Meet the Team

Chris Cooke

CEO

“An ego-free culture stops mistakes from becoming failures.”

Although Big Chris was always pretty good at rugby (being in his words “f***ing massive”) he was much more comfortable hanging out with computers than jocks. After growing up watching his dad work far too hard, he decided he wanted to have his own business and do things differently.

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Chris founded three successful startups in Thailand: one was a Scuba Diving School/ Eco-Tourism company dedicated to saving turtles. Once he’d saved enough turtles, he moved back to the UK to pursue his dreams in software.

It was while working for the Atlassian Platinum Solution Partner Clearvision that Chris met Jacek. The two decided there was a gap in the market for easier-to-use Atlassian tools for Jira and Confluence users who don’t have a clue how to code (of which there are many).

Teodora Vasileva

Marketing Manager

“Become friends with failure and you’re already a step ahead.”

Teodora Vasileva is a Confluence junkie, using it to manage both work and life. She loves hiking in the mountains of Bulgaria and dreams of waking up and finding a Welsh Corgi puppy on her bed seeking cuddles.

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Originally a zookeeper at Sofia Zoo teaching kids about wildlife, Teodora has since dabbled in graphic design, photography, marketing, nutrition, even SFX make-up for TV series and movies. (Yeah, we know, she’s super-cool and knows a LOT.)

She tumbled into software and the Atlassian ecosystem after getting recruited by Botron, an Atlassian Marketplace Vendor, eventually becoming a one-woman army for all of Botron’s marketing, events, and partnerships.

And she loves a grumpy cat. The grumpier the better.

Jacek Dębiec

Co-Founder & Sales Director

“No one cares about your sales pitch if you can’t solve their problem.”

Jacek Dębiec is one of those entrepreneurial types who tends to see rules and limitations the way a bull sees a red cape. Determined to have his own business since he could say ‘business’, Jacek started an airport pickup service at university and later a coffee company importing coffee from Vietnam to Poland. This was in between working for Google, Clearvision, and the gaming industry.

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However, these were employed roles that weren’t doing much to feed his entrepreneurial spirit. While working for Clearvision, Jacek gravitated towards Chris because of kindred energies and matching ambitions. He wanted to be the person who could help big enterprises extract more value from their apps, and convince all their stakeholders of the same. As a result, he ensures alignment of our products and our customers’ processes.

In his spare time, Jacek is a keen surfer who once had to wrestle a giant, man-eating crab off his board.*

*Fact check: the crab was only a little bit larger than usual, pinching Jacek’s little finger doesn’t mean it ate people, and flicking it off his board probably isn’t ‘wrestling’.

Jane Techataveekul

Events and Partner Manager

“All good things end, so enjoy every moment before they do.”

As someone who thinks time should never be wasted, Jane Techataveekul works hard at being the busiest person on Planet Earth.

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Jane juggles full-time partner and events management at Old Street with freelance digital marketing for a healthcare business and regular painting, music, and exercise classes, along with being a budding horticulturalist and cat owner. (Yes, we’re exhausted just from reading all that, so goodness knows how Jane feels, or how she keeps her many plants alive.)

Hailing from Bangkok, Thailand, Jane worked in multicultural marketing teams for 8 years before Old Street, which she describes as a “beautiful journey comprised of good and bad” that cultivated her into the person she is today. Intellectually curious and self-motivated, she’s also the sort of person who has to have the answer, and has to have it now.

Christopher Berry

Head of Content

“People don’t care if software has great ‘this’ or brilliant ‘that’, but what this and that can do for them.”

Christopher Berry started out in the courtroom, badgering witnesses and shouting “Objection!”. Eventually he decided to turn his back on the law (as in, leave the legal profession, not become a gun-slinging vigilante) and take up copywriting.

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He’s since garnered extensive experience writing for technology companies, including several Atlassian partners. He specializes in translating complicated tech specs, concepts and jargon into engaging, benefits-driven copy for casual readers. This is what drew him to Old Street Solutions, because Old Street targets its products at the average Jira user, demonstrating how much is achievable without inputting a single code or algorithm.

Christopher writes conspiracy thrillers with sci-fi / fantasy lashings and his first book, Million Eyes, was published in 2020 to rave reviews. When he’s not beavering away at his computer, you can usually find him down the pub, up a mountain, in Disneyland or on his sofa watching something timey-wimey. (That’s a Doctor Who reference for the uninitiated.)

Morgan Folsom

Product Manager

“I beg of you, please stop asking me for a quote for the website.”

Having spent eons working with Atlassian tools that can be an absolute pain in the butt to use and support, discovering Custom Charts for Jira made Morgan Folsom do a happy dance.

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It was immediately obvious to Morgan that Custom Charts would be a hit with her clients. In fact, after her very first demo, she implemented it with one straight away. So, when the opportunity arose to contribute to Custom Charts and work with the passionate team behind it, she launched herself at it like a person-shaped torpedo.

Morgan is both a dog person and a cat person, loving in equal parts long walks and lounging around. When it rains you’ll find her out in it (born and raised in Seattle, go figure). Otherwise she can normally be found in any given town’s cutest coffee shop.

Andy Barker

Atlassian Experience Architect

“Knowledge is power; sharing knowledge is powerful.”

Born in the greatest UK city with the worst airport, Luton, Andy Barker spent his early years playing waterpolo, dabbling in photography, and singing in the National Youth Choir of Great Britain.

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Andy worked in nightclubs, restaurants, and the marquee industry before chucking in the UK to come to the Netherlands and study Business Administration of Hotel Management (only part of the reason; the other part was was meeting a lovely Dutch lady and marrying her.) He now lives in North Limburg with his wife, two kids, cat, and horse.

Known as Atlassian’s resident #FunMan, he’s been an Atlassian Community leader for four years, founded their Community Events Rotterdam chapter, and was awarded the prestigious Community Leaders’ Choice Award at Summit 2020. Already bestest friends with Teodora Vasileva, he joined the Old Street fray because we eschew corporate red tape and hierarchical bullshit in favor of good old human compassion and understanding.

Becky schwartz

Head of User Education

“If you want to be inspired, surround yourself with inspiring people.”

Becky studied elementary education in college, before pivoting to the tech sector after graduation. These combined experiences made her passionate about teaching technical concepts in a relatable, understandable way for all types of humans.

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Knowing the premise behind Custom Charts for Jira and its ease of use, when the opportunity arose to help with customer education at Old Street, Becky dove in head first. She hasn’t looked back since (except that time she thought she heard someone behind her mention her favorite food, queso).

Outside of Old Street, Becky is an avid karaoke singer, traveler, hiker, dog lover, and brewery visitor. She also loves movies and TV, to the point that, when she was 7 years old, she ran away from home because her parents wouldn’t let her watch The Academy Awards (to be fair, they had warned her multiple times if she didn’t tidy up her room, she would be in big trouble).

Zak Harper

Performance Marketing and CMS Manager

“Two approaches to obstacles…… fix them or jump over them!”

Zak Harper is an ex-PHP developer who dabbles in digital marketing, tinkers with technical SEO, and builds websites (including the one you’re looking at). He’s helped numerous Atlassian vendors get their tracking aligned and drive up their customer acquisition.

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Zak can often be found running, climbing, or jumping over things, either in the rolling hills of England’s South Downs where he lives, halfway across the world, or in his own back garden, where the crazy boy built an enormous Ninja Warrior-style set of monkey bars.

His hard work training for obstacle races and ultra trail marathons paid off when he won 5th place in the 2022 Obstacle Course Racing World Championships.

When he’s not exhausting his body and mind to the point of collapse, he’s kicking back with a board game (his favourites are Nemesis and Gloomhaven) or listening to lengthy podcasts of people talking about movies in full geeky detail.

Eve Supitcha

Bookkeeper

“Be tough, be ambitious, know exactly what you want, and be it.”

Eve Cooke is from Bangkok, Thailand, but her work as a fashion designer for girlswear took her around Canada, China, and eventually to Milan.

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When she saw how hard Chris Cooke was struggling to be an entrepreneur in Thailand, she told him to go back to England, which turned out to be pretty good advice. She even married him and went with him, just to make sure. Despite living in cities her whole life, she’s starting to enjoy the countryside and loves cooking (but not as much as she loves eating).

At Old Street she helps with accounting and graphic design odd jobs, a combo which HMRC are still trying to find a classification for. She’s currently a full-time DJ to a monster who requests Baby Shark on repeat at all hours.

Claire Rojek

Graphic Designer

“Style and substance aren’t enemies; you need both for good engagement.”

After 8 years of freelance graphic design/creative artwork and moving from business to business, Claire Rojek was glad to come to Old Street to put down some roots.

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Claire has a mild obsession with cats*, well, not just cats, but all animals. She even joined the Hampshire Constabulary in the hope of becoming a dog handler, but realized she had to interact with humans of the non-law-abiding variety too, which she wasn’t down for.

Living a short walk from the sea in Worthing, England, Claire can usually be found talking to random cats in the street, attempting to paddle board, eating, thinking about eating, or making candles – a new creative endeavour she started in lockdown.

*disclaimer: it’s not mild… it’s full on crazy cat lady mode.

Marek canavan

UX Designer

“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.”

Marek Canavan is a computer scientist turned UX designer hailing from Portsmouth, England, with a love for indie/classic rock, backpacking across South America, podcasting, and snooker. If he got stranded on a desert island, he’d take a snooker table so that he finally had the time to score a century break.

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After helping design and develop the NHS COVID Pass so that we could all return to post-pandemic normal life, Marek joined the Old Street fray to help make Custom Charts for Jira look, feel, and function beautifully.

When he’s not at rock concerts, watching Formula 1 (his Sunday ritual), or working on ideas for UX-related improvements to other aspects of life, he’s answering questions about his name. He’s Polish on his mum’s side, where ‘Marek’ comes from, and Irish on his dad’s, where ‘Canavan’ comes from.

Fernando Freitas

QA Engineer

“There’s no such thing as perfection, only continuous improvement.”

Keen drummer, board game enthusiast, and classic sci-fi and anime nut, Fernando Freitas was born in the small town of Alegrete in southern Brazil and is now living and working in Munich, Germany, with his wife.

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He began his IT journey in 2010 as a support engineer, which was how he met fellow Old Streeter Thiago Ribeiro. He entered the world of quality assurance in 2014 and completed an MBA in Business Technology in 2020.

You wouldn’t want to get on the wrong side of Fernando. He’s got qualifications in Judo, Karate, Aikido, Boxing, BJJ, Muay Thai, Kung-Fu, Taekwondo, and Hapkido. He will tell you he’s not a war machine, but let’s face it. Only an idiot would try and beat this guy up.

Thiago Ribeiro

Support Expert

“Support is not about answering questions, but providing solutions.”

Describing himself as “lost and damned” before coming Old Street, Thiago Ribeiro is a Brazilian-born, UK-based lover of eating, running 10Ks, eating again, and most of all, supporting our customers with their apps!

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Hailing from Porto Alegre, the capital of the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, Thiago still enjoys a Brazilian-style BBQ and the odd Chimarrão.

He’s otherwise spending his time with his wife and two boys, watching animes like My Hero Academia and Dragon Ball Super, or crooning to Frank Sinatra’s “That’s Life”. He’s also trained in Muay Thai, aka Thai boxing, and has a passion for languages, particularly Polish and French.

Meet the Team

Chris Cooke

“An ego-free culture stops mistakes from becoming failures.”

Teodora Vasileva

“Become friends with failure and you’re already a step ahead.”

Jacek Dębiec

“No one cares about your sales pitch if you can’t solve their problem.”

Jane Techataveekul

“All good things end, so enjoy every moment before they do.”

Christopher Berry

“People don’t care if software has great ‘this’ or brilliant ‘that’, but what this and that can do for them.”

Morgan Folsom

“I beg of you, please stop asking me for a quote for the website.”

Andy Barker

“Knowledge is power; sharing knowledge is powerful.”

Becky schwartz

“If you want to be inspired, surround yourself with inspiring people.”

Zak Harper

“Two approaches to obstacles…… fix them or jump over them!”

Eve Supitcha

“Be tough, be ambitious, know exactly what you want, and be it.”

Claire Rojek

“Style and substance aren’t enemies; you need both for good engagement.”

Marek canavan

“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.”

Fernando Freitas

“There’s no such thing as perfection, only continuous improvement.”

Thiago Ribeiro

“Support is not about answering questions, but providing solutions.”

If there’s anything we can help with, we’d love to hear from you.