Earlier this month, StorMagic acquired KeyNexus, an innovator and designer of encryption key management solutions. Together, StorMagic and KeyNexus are dedicated to delivering modern, virtualized storage and security solutions to customers at the edge and beyond.
Several new employees have joined the StorMagic family, through the acquisition of KeyNexus. We are excited to have these talented individuals onboard, offering their expertise in the security space and helping us expand our reach within the market.
Get to know our new team members below.
Jeff MacMillan | Chief Technology Officer | Victoria, BC, Canada
Explain your role, in a nutshell. As CTO, I am responsible for all engineering, infrastructure, technical roadmap execution, and strategy.
Tell us a bit about your educational / professional background. I’m an electrical engineer, trained at the Royal Military College (university) of Canada. I was a Combat Systems Engineering Officer in the Canadian Navy, specializing in data communications, weapons systems, sensor systems, and electronic warfare, as well as secure operational software development.
What are you most looking forward to, being a part of the StorMagic team? I’m looking forward to being part of an awesome team, solving complex problems and helping StorMagic accelerate its competitive advantages through innovation. Also, it’s fun working with amazing people.
Tell us about your family. I have an amazing wife and three kids under 10 years old — busy times. We also have a cat named Daisy.
What are your hobbies? What do you like to do for fun? Our family enjoys hiking, kayaking, soccer, geocaching, and biking. Victoria is amazing for outdoor activities. I spend most of my free time with my family doing things outdoors as well puzzles, board games, video games, cards, and electronics. In my spare time I enjoy reading and listening to podcasts about science, technology and cybersecurity.
What’s one food that you can’t live without? Peanut butter and banana sandwiches!
What’s your favorite movie or TV show? Why do you love it? As a rule, I love sci-fi. Beyond that, I really like underdog stories, in all genres. I love that moment when the underdog finally overcomes their greatest limitation after much perseverance. I draw inspiration from these moments.
What’s your favorite vacation spot? Abroad, I recently fell in love with Barbados. Closer to home, our family spends a lot of time in Whistler, BC, immersed in nature.
Jason Novecosky | Director of Security | Victoria, BC, Canada
Explain your role, in a nutshell. I lead the SvKMS team and provide technical and leadership expertise to the company.
Tell us a bit about your educational / professional background. I have been in tech for over 20 years, starting at an ISP, back when dial up internet was a thing. I worked as a network and system administrator at that company until I was recruited into Perforce Software. There, I ran the Canadian office which consisted of Technical Support, Development, QA, DevOps, Technical Writing and Ops/HR, as well as managing development teams in the US and UK.
What are you most looking forward to, being a part of the StorMagic team? Helping to grow the company into something great — that’s what gets me the most excited. Helping people and teams succeed and seeing them flourish.
What are your hobbies? What do you like to do for fun? I run, a lot. I competed in some Ultra events and placed fairly well but transitioned into doing my own adventure running.
What’s one food that you can’t live without? Tea — I’m a big tea drinker. My favorite was a white tea from the big island of Hawaii.
What’s your favorite vacation spot? Greece or Hawaii, both are pretty awesome.
Jeff Gleeson | Technical Writer, Victoria, BC, Canada
Explain your role, in a nutshell. I am responsible for creating the technical documentation for SvKMS, including pdfs, the online documentation portal, and instructional videos.
Tell us a bit about your educational / professional background. I have worked as a Technical Writer for about 10 years, previously with Schneider Electric. In school, I originally started out in electronics engineering, but one day one of my instructors commented on one of my labs saying I should consider technical writing. The rest is history.
What are you most looking forward to, being a part of the StorMagic team? I’m looking forward to working with someone in a similar role. I spent a number of years as part of a TechPubs team and I appreciate the advantages multiple writers can bring to an organization.
Tell us about your family. I am married with four children ranging from 16 to 31 years old, and we have a Bichon-Schnauzer puppy named Tessa.
What are your hobbies? What do you like to do for fun? I am a brown belt in Shotokan Karate and I also enjoy kickboxing.
What’s one food that you can’t live without? Roast beef and Yorkshire pudding; tastes amazing and reminds me of family.
What’s your favorite movie or TV show? The Shawshank Redemption. Great cast, great story!
What’s your favorite vacation spot? Palm Springs, California. Love the beauty of the desert, and after living in Calgary, Alberta for several years I really appreciate warm temperatures in the winter.
Petr Havlik | Front End Engineer | Victoria, BC, Canada
Explain your role, in a nutshell. I’m a software developer with focus on web technologies, in particular client applications (i.e. those running in web browsers).
Tell us a bit about your educational / professional background. I studied at the Czech Technical University in Prague, where I graduated with a master’s degree in Computational Physics.
What are you most looking forward to, being a part of the StorMagic team? I am looking forward to meeting new, smart people to chat and exchange ideas, knowledge and experience with. Also, as a core developer of SvKMS, I’m looking forward to seeing this application being deployed and used on a large scale, and hearing from customers about their experience.
What are your hobbies? What do you like to do for fun? I love sports and board games. You can often find me on a tennis court or running on some trails. I also read a lot of technical and scientific books and also kill a lot of time on YouTube (though watching mostly educational videos or recording of sport events).
What’s one food that you can’t live without? Dark chocolate
What’s your favorite vacation spot? I love the ocean and mountains, but when I have a chance to go for a vacation, I pick Prague.
Kyle Wuolle | Senior Software Developer | Victoria, BC, Canada
Explain your role, in a nutshell. I am a full stack developer (Java, JavaScript, PHP, etc.) on the SvKMS team and my main area of expertise is KMIP and integration work.
Tell us a bit about your educational / professional background. I’ve been writing software for 20 years. I started my career in a large consulting firm, working with public sector clients on large systems development. I then moved on to work for a record label and digital music distribution company, which is now owned by Universal Music Group. Then, I worked for a software company that made POS software for pizza restaurants, and finally moved on to KeyNexus (now StorMagic).
What are you most looking forward to, being a part of the StorMagic team? I am looking forward to learning more about storage solutions and working within a larger company.
Tell us about your family. I am married with three children. We have two birds, who are often heard during our daily standup meetings since we’re all working from home at the moment.
What are your hobbies? What do you like to do for fun? I like outdoor activities (i.e. fishing, hiking, and camping). We often take long trips in our RV around Vancouver Island and enjoy all it has to offer.
What’s one food that you can’t live without? Pizza for sure! We typically have it once a week.
What’s your favorite movie or TV show? Why do you love it? Top Gun, mostly because it reminds me of when I was young.
What’s your favorite vacation spot? I really like Maui; hopefully I’ll be able to go again soon!
Paul Lechner | Security Product Manager | Victoria, BC, Canada
Explain your role, in a nutshell. I own the product direction for our security products. Product management acts as the hub of all things related to the product, from ideation, to marketing and sales, and working with the technical team to define the product set and prioritize features in the development process. At the end of the day, it’s about understanding customer needs and translating them into products/services that solve their problems better than anyone else.
Tell us a bit about your educational / professional background. I’ve always been at the intersection of translating business problems into technical solutions. The many hats I’ve worn include senior roles in product management, product marketing, digital advertising, user experience (UX) design, business development, and strategy. I have a business degree in Management Information Systems from the University of St. Thomas in Houston, Texas.
What are you most looking forward to, being a part of the StorMagic team? I’m excited about having the powerhouse sales and marketing team at StorMagic to help realize the potential of SvKMS.
Tell us about your family. I’m married with three children that range from middle school all the way up to university age. My middle-schooler loves to create and design. He’s currently using his 3D printer to make protective masks for the hospital. My high-schooler loves all things sports, with soccer and tennis being his main activities. While only a teenager, he’s taken his savings from his part time jobs to invest in the stock market and he’s up more than me. My precocious daughter is writing a move script while at the same time planning to go to law school. My wife ensures we all keep it together through this crazy time and actively supports schools in implementing wellness programs.
What are your hobbies? What do you like to do for fun? I love good wine and food; I participate in several clubs that meet to enjoy fine vino and steak. Since moving to Canada, I’ve taken to squash, which is like racquetball but with a ball that doesn’t move as fast, so you have to run more. I’m also enjoying daily ping pong games with my son, although he’s starting to beat me.
What’s your favorite movie or TV show? Why do you love it? It’s a toss-up between Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and The Matrix. Ferris reminds me to take life less seriously and reminds me of the fun of being a teenager and The Matrix is a just a great action movie with a bit of headiness thrown in.
What’s your favorite vacation spot? Italy. The beauty of the country and the food are incomparable. You can’t fault a country where everyone eats gelato all the time.
Jeff Crowe | Senior Software Developer | Victoria, BC, Canada
Explain your role, in a nutshell. Engineering and Architecture, mainly backend focused
Tell us a bit about your educational / professional background. Bachelor of Software Engineering, master’s in electrical engineering. Varied work and coop background in VoIP, SaaS, C++ app development, etc.
What are you most looking forward to, being a part of the StorMagic team? Learning about how the internals work and helping to improve things, and having more resources to lean on.
Tell us about your family. I’m married and my wife and I have a one-year-old daughter. Our dog, Muffin, is the office dog for Victoria
What are your hobbies? What do you like to do for fun? I enjoy woodworking, electronics, 3D printing, and playing squash.
What’s one food that you can’t live without? Chocolate
What’s your favorite movie or TV show? The Princess Bride; It’s the greatest love story of all time.
What’s your favorite vacation spot? Home
We look forward to working with all of our new teammates in Victoria! In addition to growing our team, we’ve also released a new product, SvKMS, and expanded into the security market. Learn more about all the exciting updates happening at StorMagic, in our other recent blog post: Bringing the Edge to the Core: StorMagic Launches SvKMS.
Watch our latest video to hear from our executive team about the acquisition, the launch of SvKMS, and what it means for the business as a whole and our customers.
