Staff Profiles

At Enlighten Designs we're not just a bunch of computer nerds hiding in a dark room. Our team is brimming with technical expertise as well as business knowledge and experience.

This enables Enlighten Designs to not only design websites and software applications that work, but more importantly websites and software applications that work for your business.

Some of our key staff include:

Damon Kelly CEO

Damon founded Enlighten Designs in 1998 following the completion of his psychology and cognitive science degree at the University of Waikato. Damon is enthusiastic and motivated, staying highly involved with all aspects of the organisation. Damon’s enthusiasm for, and vast experience in, the ICT industry motivate the Enlighten team and directs them to strive for quality and value within every website design and application development project.

 

Travis Houghton Sales Manager

Travis is Enlighten's sales manager and in many cases the primary point of contact for clients. Travis has been working with Enlighten for 4 years but has been associated with Enlighten since it was established. He has a passion for high quality customer service, a love of marketing and a deep fear of spiders.

 

Damian ChisholmProject Manager & Delivery Lead

Damian is responsible for the production strategy of the company and overseeing successful project management and delivery of products and services to our clients. Damian and the team endeavor to exceed our client’s expectations, providing them with business solutions that match their requirements and; are completed to Enlighten's typically high standards.

 

Pauline WilsonFinancial & Accounting Manager

Polly has been working for Enlighten since 2006, and is responsible for ensuring the smooth running of the office environment and overseeing the financial performance of the company. She strives to provide exceptional customer service to external clients and internal staff. She ensures governance within Enlighten remains active and consistent. She is the company "party planner" to keep the team bonding together for a fun, friendly Enlighten environment.

 

Stacey PetersProduction & Account Manager

In the time Stacey has been at Enlighten she has become a driver of new systems and processes. As Enlighten grows at such a fast rate Stacey is juggling the induction of new employees, management of production and client expectations. New systems and processes mean Stacey’s passion for quality and client satisfaction can be strived for and achieved by everyone in the Enlighten team.

 

Brian McGillivrayAccount Manager

Brian is a new Account Manager at Enlighten. Since completing his Bachelor of Management Studies degree (majoring in Marketing and Japanese), Brian has gained experience in a range of industries including: petrochemical, advertising, online learning and print media. He brings a creative friendly approach to the projects he manages and is dedicated to delivering exceptional customer experiences.

 

Travis SayringQuality Assurance Manager

Travis came to Enlighten in 2005 as a developer; but it soon became apparent that he had numerous other talents which were not being fully utilized. In his years at Enlighten, Travis has developed a passion and commitment for ensuring the delivery of quality solutions; and his new role already sees him implementing innovative processes, technologies, and methodologies to bolster Enlightens never ending pursuit of quality.

 

Eve DuanOnline Marketing Analyst

Eve loves exploring customer needs and always tries to find new ways to serve customers better. She strives to help businesses differentiate themselves amongst their competition by integrating marketing initiatives into business strategy, functions and processes. Eve’s online marketing specialties include search engine optimization, search engine advertising, online classifieds/banners advertising and website performance optimization.

 

Steve Dennis Lead Designer

Since starting at Enlighten, Steve has designed more than 70 websites (including this one). He recently represented New Zealand in the first FullCodePress web development competition, which the NZ team won. He is also widely regarded as an expert in the field of CSS layouts.

 

Cory MckenzieDesigner

Cory comes from a mixed background of web and graphic design. The first was web design and then he moved to an advertising agency and was trained as a Graphic Designer. Cory also freelanced as a web developer/designer and print graphic designer. After getting sick of constantly having to find work so he could eat, Cory gave in to a job as a New Media Designer. It was from here that Cory was sought out by Enlighten.

 

Philip Rayner Senior Developer

Philip has over 10 years of commercial IT experience, four of which he has dedicated to Enlighten. Philip has a passion for finding better ways of doing things. His deeply analytical and mathematical brain contributes to his key strength in understanding systems and the people who work with them. Philip loves a challenge and delivering systems to clients that exceed their expectations.

 

Sam "Betty" McKoySenior Developer

Betty is a senior developer at Enlighten and spends a good portion of his time helping other developers. He has been working for Enlighten since early 2006, finding out about the job through Steve. Betty loves new coding concepts and is a fan of Unit Tests (even if he doesn't always use them). The nickname Betty comes from his friends having an unfortunate lack of knowledge of the movie Kung Pow.

 

Gavin JonesDeveloper

Gavin has been working at Enlighten Designs for a little under a year now, coming fresh from a working holiday in the UK. With a varied history, developing in everything from Oracle Forms, VBA and ASP Classic to .NET Web and Compact Framework (portable) Applications, Gavin is a flexible member of the team. He enjoys the fresh approach at Enlighten and brings an addiction to process and documentation.

 

Verne RobertsDeveloper

Verne has been working for Enlighten since late 2007. With just under 10 years commercial background in electronics and embedded systems, Verne has recently entered the world of software and web design and is loving it. Verne is enthusiastic about technology and innovation and feels strongly about developing easy to use products and applications with good interfaces.

 

Shannon SkinnerDeveloper

Shannon is a new addition to Enlighten Designs, and although he is new to .NET, he has been active in the Web industry for 10 years. Shannon was based at a Crown Research Insitute (NIWA) before moving on to be a Lead Developer at an Advertising Agency after which he moved to Enlighten.

 

Louis SaundersQuality Assurance / Developer

Louis has experience as a developer in Coldfusion and has skills in HTML and CSS. He also has numerous other skills in the web industry from previous employment, such as preparing client proposals, documentation and reports, providing phone support and website systems training. Louis started working at Enlighten at the end of April 2008 as a tester / junior developer and hopes to learn .NET and improve his programming skills.

 

Ashley SteelQuality Assurance / Developer

Ashley has been interested in the web industry for several years and started working at Enlighten to get his foot in the door. Ashley received a programming scholarship to pay for his first year at university and decided to major in software development.  The IT industry is fast-paced and innovative and it is these qualities that keeps Ashley committed to his skill development and focus on usability.