Phase2 and OpenSourcery: What’s New in Portland?
Phase2 and OpenSourcery: What’s New in Portland?
Jeff Walpole | CEO
September 25, 2014
Once again, Phase2 has some exciting developments happening in Portland. Earlier this year, we announced the expansion of our team with the addition of the talented team from SuperStar Media. Now, we are proud to announce that we are expanding again with the amazing addition of the “superstars” of the OpenSourcery team.
This month, we have hired 14 members of this great company, which is shutting down operations on October 1. Due to their active participation in the Drupal and open source communities over the past 10 years, we knew the OpenSourcery team to not only be immensely skilled and experienced, but also very well-matched with Phase2’s collaborative and fun culture.
So how did we find ourselves in the position to add these 14 exceptional employees to the Phase2 family? The close-knit, collaborative nature of the open source communities (particularly in Portland!) played a big role. As two experienced Drupal shops, Phase2 and OpenSourcery have maintained a presence at many of the same events, camps, and cons throughout the years, but connections between the two firms existed on a personal level as well. Many of our Portland-based staff regularly attended the city’s Drupal User Group, which has been hosted by OpenSourcery for the past six years. We engaged the team to work on our projects and found that indeed their talent and values were well aligned to our own.
Luckily, this opportunity with OpenSourcery came at precisely the right moment for Phase2 in terms of our West Coast expansion. When we opened our initial Portland office in January, we saw enormous potential for growth in Portland, a city that is a hub of technical innovation and home to some of the most talented people working in open source. However, we could not have predicted how quickly our team would take root and flourish from one to thirty just this year!
As Project Manager Amye Scavarda wrote in a recent blog post, “Like the city itself, Phase2 embraces growth, innovation, partnership – and above all, culture.” I’d take this statement one step farther, and say that not only Portland but the open source community as a whole stands for these values. We are truly lucky to have found more people here who understand the open principles and shared values that drive our company culture.
So, I am proud and excited to be able to introduce the 14 newest members of the Phase2 family! Today, we welcome Anthony Cast, Jonathan Hedstrom, Maria Fisher, Jesse Hofmann-Smith, Delona Lang, Mike Nielson, Eric Paul, Austin Prohl, Anne Sturdivant, Jeff Wax, Sheena Morris, Chris Wright, John Cartier, and Ian Chamberlain. Welcome aboard!