Crafty Penguins is a brand name for the Linux & DevOps consulting division of Kerkhoff Technologies Inc, and IT consulting company founded by Wim Kerkhoff in January 2007. Linux and other Open Source software is our background and passion.
Wim’s first Linux exposure was to Slackware (installed using a stack of floppy disks!) and Debian in the 1998 era. His career roadmap winds through fulltime Linux/Perl development, Windows/VB6/MSSQL development, ISP NOC support, and building a professional managed services team as founder and CEO of the company. He enjoys digging into tough problems and finding creative solutions, regardless of the technology area. He lives in Chilliwack with his wife and 6 young children. [LinkedIn]
Richard has been involved with Linux since early 1994, and enjoys bringing the Linux/GNU based OS to as many companies and individuals as he can, including recent work to help setup Linux based computer labs for Students and Hospitals in Guinea, Africa. Through the 90’s Richard was focused on IT management. Through the early 2000’s he worked as Sr. Software Engineer on various embedded software projects. In 2011 Richard joined the company as a Systems Architect specializing in Linux systems. He labels himself as Jack of all trades and Master of whatever he has been working on for the last month.
Rob started playing with Linux in ’95 by installing Redhat Linux 1.0 on a 386 via 5’1/4 floppy using the Rhode University LAN and FTP server. Cutting edge technology has always been a draw card for Rob, and as such the move from South Africa to Canada was an easy choice. His background is also software development, ISP support, and mobile network engineering. Rob joined the company in September 2014 as a penguin (Linux) and packet (Networks) wrangler.
Matt’s Linux experience began with Ubuntu on a small VPS when cloud servers were still considered the next great thing. He brings expertise in Linux networking and software development, having created software for VPN tunneling, transparent proxies, distributed monitoring and metrics collection, and large-scale configuration management. Matt also has a strong background in systems orchestration, DevOps practices, and project management. He graduated from the University of the Fraser Valley with a Bachelor of Computer Information Systems in 2010, and since then has been involved with Crafty Penguins or related companies in a variety of capacities. He now lives near Victoria, BC with his wife and children.