A couple months ago we welcomed Wendy Taylor and Mark Goodson to The Ivy Group. It is now our pleasure to also introduce the newest "Ivy Groupies" to our web development team, Martin Sant and Landon Dorrier.
What brought you to The Ivy Group?
Martin: I’ve been in the Charlottesville area since 1984 and have over 25 years of software development experience. Most recently I was with UVA in the ITS department and I was just ready for something more challenging. I was looking for a place with a fresh perspective where I could further refine and polish my programming and web development skills.
Landon: I finished my UX [user experience] internship at CFA Institute this summer and I was looking for my next project. I knew I wanted to stay in the Charlottesville area and, ideally, get a job in the web field. Luckily, my friend Bobby let me know about an opening for a project at The Ivy Group. He got me an interview and the rest is history.
How will you be helping Ivy Group clients with their websites?
Martin: I'll be focused on custom site development with open source integration.
Landon: I will primarily handle the design and build for small WordPress sites and provide design assistance for a variety of other web projects.
Favorite thing about programming?
Martin: The best thing about programming is that I feel like I’m building something unique. I like it so much I do it at home sometimes for fun.
Landon: I just like creating things. It’s a satisfying feeling to create something from the ground up. And then to actually see it function and accomplish some task is great, especially on the internet where you are able to reach a lot of people. It’s nice to think that you are contributing to people’s lives even if it’s just making some seemingly simple task on the computer a few mouse clicks easier.
Hobbies?
Martin: I have a bunch of hobbies, but my main one is flying. I'm a private pilot and own my own airplane, a Cessna 172 Skyhawk. I really enjoy cross country flying and have been as far as Chicago and New York, but my favorite destinations remain the West Virginia mountains and OBX.
Landon: Flag football. I take it way too seriously!
A Shout-Out to Bobby Pearson
Back in October, long-time employee Bobby Pearson (he was with us for 8 and a half years!) decided to move on to a new opportunity. We were sad but we couldn't help be excited for him at the same time.
Bobby was looking for a new challenge and he found it at PunchOut2Go.com. PunchOut2Go is the self-acclaimed leader in "procurement B2B commerce integrations," offering solutions to vendors to integrate their eCommerce application with their customers' procurement systems.
We still hear from Bobby often and he reports that he is "having fun, feeling challenged."
Read some of Bobby’s blogs:
Read Bobby's article published on SmashingMagazine.com: Don't Get Crushed by Load
Category: Culture
