Mentors

Umbraco Master: Almost as cool as a Dungeon Master, but infinitely more useful to our client partners. Scott, a member of the SQUWIX team for over eight years, wears the Umbraco Master title with pride and has achieved every certification that Umbraco offers. Give him a technical challenge and he’ll master it. Scott wears lots of hats. He deftly handles all forms of development including front-end, back-end, and server architecture. You’ll even find him running our laser engraving machine. Scott is not someone we hide in a back room so that he can write code all day; he interfaces directly with our client-partners and shares his expertise firsthand.

Originally from the Milwaukee suburbs, Scott took a leap of faith and moved to Denver several years ago. Colorado’s better-than-Wisconsin weather means that he can get outdoors more often, riding his motorcycle and playing disc golf (but not typically at the same time). While the motorcycle might lead you to believe that he’s the rebellious sort, Scott admits to a pet peeve that paints a slightly different picture: he hates messy code.

Something people are surprised to learn: Scott sports several tattoos and piercings and has been known to sit still for up to 11 hours for a tattoo session.

His commitment to fitness might make you feel a bit guilty about your own workout regime (or lack thereof) but being around the ever-cheerful Andrew Barta is an instant mood-lifter. He joined the SQUWIX team to lead some of our critical marketing initiatives, but his varied background brings value in many areas. Andrew’s most recent position was with Umbraco HQ, helping to grow Umbraco’s presence in the U.S. He’s an Umbraco Certified Master with a strong training background, having trained hundreds of Umbraco developers and end-users. 

Originally from the Pacific Northwest, Andrew attended Western Washington University, earning a BA in Management Information Systems as well as a BA in Marketing. Andrew has one sister and remains close to his family. 

People who know Andrew are unable to describe him without using the word “traveler.” Andrew absolutely loves to travel and does so every chance he gets, criss-crossing the U.S. as well as visiting other countries. He currently lives in North Carolina with his girlfriend (plus his girlfriend’s daughter) but visits Washington when he can. Andrew has a pretty wide daredevil streak and enjoys everything from mountain climbing to offroading. 

Andrew describes himself as happy, resilient, determined, and disciplined. He focuses on being “realistically optimistic,” nurturing his glass-is-half-full philosophy while not letting the glass overflow. Andrew enjoys the process of building from the ground up - from teams to processes and everything in between. He has experience in software engineering and product delivery and makes a great addition to every team he’s on.

Unlike many Coloradans, RJ does not ski, snowboard, or bike through the mountains. When the authorities find out, he’ll likely be escorted to the Rockies and told not to come back until he develops an appreciation for the great outdoors. In the meantime, RJ enjoys playing retro video games like Super Mario World. He’s also an enthusiastic fan of stand-up comedy. Lewis Black and Eddie Izzard are among his favorite comedians. 

RJ is a certified nopCommerce developer; achieving that certification was no small feat! RJ is SQUWIX's Director of eCommerce but is in no way limited to eCommerce work. He’s a well-rounded full-stack developer who can take on virtually any challenge. RJ prides himself on his ability to dig into code, identify issues or inefficiencies, and relay that information in a way that makes sense even to non-technical folks. He also enjoys mentoring junior developers. 

RJ grew up knowing that he wanted to be a developer and wrote his first program at just 13 years of age. He later studied Computer Science in college. Originally from South Dakota, RJ grew up in a military family and moved around quite a bit before settling in the Denver area in 2008. He is the proud dad of three children (one grown and two youngsters). RJ describes himself as funny, calm, and understanding, traits that surely come in handy when raising children. 

Random fact: RJ is known as a “hat guy” and has an impressive collection of headgear. His co-workers are waiting to see if he shows up in a stovepipe hat a la Abraham Lincoln. 

Jason, who has 25+ years of experience in the IT game, is one of our senior developers and he knows all the things. Hardware, software, you name it - he’s what we call a Full Stack Developer. Like many of our SQUWIX team members, Jason proudly holds several Umbraco certifications.

Although we like to tease Jason about his questionable sentence construction in emails, he actually earned his undergraduate degree in Journalism. He holds an MBA with a focus on project management. In addition to his technical titles, he also answers to the most important one of all: dad. Jason is a native of Indiana but has lived in Colorado for many moons.

Jason is motivated by a desire to do good work, pure and simple. He likes being able to build something that solves a problem or fills a need. When he’s not saving the world through good code, Jason enjoys skiing, mountain biking, acting, and basic woodworking.

Unnecessary piece of technology he admits to owning: VR Headset

He’s certified, he’s data-driven, and he can cook! Meet Steve, a skilled Paid Media Strategist with charisma to spare. 

Steve is a Denver native; he’s lived in Colorado all his life except for a one-year stint living in Australia. He lived in a big city (Sydney) and hence does not have any exciting stories about Australian wildlife (we definitely asked). After high school, he earned a Liberal Arts degree (with a minor in History as well as a minor in Marketing) from Colorado State University. Steve’s career path began in hospitality, a decade-long journey that gave him invaluable skills in working with many different types of people.

In time, Steve made the leap from hospitality to digital marketing. The more he learned about the psychology of how a user finds products/services and whether or not that interaction results in a sale/conversion, the more fascinated he became. Steve knew he wanted to get inside the head of that user and use data to make predictions and informed recommendations. He found that he had a natural skill in this arena and loves finding new ways to use technology and data to drive results. 

Since coming to the dark - er, data - side, he's built a solid background in digital marketing, holding leadership positions along the way.  In addition to PPC, Steve also has a solid understanding of SEO, Social Media,  and SEM principles. He holds multiple Google certifications: Google Search, Google Analytics, and Google Measurements.

Steve and his girlfriend share their home with a cat and a dog. He enjoys cooking, snowboarding, and watching football. His years in the restaurant industry taught him priceless kitchen skills. He describes himself as being even-keeled, pragmatic, self-motived, and chock full of leadership skills. Steve prides himself on always leaving a job well done. 

Random fact: Steve was once a nationally-ranked distance runner. Nope, no one was chasing him!