Our team in San Antonio is made up of several people who serve various, important roles in order to serve our clients across Central Texas efficiently. Three of our more client-facing team members are Thomas, our Technical Alignment Supervisor, Ben, a Systems Engineer, and Paul, a Field Technician.
Meet Thomas!
Thomas started with us here at Straight Edge in March of this year, and though his time with us has been short so far, he has enmeshed himself quickly with the team. He has been interested in IT since he was a child and had to battle with dial-up internet (and his dream of being a professional skateboarder didn’t work out), and he says it’s an ever-evolving industry, always giving him something new to learn.
Although he’s talented in the IT world, he also is a pretty good painter and writer. He’s painted pictures for his children’s rooms and written books for them. He’d also like to learn piano. The person closest to him describes him as kind, understanding, and easy-going. He loves spending time with his children, who are the “best little humans on earth,” and with his border collie, Dolly, who does everything with him.
Prior to his IT career, Thomas was part of the US Army, and his favorite book is “Make Your Bed” by Admiral William McRaven, which highlights the importance of discipline to accomplish the small things day to day so that you can effectively tackle the bigger things in life. He traveled quite a bit with the Army (ask him about the weirdest food he ever tried), though he still wants to travel to Australia for the beautiful beaches, fishing, and kangaroos. If he lived in a fictional world, though, he’d like to live in the Dragon Ball Z universe, but only if he could be a saiyan.
If he could have dinner with three people, where he might cook them chicken and sausage gumbo, he’d want to eat with Theodore Roosevelt to hear about his life experiences, Robin Williams to bring the laughs, and Charles Alderton, the inventor of Dr Pepper, so that Thomas can personally thank him.
He enjoys 90s/00s comedies like Dodgeball, and his go-to karaoke song is Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance With Somebody.” The best piece of advice Thomas has ever heard is that everything you do in life, from the big to the small, has your signature on it, so it’s important to consider what your name means to you.
Meet Ben!
Ben has been here for two years assisting customers with their help desk tickets regarding their IT issues and helping the Professional Services team with new projects in San Antonio and Corpus Christi. His dad and his best friend both introduced him to IT early in life, so it’s a field he’s enjoyed since he was young. Growing up he wanted to be the president, or a rockstar, or anything super cool. He enjoys working in the industry for the community of people he gets to work with, because the techs he’s around tend to be calm and fun.
His friends say he’s observant, caring, and helpful. He’s also pretty good at music production, though he’d like to learn more about music theory to improve further. He enjoys metal music, although his go-to karaoke song is “Something in the Orange” by Zach Bryan, and horror movies like the original Scream. He’s both a night owl and an early bird and he enjoys living in a city surrounded by the hill country while still having access to all the benefits of city life.
Friendship is of paramount importance to Ben. If he were to pick two people to have dinner with, it would be his best friend and his grandfather so they could all catch up and talk about life. The best piece of advice he ever received was to stick by his closest friends so that when they’re gone he’ll have the comfort of knowing their friendship lasted a lifetime.
If he could be a superhero, he’d be Hawkeye because “bow and arrows are cool,” and if he could teleport anywhere, he’d go to Washington for the weather. He’d live in the Star Wars universe if he could. If he wrote a memoir about his life, it would be titled “A Masterclass in Pretending I Understand What’s Going On.”
Meet Paul!
Paul has been here for nearly two years, and though he dreamed of being a Jedi or a ninja as a kid, he entered this industry to make a better life for his family and learn about technology, which he considers an important skill in the modern era. Prior to working in IT, Paul was in the Marine Corps as a journalist for four years and then worked in Los Angeles in the film industry for three years.
His wife calls him handsome, imaginative, and ambitious, and an actor from one of the short films he worked on called him “one of the good ones.” The best advice he ever received from his mom was “don’t do that,” which he says she was normally right about. His mom, a Greek woman, taught him her mother’s soup avgalemono soup recipe. He’d like to have dinner with his wife, his son (James, aka Sweet Baby James or SBJ), and his father, who passed away before being able to meet them.
He loves sci-fi movies, and Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back is his favorite movie. He’d live in the Star Wars universe if it meant he could be a Jedi. If he couldn’t be a Jedi, he’d like to live in the MCU as Spider-Man so he could swing around New York City and be strong and acrobatic. He would also like to go to Mars, if only to beat Elon Musk there. He also loves the book Ender’s Game, which he read while in recruit training at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego.
Like Thomas, Paul owns a border collie – his is named Lady – who he says is incredibly loyal and smart, and the best dog he’s ever had. He’d like to learn to play the blues guitar, and his go-to karaoke song is Blue Suede Shows by Elvis Presley. He’s a good chess player and can squat 405 pounds and bench 225 pounds. If he wrote a book about his life, it would be called “Never Sit Still,” which makes sense given his lustrous career path.
