Andy Munarriz

Andy Munarriz joined BCS in 1997 and gained Chartered IT Professional (CITP) status in 2004 together with his Chartered Engineer (CEng) registration.

November 2008 sees the launch of Andy's new company, Hullomail Ltd, the culmination of a journey that began in 1999 when he founded his first company, Voxsurf, and that has seen the creation of next-generation messaging platform, VxOne.

Andy believes he came to understand the true purpose of IT when he worked as a graduate trainee for oil company Conoco Exploration. I basically learned the ropes on help desk, running around fixing problems. I saw first-hand that IT was a tool which, to the end user, should remain invisible, he said.

In his role as CEO, Andy said his focus was now on business development. His team have to keep him away from any involvement in the coding element of the business in an effort to retain that focus - he recently sneaked the iphone SDK onto his laptop and was not seen for a week!

Andy was introduced to BCS by a chartered colleague. He values his own chartered status for the recognition it gives him of his professionalism.

He said: Like architects and structural engineers, it is important to be part of a professional body if you are to keep up-to-date with the wider scope of the profession. BCS often tackles issues that the mainstream IT media don't really cover, for example the very interesting Mashup article I recently read.

Andy said CITP gave him that added professional confidence that he can fall back on and use to his advantage when being vetted, for instance, when he has had to raise funds for his businesses in the past.

We wish Andy the best of luck with his new company!