As part of our series of expert interviews with team members across the global Energy One group, we interview Tom Kawka, who is based in our UK office as he discusses his new role.
Hi Tom – firstly, could you tell us about your role at Energy One and share with us your experience so far?
I started my role as Head of Technology UK here about three months ago, and prior to that I was Head of Development for Arden University. I was a serial entrepreneur for some time before that and I’ve also worked as a software manager at MediaLogix, delivering digital asset management solutions. These different experiences mean I’m very commercially-minded and find global markets that we work with at Energy One extremely fascinating, specific and complex. With the geographical differences in the markets, we need to adapt different solutions to fit the marketplaces our clients work in. Because of my experience in analytics with financial markets, I love seeing the data that flows through Energy One software and enjoy adapting that data to help the clients and form a proper strategy.
Since joining Energy One, what have you found you like most about your job?
Multi-tasking! Working in the UK while being exposed to the global business is fascinating because we are able to share our knowledge and solutions amongst the group. There is a strategic and technical depth that we gain through these different insights, and it is interesting to see how the various teams across the group respond to ideas like cloud utilisation, for example.
I also believe that everything we do in technology should be commercially driven, so I enjoy that my role is exposed to the commercial element of company operations.
It’s clear you value the globalised, commercial approach to our technology, so how would you say Energy One UK is staying on top of the latest tech trends?
Big strands of the company are focused on the energy trading market, so that experience and expertise we have allows us to stay on top of it and ahead of our competitors. This plays a key role in the development of our technology, because this knowledge is being translated into both functional and non-functional elements of our applications that we can use to expand our solutions to make them more flexible and scalable.
Are there any exciting updates you can share?
Over the past three to four months that I have been with the company, one of the key performance indicators was to continually improve the ETRM application’s performance. We were able to apply various performance improvements techniques to our solution, and we’re now releasing those updates in v12 of enTrader.
We also wanted to improve the user experience as part of this development, and we were able to do this by adding new themes within the application. Our client-focused approach across the company means we can continue to modernise the solutions and update as we need.
And finally…what do you like doing in your spare time?
I spend a lot of my time focused on technology, even when I’m away from the office. I have my own podcast, where I share my passion for technology leadership, and I’m in the process of writing my first book on the topic!
Away from technology, I enjoy an adrenaline rush – I used to do a lot of parachuting and skydiving. Not so much nowadays unfortunately, though. I can also fly planes and enjoy riding motorbikes to get the thrill! I also spend a lot of time with my family; I have three kids and we have a lot of fun together. They’re big football fans, so we love to watch or play together.
