Company-X directors David Hallett and Jeremy Hughes reckon Hamilton should be renamed SiliTron . . . and they’re not being silly.
The naming suggestion comes after Company-X saw unprecedented growth over the last year as Hallett and Hughes hired more software developers, web application developers, mobile application developers, business analysts, and project managers.
The suggestion also follows the latest in a long line of visits to the region by Microsoft New Zealand general manager Barrie Sheers, himself a Waikato born and bred technologist.
“For years the Waikato, with Hamilton at its heart, has been earning the international reputation of being the Silicon Valley of New Zealand,” Hallett said.
“Microsoft New Zealand, under Barrie Sheers’ leadership, is helping businesses like ours build on that reputation further.”
Silicon Valley in the southern San Francisco Bay Area of the US is home to thousands of start-up technology companies and many multi-nationals. On a New Zealand scale the Waikato, with Hamilton nicknamed the Tron at its heart, is not too different.
“If you put Silicon and the Tron together you get SiliTron,” Hughes said. “So, you could call it SiliTron.”
Which is why Hughes moved from Auckland to the Waikato years ago, so that he could live and surf in Raglan, and work in Hamilton.
Since then Company-X has thrilled businesses from one-person bands to government agencies with its software solutions.
It’s precisely how Company-X, under the leadership of David and Jeremy, has helped the region build on its reputation. And because the directors have added capability after capability to the business through the strategic hiring of some of the best software developers New Zealand has to offer.
It’s because of the capabilities of businesses like Company-X that Sheers, from Microsoft New Zealand, is a regular visitor to the region, offering support and encouragement wherever he can.
In the past, he’s called the Waikato “a really interesting technology hub”.
This month Sheers added: “The Waikato region remains as robust and buoyant a business community as ever. The Waikato ICT sector is employing more than 2600 people, and contributing over $100M in exports and over $700M to New Zealand’s GDP. Microsoft is continuing to work with start-ups, the public sector and our partner businesses to keep progress moving towards Waikato becoming a leading tech-hub for New Zealand.”
“It’s fantastic to see a company with Microsoft’s clout in the technology space really back the Waikato,” said Hallett.
“The more we see the likes of Barrie Sheers about town, offering Microsoft support, the faster the Waikato’s reputation will continue to grow.”
There’s other reasons Hallett and Hughes said the Waikato was well regarded in the technology space.
“The University of Waikato in Hamilton is renowned for producing some of the country’s top technologists such as Dr Craig Nevill-Manning, who was headhunted by the founders of Google to be the director of Google’s New York Engineering complex,” Hallett said.
Craig has been a regular visitor to the Waikato over the years.
Then there’s also the matter of geography.
The Waikato is about as geologically stable as New Zealand can get, making it an ideal place to base a business that stands to be resilient.
Read Stuff’s coverage of : Microsoft pushing Waikato as a technology hub