John Shrimski's
Résumé
Qualifications
Honours graduate in Electrical Engineering from University of Auckland,
Past Member of the Australian Institution of Engineers
Experience
John started his computer life as a systems engineer
with IBM New Zealand; migrated to
In 1976 he joined Sigma Data Corporation (the
Australasian distributors of Datapoint computers) as
their Systems Engineering Manager where he had management responsibility for
some 12 software projects that were currently under development. It was there
that he met Peter Lay and Barry Brunning. In 1978 the
three of them formed Data Stream.
He was a director of Data Stream for 20 years. During this period, as well as
designing and implementing a wide range of inventory and financial systems, he
also became very involved with the development of research software for media.
This was developed through a separate company, Chai Holdings.
In June 1998 John resigned from Data Stream to devote
all his energies to the furthering of Chai Holdings' activities.
Projects
John has worked on many projects, in a variety of
capacities including consulting, project management, systems design and
programming. Some examples of these projects are :-
- Consulting to a major communications company, SCITEC regarding the
suitability of a 4GL that they were considering marketing world-wide
- Development of a Term Deposit Investment system for Farmers &
Graziers, who were stock and station agents to the rural community
throughout
- Management of a Data Stream team that provided development and
support facilities to the Metal Manufactures Group in the merchandising of
electrical products to some 140 branches throughout
- Development, on-going enhancement and support of a viewer and
audience research system for use by TV and radio stations in
- Developed a Web-based survey system to enable survey responses to
be entered by Internet users.
Skills
John cut his teeth on RPG and assembler. Later he
became proficient in Databus (or what is now called
Visual PL/B) for commercial work. He currently uses Sunbelt's Windows implementation of PL/B
and also Visual Basic. He has expertise and a keen interest in SQL, database
technology, Unix and the Windows environment. More recently he gained
considerable experience in Web-based technology such as HTML, JavaScript, ASP,
His major satisfaction in computing is derived from
learning a user's needs then creating a solution with which the user and he are
both satisfied, whilst at the same time minimizing the support requirements.
Personal
Most of John's work is done from his home office,
overlooking the bush and the swimming pool. His wife, Jacqui provides him with
administrative assistance. Their daughter, Sandi works as internal
communications manager for FOXTEL and their son Andre is a music producer for
the Australian public broadcaster, the ABC.
John tries to sail once a week with his ex fellow
director, Peter Lay, on their 26 foot yacht, "She Who", so that they
can discuss the world's problems. John is an armchair expert on rugby and
cricket.
Contact him at shrimski@bigpond.net.au