Derek Keats
Co-founder And Author at Learn-the-Birds
Maruleng Local Municipality, Limpopo, South Africa
Summary
👤
Senior🎓
Top SchoolDerek Keats is a seasoned technology and payments entrepreneur with over 25 years in higher education and 14 years of direct industry experience, blending academic rigor with startup grit. He has held senior IT leadership roles including deputy vice-chancellor and executive director of university IT, then transitioned to founding and scaling payment-tech ventures such as thumbzup, ExiPay and Finimo while running his consulting firm Kenga Solutions. Derek combines expertise in IT strategy, regulatory compliance and business development with practical delivery of open-source solutions, eLearning and publishing. He also authors children’s nature books, co-founded a birding community and lives on a wildlife estate, reflecting a sustained commitment to conservation and nature photography. Not obvious from titles alone, he repeatedly moves between governance roles and hands-on technical work—bridging board-level strategy and day-to-day product and printing workflows.
14 years of coding experience
16 years of employment as a software developer
B.Sc. Hons, Biology, B.Sc. Hons, Biology at Memorial University, Newfoundland and LabradorDoctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Biology/Biological Sciences, General, Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Biology/Biological Sciences, General at Memorial University of Newfoundland
Stackoverflow
1reputation
0reached
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Github Skills (22)
openshot10
capacity10
location10
video-editing10
video-quality10
video-production10
editing10
ffmpeg9
animation9
dedicated9
rad9
python8
linux8
java8
image8
Programming languages (3)
Github contributions (4)
chisimba/shellscripts
Mar 2012 - Mar 2014
Contributions:16 commits in 1 year 11 months
shellscriptsshellbash
chisimba/chisimba
Aug 2012 - Aug 2013
Chisimba is the product of a collaboration of the 13 African universities involved in the African Virtual Open Initiatives and Resources (AVOIR) project. Its main purpose is to foster capacity building in Software Engineering among African universities through the collaborative development of Free Software. The framework includes contributions from others outside AVOIR as well. Its physical home, and the location of the highest concentration of developers is in the Free Software Innovation Unit at the University of the Western Cape (UWC). The word “Chisimba” is the Chichewa (Malawi) word for the framework used to build a traditional African house.
Contributions:70 commits in 1 year
africancollaborationunitengineeringinnovation
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