New Hire at Umbraco HQ: Give a Hand to Dan

A Cloud Developer with a passion for family, travel, and golf

Written by: Dan Lister

Dan may be new to HQ, but he’s not new to Umbraco! Dan has been making websites for well-known brands using Umbraco for upwards of 10 years, ever since version 4 ❣️ Besides his dedication to Umbraco, he’s super dedicated to his family, “hitting a small white ball around a large green field” 🏌️ making music, and even running for charity! 👟 Meet this awesome Cloud Developer:

Good evening! 👋

My name is Dan Lister, I am a 36-year-old guy who lives in Manchester, England. In summary, I am a Cloud Developer with interests in software development and platform engineering, and I love absolutely trying to help people as much I can.

How my Umbraco journey started

I started using Umbraco four years after graduating from university, about fifteen years ago. I made lots of Umbraco version 4 websites for customers and also got the chance to create lots of lovely websites for a London-based company that owns over 100 brands sold in over 200 countries.

This is where my journey really started with Umbraco. I used the friendly CMS to create websites for some really popular hygiene, health and nutrition brands.

So far, my first and only Codegarden was in 2014. I had the privilege of being nominated for the 2015 Umbraco MVP awards. I’ve made a few packages over the years to help fellow developers out. My uProfile is still available from 5 years ago.

So what is my role at Umbraco HQ?

I’ve been in and around the Umbraco community for quite some time now (more out of late, but I’ll work on that 😆).

To get the chance to give something back to the community and people who use Umbraco Cloud was a chance I couldn’t turn down. I’ll be working as a Cloud Developer primarily on Umbraco Cloud, making sure it’s stable for everyone and helping to continuously improve the product.

What do I like to do in my spare time?

I live with my wife and two daughters, aged 3 and 5. I'm extremely lucky to have these three wonderful people in my life 👨‍👩‍👧‍👧

My second love is hitting a small white ball around a large green field. Some people like to call this golf but I like to call it the most frustrating, beautiful hobby I've found.

Playing golf on the coastline in Conwy, Wales

I've also travelled to some amazing places with some awesome people, such as Turkey, the USA, Portugal, Spain, Scotland and South Africa ⛳

We love taking trips to neighbouring Wales and try to visit as often as we can. There are so many different activities there for us and our daughters to do. Plus the golf courses are awesome too 😁

I enjoy being active in my spare time. I play football once a week and also try to run as much as I can. I recently took part in a Run The Month challenge in aid of Prostate Cancer UK. I raised over £500 and ran 50.6 miles in the month of October 🏃

I try to stay as active as possible in my free time

One of my first gigs, when I still had no idea how to dress

I love music, whether it be listening, playing or recording. I have a little home studio where I attempt to write and record songs. I was in a band for over 10 years and got to play at some awesome places. Here is a picture of me playing my first gig where I had no clue where to look or what to wear 🎸

To sum up

Overall, I love spending time with my family and I always like to have a smile on my face. I like to have as much fun as possible and laugh wherever I can. I love to learn new things (as cliché as that sounds) and I especially love to not take myself too seriously 😊

With my wife Victoria in the beautiful countryside

How my Umbraco journey started

So what is my role at Umbraco HQ?

What do I like to do in my spare time?

To sum up

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