Meet Adrian Alleyne, our VP Delivery, Americas, from Vancouver.
1. Who are you? What's your story?
I'm Adrian Alleyne, VP of Delivery for the Americas. I'm from the UK, originally from London, that's where I was born and bred. I've been living in Canada now since 1988, so if I do the math, I think I've now been in Canada longer than the UK! I've been in technology mostly all my working career, started off in aviation, worked as an architect building flight simulators, air traffic control systems etc., so mission critical systems is my specialty. I lived in Toronto for a short time, then made my way to Vancouver in the mid-90s kind of when the internet was starting to catch on and did some consulting work with some friends of mine. Started a company doing early internet based applications for healthcare organizations, credit card fraud, systems for online casinos. Basically since that time I've been heavily involved in the digital related space, building and consulting on large digital solutions for companies. My previous role at Blast Radius as VP of Production was very similar to what I do now at Appnovation.
On the personal side, I've got 3 kids that are now grown, well almost! Twins that are currently in grade 12 and a 21-year-old that's in university.
2. What's your role at Appnovation?
It's really making sure that our projects are delivered successfully. And what I mean by that is that client expectations are met and exceeded as far as what they were promised, the teams that deliver these projects have fun and enjoy what they do (I think that's important as well), and making sure budgets are in check all the way through the engagement. Focusing on making sure the clients are happy and that we build a long term relationship with them.
3. What's the greatest lesson you've learned in your professional career (or even personal life) that you would like to share with others?
When there’s an issue either professionally or personally, address it right away, don’t delay in letting clients and people know when there’s a problem.
4. What do you do outside of work?
It used to be looking after the kids but now they're kind of doing their own thing. I'm a passionate traveler and also love the automotive space. I belong to car clubs and attend car rallies and those trips are like mini-holidays so I enjoy that. I'm also a big Formula One fan (since '74) and try to at least attend a race a year. I remember having a magazine on the '74 season, and I may still have it somewhere kicking around in a box! Montreal of course is one of the big ones, and I've traveled to almost all of the European races now. Asia is definitely next on my Bucket List for attending a race. Favourite driver right now would be Lewis Hamilton, but I've also been a long time Ferrari fan.
5. Where do you hope to take your career at this point/what's next for you in your professional career?
I'm very excited where Appnovation is at currently as an organization, and for me, I'm really interested in how we get to that next level to be a full service digital agency. That's where my focus is and I'm happy to keep driving towards that goal with the amazing team we have: growing out the Americas region, building a solid development team in South America, building up our presence in Toronto and really just seeing the company grow.
*BONUS* What is one fun/random fact about you that many may not know?
I deliberately park 30 minutes away from the Vancouver office, this gets me my 10,000 steps per day and it’s a great time to listen to podcasts like Kara Swisher’s and Scott Galloway’s PIVOT.
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