Our Team
Han Hwei Woo
Astute is headed by Han Hwei Woo. Han has a BSc in Computer Science and a 2nd major in Commerce from Mount Allison University. He started his first hosting business in 2001 and spent six years working for Peer 1 Network, one of North America's largest Internet infrastructure providers. He first cut his teeth in the Network Operations Centre, and moved on to developing network, systems, and finance related projects with the systems development team.
Han’s first server was a 120 MHz Pentium running FreeBSD 4.2-STABLE, used as a Firewall/NAT box that would also run eggdrops to help maintain #animefiends, #animesync, and #trancemp3 on EFnet.
Dan Thomson
Dan is Astute’s go-to-guy for both systems development and administration. He holds a degree in Computer Science from Dalhousie University, and except for a brief stint as a mobile app developer at Gameloft in Montreal, he has been doing systems development and server automation at Internet Hosting companies, including: Gossamer Threads, iWeb, and of course, Peer 1 Network.
Though Dan was making waves on his family's TRS-80 before he could read, it was Halifax’s Chebucto Free Net in 1994 that really opened his eyes to the potentials of a connected world.
When he is not in front of a computer, Dan is also an avid runner, paddler and all around outdoor sports enthusiast. Of course, these days when he is not in front of a computer, he carries one in his pocket.
Leslie Weiss
Leslie comes to Astute Hosting with a Linguistics degree from the University of Manitoba and extensive customer service experience. She has worked with many people in a diverse range of jobs – in person, over the telephone and through email.
Leslie's love of customer support took an interesting twist when she was thrown into the world of data centres at Peer 1 Network. While working in client relations, she discovered it is okay to let your inner geek shine through!
Leslie's earliest interaction with the Internet occurred a long time ago – and she scoffed at it because it appeared to be nothing more than a glorified encyclopedia. She is slightly more Internet savvy now – she almost never pronounces router “rooter” anymore (despite the fact that her inner linguist is telling her that “rooter” is proper Canadian pronunciation anyways)!
Paul Lu
Paul covers systems development and network administration. After completing a combined major in Computer Science & Biology from UBC, he dropped the Biology part and focused on coding for UBC grad students. Wanting to know more about what made the Internet work/not-work he joined Peer 1 Network as a network analyst before migrating to their software development team. He later became the lead developer at Modo The Car Co-op, but started to miss networking so he came to Astute.
Paul spent a lot of time with Jena at UBC, so he does SPARQL; but it was a hand-me-down IBM PS/1 that first got him into computers - to catalog his comic book collection, of course!
Liam Brown
Liam handles Astute's network installations and troubleshooting. Having earned a Telecommunications Diploma from Thompson River's University back in 2007, he spent the first leg of his working life installing voice and data systems for various companies around BC and Alberta. During this time he became familiar with the installation of everything from cat3 cable to fibre optics to wireless. After a few years managing large network installs he decided to refocus on his studies, graduating with a Degree in Computer Forensics from BCIT.
Liam's first taste of technology came when he was 4 years old, lighting LEDs on his father's breadboard. It wasn't until he was 5 that his father introduced him to his first computer, a $4000 i386 purchased despite great opposition from his mother. "This must be important", thought Liam, "if my dad is willing to sleep on the couch for it."
Silvia Cojocaru
Silvia mostly deals with the day-to-day office management and client support. She has a BA and a MA in Business Administration and Project Management, with over six years of experience in delivering high quality projects and results in multicultural environments.
Her fondest memories of working with computers involve Caesar and Age of Empires - no wonder she went into project management! Nowadays she still enjoys tormenting the occasional Sim in Sim City, if she's not busy building up her Railroad Tycoon empire... But don't let that fool you - she's not always playin' - She's started learning Python and Linux on her own as a hobby, just to "level up"!