Ben Dechrai is many things, including a technologist, teacher, presenter and hard-core privacy nut, but most of all, he is a passionate supporter of gigantic ideas, minds and goals.

He predominantly works as a consultant helping organisations of all sizes with all aspects of their IT systems, from analysis and design to implementation, maintenance and support. Ben’s skills also include systems and database administration, and standards-compliant and accessible front-end development.

An experienced PHP developer, Ben has used, taught and shared experience of the language since 1999, including aspects to security and best practice required to allow PHP to become an engineer’s tool, rather than the scripting language that has earned a poor reputation.

With over a decade’s experience across PHP development, team leading, and technical project management roles, Ben has the capacity to quickly adapt to a new environment and confidently lead a team of developers. He prefers to work using agile development methodologies, and to contribute to the open source community where possible.

An international presenter and author, he is able to communicate with any group or audience, be it an internal training session, client briefing or presentation to the board. Ben also enjoys providing business guidance to Start-ups and SMEs.

He is, or has been, an active member of the Open Source Developers’ Conference, Linux Conference Australia, Melbourne PHP Users Group, BarCamp Melbourne, and Linux Users Victoria.