Zanicar

Resume

Bio

Profile Picture

Hi, I am Zanicar, a.k.a. Billa Coetsee.

I am an experienced Systems Architect and General Systems Engineer with a passion for digital technology. Over the past two decades I have fulfilled the roles of R&D Engineering Manager, Chief Information Officer, Chief Technology Officer and Chief Operating Officer for various local and international technology start ups, small businesses and corporations working in open-source, commercial, non-profit and government-based environments.

I love being involved with the high level strategic management aspects of my projects, as well as the low level technical implementation details thereof. I have an obsession with understanding how things work and interrelate; Especially with how things could work better together.

Combined with my soft skills and formal background in psychology, I work as an enabler of my team and integrator across the organization. I have an authoritative engagement style that seeks to foster cooperation and unlock hidden potential.

I create and optimize systems.


Profile

Responsibilities

Organizational Development

I constantly look for opportunities to optimize organizational efficiency. I identify issues, recommend solutions and implement them.

Team Management

I believe people perform at their best when their personal and professional goals are aligned with their work. I motivate, inspire and support my team towards this end. I build teams where individual members compliment each other and the majority of their tasks fall within the domains that provide them with personal satisfaction and a sense of achievement.

Communication

I utilize the combination of my people skills and technical skills to communicate clearly between engineering and non-engineering functions. I excel at converting business requirements into technical specifications; and conversely, to highlight technical achievements and issues in non-technical terms.

Knowledge Transfer & Continuity

I foster an environment of collaboration and cooperation. Everyone has something to offer and everyone has something to learn. Successful knowledge transfer yields growth for all individuals involved, and ensures organizational continuity.

Career Achievements

  • Successfully launched two independent self-soveriegn blockchain networks in the Cosmos ecosystem. Archway, an incentivized smart contract network, as the protocol engineering manager; and before that, Quicksilver, a liquid staking protocol, as a protocol engineer. The protocol team at Archway successfully delivered multiple, fully-audited, network upgrades that included feature additions and even critical security advisories from upstream dependencies (a.k.a. emergency upgrades).
  • Led blockchain and crypto kickoff strategies for Internationally listed and local fintech start-ups in the areas of remittance and payment systems;
  • Chairman of the South African Committee of BSA | The Software Alliance - the leading advocate for the global software industry before governments and in the international marketplace. Reduced software piracy not only through effective enforcement, but also through a joint initiative between BSA, the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC) and the Dramatic, Artistic and Literary Rights Organization (DALRO) on raising awareness on intellectual property (IP) rights and utilizing compliance measures such as Software Asset Management (SAM) programs;
  • Designed and deployed the first successful cloud computing solution for a national education network in a severely constrained technological environment;
  • Developed a Software as a Service (SaaS) business model with the finance team of a consortium that was both profitable and highly competitive;
  • Provided real-time online access to 16-bit legacy systems used by government entities as well as their external oversight providers such as SAICA (South African Institute of Chartered Accountants);
  • Developed a comprehensive security solution with customized VPN components (StrongSWAN IPSEC and OpenVPN) to accomodate integration with various independent networks that were subject to outbreaks of virus infestations, ransomware attacks, cyber threats and even occasional malicious internal actors. The robust defence in depth architecture allowed the system to maintain a 99% uptime over its entire 5 year lifespan, with no reported security breaches and no data loss;
  • Implemented a progressive backup solution capable of quick data recovery with minimal operational impact. It was often used to recover accidental data deletions and occasionally even for cyber forensics;
  • Migrated a South African retailer, that experienced mission critical downtime at its over 100 stores in major malls across South Africa, to a custom designed infrastructure solution in just 30 days from first contact. At day 60 unscheduled downtime was practically eliminated and emerging threats and opportunities identified. Developed a comprehensive IT infrastructure improvement and management plan with their internal IT team that was deployed over the next 30 days. At day 90, Point-of-Sales reponse times were significantly improved from multiple seconds to fractions of a second;
  • Developed an ecommerce system for a non-profit organization responsible for the distribution of both physical and digital media (CDs, DVDs, MP3s, Books and ebooks) of a particular international author/speaker across Africa. Implemented an SEO strategy that was so effective the site surpassed the author's official site and more than 50% of the digital distribution was for customers outside of Africa;

Core Skills & Technologies

  • Effective Communication

  • Creative Problem Solving

  • Critical Thinking

  • Adaptability

  • Emotional Intelligence

  • Knowledge Transfer

  • Strategic Management

  • Business Development


  • Go

  • BadgerDB

  • Rust

  • Bevy

  • Arduino

  • HTML

  • CSS

  • Javascript


Curriculum Vitae

Career History

  • Noctranet (Pty) Ltd
    Technology Management Consulting
    Managing Director
    Jannuary 2008 to present
    • Go, Rust, C++, C
    • Badger, Postgres, Dgraph
    • Arduino, RaspberryPi
    • HTML, CSS, Javascript, Typescript
    • Vue, Parceljs, JQuery
    • LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP)
  • Phi Labs Ltd
    Archway Protocol (incentivized smart contract network)
    https://archway.io/
    Protocol Engineering Manager
    February 2023 to December 2024
    • Jira, Linear
    • CosmosSDK, Cosmwasm
    • Security Audits, Upstream Dependency Management
  • Ingenuity Build
    Quicksilver Protocol (liquid staking)
    https://quicksilver.zone/
    Protocol Engineer
    March 2022 to January 2023
    • CosmosSDK, IBC
    • Security Audits
    • Go
  • Claymore Capital (fintech group)
    LNDR - Blockchain Strategy (remittance)
    CreditStore - Strategy, Technical Oversight, COO
    October 2019 to June 2020
    • Crypto Exchange Systems
    • Banking License Compliance
    • FinTech Systems Design
    • Magento
  • MyBucks (listed on Frankfurt Stock Exchange)
    Blockchain Strategy Consulting (Crypto Exchange - Crypto Remittance)
    January 2019 to June 2019
    • Crypto Exchange Systems
    • Banking License Compliance
    • FinTech Systems Design
  • BSA | The Software Alliance
    https://www.bsa.org/
    Chairman - South Africa
    November 2014 to January 2019
    • Legal
    • Intellectual Property (IP)
    • Compliance Management
  • Corepoint Consulting
    Chief Technology Officer
    June 2011 to May 2016
    • StrongSWAN IPSEC VPN & OpenVPN
    • Cloud Architecture
    • VM Deployment, Monitoring and Backups
    • SonicWall, Kaspersky
  • Revelation Systems (a.k.a. DataCyte)
    System Developer
    February 2007 to December 2007
    • C++
    • Lua
    • Javascript
  • PC Consultants
    System Developer & Consultant
    November 2004 to January 2007
    • JSP & Apache Tomcat
    • Java
    • HTML, CSS, Javascript
  • PC Consultants
    Network and Hardware Technician
    January 2001 to December 2001
    • Cat 5e Technical Networking
    • Novell Netware
    • Microsoft Windows

Education

  • MSc: Technology Management with distinction
    An Integrated Value Proposition Model For 21st Century Organizations
    (A Sustainable, Responsible Technology Driven Innovation Framework)
    University of Pretoria
    2008-2009
  • BSc: (Hons) - Management of Technology
    Engeneering Economics, Entrepreneurship
    University of Pretoria
    2006-2007
  • BSc: IT - Information and Knowledge Systems
    Systems Analysis & Design, Psychology
    University of Pretoria
    2002-2004
  • Member of Golden Key International Honour Society