Shafer Walters Group: Decades of Depth
Shafer Walters Group is a Delaware Corporation with headquarters in Austin, Texas, and research facilities in Monterey, CA. Although the company is only a few years old, it was formed by the combination of Dan Shafer’s 15-year-old technology consultancy and publisher, Shafer Media, and Chipp Walters’ 11-year-old Altuit, Inc., a software design, development, publishing and consulting company.
Co-founders Shafer and Walters combined have more than 65 years of experience in the software, multimedia, Web, publishing, design, 3-D design and related fields. Both are award winners in their respective fields and both have sterling reputations for credibility, client-awareness, expertise and integrity.
They have surrounded themselves with a cast of serious experts in their respective fields whom they assign, Mission Impossible-style, to each client and project to maximize their talents and achieve the client’s objectives smoothly, efficiently and in the best possible way. Here are a few of the people who work in the Shafer Walters Group.
Dan Shafer, Chairman
Dan has been involved in the world of high-tech for more than 40 years. He has held positions as a programmer, systems analyst, software designer, system architect, manger, VP of public relations, VP of marketing, and CEO of numerous companies. He built his career primarily around his ability to think outside the box and to communicate complex ideas clearly and simply. The author of more than 50 published books about computers and high-technology, he has authored manuals for dozens of Silicon Valley companies of all sizes, including Apple Computer, Hewlett-Packard, Sun Microsystems, Intel, National Semiconductor, and FMC. He is well known in the world of end user programming, having authored the first book dedicated to scripting in Apple’s HyperTalk language, a similar Oracle product called OracleCard, Runtime Revolution’s scripting language which is now called LiveCode, and several other languages similarly aimed at non-programmers. He created the term “Inventive User” to describe this market and published The Inventive User Letter.
Quick to see the potential of the Web when he got a sneak peak of the first beta release of what became Netscape and then Firefox, Dan joined Salon.com as their Senior Webmaster and Director of Technology. He nursed that award-winning publication’s technology through the early days, including helping to design and deploy a discussion board that remains best of breed today. From Salon, Dan was heavily recruited by CNET.com where he spent four years as Editorial Director, columnist, and Chairman of Builder.com Live!, a New Orleans-based gathering of Web designers and developers that was among the most popular conferences in the market.
A much-sought-after speaker, Dan has served as a keynoter, main speaker, presenter and panel member at such conferences as MacWorld Expo, Mac:NY, and AusWeb, among others.
Combining his years of experience with his ability to understand and explain complex concepts, Dan plays the key role of Chief Visionary Officer of SWG. He personally oversees or prepares every strategic plan and related document you’ll receive from SWG.
Chris Bohnert, CTO
Chris is a co-founder of Altuit and heads up Shafer Walters Group’s technology think tank. Chris’s responsibilities include the design, management, implementation, and evolution of all server architectures. Chris is a recognized technology innovator with over 20-years experience in designing and implementing client-server and distributed server products for a variety of applications ranging from multi-media to customer relationship management to knowledge management and Geographic Information Systems. His portfolio of customer engagements and accomplishments span Fortune 100 companies and government agencies including Texas Instruments, State of Texas, AT&T and Nortel Networks. Chris is an avid supporter and contributor to the Open Source Software (OSS) movement and in his off-time enjoys designing and building foldable kayaks.
Rebecca Sheranian, Project Manager
Becka reports directly to the CEO and assists with the planning, scheduling and oversight of various jobs and contracts. Occasionally, she lends a hand to our visual & graphics design, marketing efforts and project documentation.
She works closely with our customer partners to help identify clear project goals, objectives and deliverables, resolve special issues and to bring about the successful completion of a project. She is dedicated to customer satisfaction, focused on quality, and continuously pursues project improvement.
With a Master of Science in Managing Information Technology and an undergraduate degree in Telecommunications, Multimedia and Applied computing, Becka brings a unique blend of talents to the team.
Heather Shafer, Testing
Heather Shafer is a highly self-motivated freelance professional dedicated, focused and extremely detail oriented in multiple kinds of software testing. She has a passion for great websites and takes every task personally by going above and beyond. Skilled in being able to maintain the integrity of site content and functionality in even complicated and multi-layered sites. She is experienced in multiple types of Software QA testing and works with our clients to create Test Plans and User Scenarios for testing.
Chipp Walters, CEO
Chipp founded Altuit in early 2001. In his role as CEO there and at Shafer Walters Group, Chipp is responsible for the company’s vision and direction. A successful serial entrepreneur, Chipp has previously demonstrated his talent for combining graphic design with software products and services by building several highly successful companies. His resume includes executive-level founding roles at ThePort, Inc. (a software firm in Atlanta), Human Code (a multi-national company developing custom interactive experiences for e-learning, digital business, and entertainment), and Design Edge (an award-winning industrial design firm). In addition to his success as an entrepreneur, Chipp is the recipient of numerous industry awards in both interactive media and industrial design including being named one of International Design Magazine’s Top 40 Innovators, and one of the top100 Multimedia Producers in the country. Under his leadership, Human Code received numerous Gold, Silver and Bronze Invision Awards, as well as three prestigious Awards of Excellence.
Steve Lomas – Idea Mechanic, Senior Lead
A veteran television producer with more than 20 years experience working in digital media, as a designer, writer, producer, architect, team lead and account management, Steve Lomas has been responsible for dozens of interactive projects. He was an early adopter and practitioner of the Agile Scrum project management methodology, Steve has the focus and the ability to move fluidly between disciplines to address the needs of our clients and their projects.
Paul Warren, Web Developer
Paul is a designer by training and a self-taught web developer. He has spent 15 years developing sites for various clients. In 2005, he saw the potential of content management systems and, after looking at the available options, chose to devote himself to mastering all things WordPress.
Today, he is able to take web-based projects, from initial mock-up to completion, with speed, agility, and technical proficiency – bringing to life client’s visions.