in the scaffold industry with both large and small dedicated scaffolding contractors, Andrew joined Avontus. Andrew has extensive experience in business development and project, site, contract, and branch management, and he is an active member of scaffolding associations in both North America and Europe. When he is not working with customers, Andrew can be found in the kitchen experimenting, with his head in a book, or on a pair of skis.

Shaun Whyman – Implementation & Support (EMEA, Australia)

Shaun has a broad expertise of scaffolding within the differing global markets. He started his career within a civil engineering company, where he picked up the AutoCAD bug and became a proficient user of the product. Upon qualifying as an adult education lecturer, he taught AutoCAD at night school. After a couple of years, he moved on to a software company as a full-time civil engineering software trainer, and then progressed to scaffolding software training, sales demonstrations, and support for the UK and overseas scaffolding market. When he’s away from his desk, he can be seen out in the Peaks, covered in mud and sweat, mountain biking and trying to keep fit.

Ali Hajighafouri – Sales Director

Ali approaches sales with the perspective of years spent in systems administration and technical training. Prior to joining Avontus in 2011, he provided professional and technical services in healthcare, real estate, and retail, with a focus on making technology as helpful and easy to use as possible. Having implemented enterprise software and trained users on it, he’s intimately familiar with the challenges and benefits of change. He enjoys putting that experience to work in helping customers understand how they can improve and guiding them to the best software for achieving their goals. Outside the office, Ali keeps busy writing fiction, developing card games, and eating too much.

Susie Sargent – Operations and Finance (Global)

Susie keeps the company running. She enjoys variety and took a course in nearly every department while earning her bachelor’s degree from UC Berkeley. She has an extensive background in organizational management and event logistics, and she has worked for various nonprofit organizations in the Bay Area. She also teaches improv and performs frequently in San Francisco.

Tracey Williams – Implementation & Support (Global)

Tracey has many years of software training, support, and help desk management experience. Since 2011, she has been helping Avontus customers use their software to its full advantage through implementation management, software training, and support. In her spare time, she focuses on animal advocacy by volunteering with the Marine Mammal Center and the Berkeley Humane Society.

Mirko Micanovic – Support (Americas, APAC, Australia)

Mirko came from a long customer service and support background before joining Avontus in 2015. Mirko is dedicated to solving problems big and small, providing help and training, and ultimately making customers happy. In the off hours he pursues his passion in martial arts and enjoys the little things in life.

Gabe Freeman – User Design

Gabe studied Cognitive Science at UC Berkeley, focusing on the interaction between people, technology, and culture. He has also done research on improving human attention. He strives to make each Avontus product an intuitive tool that facilitates our customers doing their best work. When out of the office, Gabe can be found drawing, developing mobile and tabletop games, and exploring the Bay Area while listening to a podcast.

Shon Walker – Support

Shon comes from a long background in customer service, technical, and software support in the banking and financial services and sports industries. A Michigan native, now living in California, he gets his satisfaction by resolving issues and helping customers achieve their goals. During his off-time, he enjoys reading up on the last tech, working out, watching football, and blogging about music.

Mike Brown – Support

Mike has extensive experience in customer support, education and training. He is committed to building teams, processes, and tools that empower customers and is responsive to them. He enjoys cooking, eating, working out, and the outdoors.

Kay Ruzvidzo – Support

Kay has 7 years of support experience working both in a face-to-face and support desk environment, including 6 years within the Apple organization where he honed his support skills in an often demanding environment. Kay is married to Zoe and lives near Cambridge in a village called Cambourne. When not solving the worlds software issues, he enjoys keeping fit in the gym, dj’ing, and his second career as a BBQ Pit Master!

Latoya Brown – Sales

Latoya has over 20 years of customer service experience in areas ranging from the wine industry to the medical and legal fields. Bay Area born and raised, she loves to see customers happy and wants to make sure anyone she has contact with has a wonderful experience with Avontus – whether they become a customer or not. Her motto is, “I’m here to help, not sell!” She enjoys hanging out with her family, cooking, listening to music, and people watching.

Emma Newman – Sales

Emma has worked in customer service for most of her career. She enjoys talking to customers, both on the phone and face to face. Due to her personality and nature, she has great people skills and always strives to provide excellent customer service! When Emma is not working at Avontus, you will find her at the gym, at music festivals, out for dinner, being outdoors with her dog or just enjoying family time.

Elliot Newton – Technical Author

Elliot has over five years experience as a Technical Author documenting complex software applications in two different industries (telecommunications and audio). He enjoys getting to grips with new software and trying to get into the mind of a user when creating documentation. In his spare time, he is often found in a pub playing board games, watching football or in a cinema, frowning slightly if anyone rustles their sweets too loudly.

Developers

The numerous developers in Avontus use the latest .NET, Web, iOS, and Android technologies. Our architectures are selected very carefully so that our products withstand the ever-changing software field.

Testers

Avontus’ software testers are professional software quality assurance pros who have a dedicated, full-time position in our company to ensure the quality of our products. They find and fix the bugs before you do.