About the Trainers

Over more than 15 years Highlander has built up a reputation for having the best trainers in the creative and web development sector.

Our instructors have spoken at major conferences and seminars, written books, presented at user groups, undertaken a vast range of projects and taught extensively. Most importantly however they have extensive hands on professional experience working in some of the worlds most succesful organisations.

For a better idea of our instructors abilities and backgrounds please check out the profiles below:

Alex
Alex's background in the technology industry goes back over 20 years, during which time he has worked for organisations such as the Metropolitan Police, Plessey Naval Systems, and Abbott Mead Vickers. Alex has been a fulltime instructor with Highlander for a number of years, having been involved in training for the last 15 years, and is a regular contributor to beta programmes for Adobe's core products.

Alex is an Adobe Certified Expert (ACE) and Adobe Certified Instructor (ACI) for InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, Flash, ActionScript and DreamWeaver. In addition he also has a strong background in areas such as HTML, CSS, PHP / MySQL and Flex

David
David is the author of eight bestselling books on web design, concentrating mainly on PHP, CSS, and Dreamweaver, including his latest book "DreamWeaver CS5 and PHP" published by Adobe Press. He is a moderator for Adobe Community Help as well as being an Adobe Community Professional, Adobe Certified Expert and Adobe Certified Instructor at Highlander.

David has a strong relationship with the DreamWeaver product managers and engineering team at Adobe, and has worked closely with them to identify areas for improvement and future development of DreamWeaver. He speaks a number of languages including Japanese and Russian.

Ivan
Ivan joined Adobe Systems in 1990, working initially for 4 years in Amsterdam and then for another 4 years at the company's Advanced Technology Group in Silicon Valley, California. During this time he was responsible for running Adobe Europe's PostScript and PDF training courses, writing the first plug-ins for Adobe Acrobat and creating a number of new PDF related technologies, as well as establishing Adobe's 'Teach The Teacher' programme which ultimately trained over 1,000 teachers.

Since moving back from California Ivan has produced and supported a number of Java based PDF technologies for the property sector, in addition to developing  various mobile applications. He has extensive experience with a number of Adobe packages including Acrobat, Photoshop, Illustrator and Premiere as well as subjects such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Java, SEO and website analytics.

Kevin
Kevin has been working in the computer field for over 20 years and many of the technologies we take for granted today were, at that point, just in their infancy. As a consultant, his customers have included the likes of IBM, Spiegel, Sears, JP Morgan, HM Revenue and Customs, Companies House and Axa.

Due to the overwhelming popularity of Flex and Flash, for some years now Kevin has concentrated exclusively on those tools and is certified to teach all of the Flex, Flash, LiveCycle & AIR offerings from Adobe.

Matthew
Matthew has 20 years of experience as a user assistance and eLearning professional in the software industry. Much of this time was spent managing a team of writers and trainers at a UK-based consulting company, before enjoying a period in the U.S. as Director of the WinWriters Conference.

Matthew has a B.Sc. in Electronic Engineering and a Post-Graduate Certificate of Education from Bristol University in the UK. He is an Adobe Certified Instructor, and is also a Certified Instructor for WebWorks ePublisher Pro.

Pete
Pete is internationally recognised as an award-wining illustrator and is a creative, self-motivated and versatile individual with significant experience in the field of design across a broad range of media. Fully computer literate with an extensive knowledge of modern media production processes and proficient in a wide variety of software. Pete is an ACE and ACI and runs courses on a range of products with a particular focus on Illustrator and InDesign.

Pete has done work for a broad range of international clients over the years including Coca Cola, Nestlé, Guinness and McDonald’s plus numerous book and magazine publishers.

Scott
Scott is a publishing expert with extensive experience in both the repro and newspaper sectors. He is an Adobe Certified Instructor for InDesign, Photoshop and Acrobat and has designed complex digital workflows, undertaken system testing and delivered end user training to organisations such as the Guardian Newspapers, Evening Times and Sunday Herald. Scott has presented to IFRA, the worlds leading association for Newspaper Publishing on digital asset management and also holds the CIPD Certificate in Training Practice.

Simon
Simon is an experienced senior ColdFusion consultant having completed projects with ColdFusion for organisations including Hemming Group, Virgin Cars, Touch Local and the National Maritime Museum.

Simon is an Adobe Certified Advanced Coldfusion Developer and an Adobe Certified Instructor for ColdFusion. In addition he has a wide knowledge of not only ColdFusion but a range of complimentary technologies such as XML, Ajax, Fusebox and CFEclipse.

Thea
Thea is a specialist in online marketing having worked in the industry for over 10 years.  During that time she has been responsible for running online marketing campaigns for major brands such as The Open University and Footlocker as well as working closely with agencies like Digivate and PHP Media.

Thea is a Google Adwords Certified Professional and in addition to delivering training courses for Highlander, she also runs her own media agency specialising in Pay per Click (PPC) campaign management, so she has first hand experience of the typical problems encountered in this space.