2017 was a big year for Chesapeake Systems, as it was for the industry at large.
We’ve been charting our path through the expansion of public, private and hybrid cloud services alongside many of you, and we are thrilled to announce our certification as a Consulting Partner for Amazon Web Services (AWS). This qualification means we are “Amazon approved” in our expert guidance to customers in designing, architecting, building, migrating, and managing their workloads and applications on AWS.
We are also excited about new roles at the company. Mark Dent, Chesapeake’s co-founder and owner, has shepherded the company through every twist and turn of the past 22 years. He has now stepped into the CFO role. His dedication to our field remains steadfast, including his unwavering commitment to guaranteeing the company’s stellar reputation for service. And after 10 years fulfilling duties at Chesapeake from sales and engineering to project management and professional services, it was an honor for me to take the reins as CEO in April. I’m grateful for the opportunity, and thrilled to work with Mark to continue to position Chesapeake as the preeminent media technology and workflow solutions architects in the industry.
Furthermore, in response to our growing media and entertainment client base on the West Coast, we have expanded our footprint and support offerings with the addition of Sarah Shechner and Drew Hall in the Los Angeles area. Sarah is thrilled to be strengthening our connections to the tech community and providing account management expertise at a regional level. And as a Senior Systems Engineer, Drew brings over 15 years of video-centric data storage expertise to his role. We are excited to offer this additional level of service to our clients in the West.
Chesapeake’s ongoing participation with important industry organizations that drive progress in media and technology continues to flourish. One of the year’s highlights for Nick was serving as conference chair of the Association of Moving Image Archivist’s (AMIA) Digital Asset Symposium in May, where experts in the community shared their knowledge and experiences across a cross-section of disciplines. He also co-programmed Bits by the Bay for the Society of Motion Picture-Television Engineers (SMPTE) Washington DC section, and spoke on a panel at the UCLA MEMES Big Data Conference, presented by the Anderson School of Management. Nick renewed our relationships with many of the leading-edge thinkers in our industry and came away with new perspectives to inform the work we do with our clients.
As we reflect on the close of the year, we are reminded of our good fortune to be working with the best of the best. Our clients stretch us, challenge us, and expect no less from us than we do from ourselves. It is a pleasure and a privilege to be working with you, and we look forward to what 2018 will bring. Stay tuned for more in the new year!
Happy Holidays from all of us at Chesapeake Systems.
