2005-present - President, FFII e.V
He was elected as president of the FFII in November 2005. He has helped the FFII make improvements in its organisation, communications, and fund-raising. The FFII has continued, under his guidance, to act as a strong force against software patents, DRM, and other barriers to a free information infrastructure. He is responsible for the European Patent Conference, a wide initiative aimed at defining a new European patent system.
1996-present – CEO, iMatix Corporation
2004-today - Advanced Message Queuing Protocol (JPMorganChase)
He worked with JPMorganChase to design a new middleware protocol (AMQP) and an open source implementation (OpenAMQ). This product was the first standard to compete against such commercial products as IBM MQSeries and Tibco Rendezvous. iMatix is currently in the AMQP working group, together with JPMorganChase, Cisco, IONA, Red Hat, and other firms. See http://www.amqp.org, http://wiki.amqp.org/library.
2003-2005 - sms@ (iMatix)
He designed sms@, a consumer SMS platform built by iMatix. This product was the first to allow anyone to create their own SMS "sites" online via the www.sms-at.com. sms@ was a major project, with direct connections to the three mobile operators in Belgium, and running on custom-built infrastructure.
1998-today - UltraSource ordering platform (Manpower International)
He was the architect and main developer of Manpower UltraSource, a web-based ordering system deployed by Manpower International in the US, Germany, Holland, Japan, and the UK. UltraSource is built in C/C++/VB/ASP/SQL and runs on Windows 2000 with SQLServer. See http://www.ultrasource.nl, https://ultrasource.manpower.co.jp/.
iMatix achieved the first successful international web application that Manpower ever deployed. An example client for Manpower UltraSource is NTT in Tokyo, which use it to manage work orders for over 1,500 of their suppliers.
1998-2002 - Dispatching automation (CBR, Belgium)
He was the chief designer of a fully-automated dispatching system for CBR's cement factory in Gent, Belgium, allowing 24/7 operations. This system connects to the client's SAP system to the factory's industrial network. An iMatix team of ten people delivered a complete software and hardware solution including automated kiosks.
iMatix built a system that has run with zero downtime since delivery in 2002. The team built the dispatching system using C, VB, Oracle, C++, and a mix of Windows, Unix, and Linux. The kiosks were designed by Pieter Hintjens and assembled by subcontractors.
1999-2001 - dot-Beer (Heineken, Nigeria)
iMatix built an ordering and payments system for Heineken in Lagos, Nigeria. The payments system was based on iMatix's STEP (secure middleware) technology. Pieter Hintjens was the main architect of this system, and participated heavily in the pilot roll-out in Lagos.
iMatix delivered a secure electronic payments system for a country with a severe lack of basic IT infrastructure, and rampant corruption and theft.
1991-1998 – Independent Contractor
During this period he worked for Sema Group Belgium and other clients, as technical architect responsible for tools and technology on a large number of projects:
- 1998-1999: provided technical architectures and support to HR project at Belgian DERF ministry. Assisted with development of an application running on IBM MVS, IBM DB2, Tuxedo, and Windows NT.
- 1997: supported Heineken Africa with technical training and support in Congo, Nigeria, and La Réunion. In La Réunion, planned and deployed a network of thin-client workstations for Heineken.
- 1995-1998: provided technical support for CBR in development of dispatching system for their factory in Lixhe, Belgium.
- 1996: built interfaces between Sunsnacks' tour operator system with the Belgian Travel Network (BTN). Used LU6.2/APPC, CICS, and Unix.
- 1993-1996: provided main technical support for AIB/Vinçotte in Brussels. Developed tools for portable application development between Unix and BULL/DPS7. Worked in C, Perl, COBOL, and assembler.
- 1993: built a transaction processing platform for Sunair's ITOS tour operator system, still used in 2005 by UK's AirTours (now MyTravel.com) for over a million reservations per year. Worked on Digital VMS/ACMS. This system is still used, and supported by iMatix.
- 1992: developed communication layers for billing and control system for the Canal+ TV station (Brussels), working on Unix, TCP/IP, and C.
- 1992: together with Jonathan Schultz, developed project-management tools for the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) in Brussels, working in COBOL, Digital VMS, Windows and DOS.
- 1991: built remote PC administration and configuration tools for the UN for use by UNCTAD in Africa.
1985-1991 – Research & Development for Sema Group
Worked in the R&D division of Sema Group Belgium (then Sobemap) to build tools for software development. Together with Leif Svalgaard, built ETK, a COBOL software engineering toolkit used by Sema Group to build their business systems. ETK consisted of half-a-million lines of COBOL and assembler, running on Windows, Unix, VAX/VMS, MS-DOS, IBM DOS/VSE CICS, IBM System/36, Wang/VS, and many other systems. He was a technical expert for most of these system. ETK is still used by several companies in Belgium and abroad.
During his employment at Sema Group, was heavily involved in trainings, writing of guides and manuals, presentations, and product development.
1984-1985 – Military Service
Worked at the National Geographic Institute in Brussels to develop satellite mapping software for a NATO/DOD project.
1982-1984 - Soft Toys, Scotland
Owned and operated a software company specialising in games and tools for Commodore microcomputers.
