OQLIS appoints first ever CCO

It was already at the young age of 14, that Robert Kendall started developing software. He continued to follow this passion of his for more than half a decade, after graduating. He eventually branched out into business development roles, while still pursuing his coding (a unicorn combo), until he co-founded a business Kaizen IT, which was later acquired by First Technology Group. Kaizen IT is known today as First Digital. Here Rob looked after customer success and sales and later fulfilled the role of MD for over 150 employees and 5 business units, before joining OQLIS in Spring 2022.

Because he started in the trenches as a coder, Robert’s knowledge of technology has true depth.

A hearty hello

Shawn Winterburn, OQLIS CEO & Co-founder (and former colleague of Kendall) expresses his satisfaction with this appointment. “I am super excited that an industry leader such as Robert has decided to join the OQLIS family. This has not happened by accident, as we are looking to continually add huge value for our customers,” says Winterburn. “Robert will be a strategic and core part of the OQLIS team. He brings a unique ability to merge technical and business acumen to solve our customers’ most difficult data problems.

“Robert will be a strategic and core part of the OQLIS team. He brings a unique ability to merge technical and business acumen to solve our customers’ most difficult data problems.”

– Shawn Winterburn, CEO & Co-founder

A match made in tech heaven

“I’ve known Shawn for some time and enjoy his positivity, he brings so much energy to the table, when I started to understand more about the OQLIS tech and Andrew, I realised here is a firm that is sitting in a space that I enjoy”.

“I’m a firm believer in Knowledge is Power and with Data you have the ability to gain knowledge.”

– Robert Kendall, Chief Commercial Officer

“I’m a firm believer in Knowledge is Power and with Data you have the ability to gain knowledge,” he says. “Plus OQLIS offerings are what I call a blue ocean, the opportunity is so great and there are not a lot of boats on the surface, we have the ability to become a Market Leader in a very new and exciting space.” Kendall continues.

Looking to a bright future

For Robert Kendall the future of South African technology start-up, OQLIS is looking good. He reiterates that his goal is to help OQLIS in any way possible with a special focus on 4 specific areas:

1) Growing OQLIS’s presence in new customers and partners,
2) Helping to recruit good young talent to help the company build out the features that customers will need,
3) Be heavily involved in feature planning and building, to assist in the understanding of how OQLIS can solve customer pain points,
4) To help make the OQLIS data insights platform a product that is used the world over by thousands of people.

“If I get those 4 things right, I’ll regard it as success!” Robert concludes.

Here’s to a new chapter in Robert Kendall’s career, we know he is going to do amazing things!