With 25 years of reliable hosting behind it, Leaseweb knows that none of its achievements could have been possible without a strong backbone of talented, dedicated staff members.
Since the hiring of its first employee in 1999, Leaseweb has passed many milestones and grown to over 500 employees based in 9 countries. Some of them have been around for over 16 years! We sat down with some of our most experienced employees, Danny de Moor and Julia Gortinskaya, to learn about their time at Leaseweb so far and to reminisce about Leaseweb’s 25th anniversary.
Danny’s Leaseweb employee experience (so far)
Danny de Moor currently works as the Data Center Operations Team Lead in the USA and has been a part of the Leaseweb family since April 2008. He first started at the Haarlem office in the Netherlands where, at the time, the Leaseweb team consisted of 35 staff members.
Why did you initially decide to join Leaseweb?
“I had never been to or worked in a data center before, and I found that challenge appealing. In addition, I found the Engineers who interviewed me to be kind and welcoming.”
Why did you decide to stay?
“I’ve enjoyed the autonomy Leaseweb has offered from the beginning and the fact that we continue to be a fast-growing company. I’ve had the opportunity to travel within Europe and the USA and have grown into several roles while learning a lot along the way.”
What was different at Leaseweb when you started from how things are now?
“Pretty much everything is different. In 2008 we had one team that did both Technical Support and Provisioning. Hosting was limited to just the Netherlands, and not much of the provisioning work was automated so it took a lot more time to complete tasks.”
What have been some of your Leaseweb career highlights?
“I was part of the team to build out WDC in Virginia and was responsible for deploying the servers for our first launch customer (Twenga) in 2010. Then a year later, I lived in Virginia for several months to keep the new build site running and growing. Finally, in 2014, I was sent to California to build up our presence on the West Coast, and I still live there to this day.”
What is your favorite thing about Leaseweb?
“I’ve always enjoyed working with colleagues from around the world and the open and friendly culture the company has fostered over the years. The feeling that your voice and ideas really matter and that everyone can make a difference stands out.”
Why should others join us?
“If you want to be part of a growing, compassionate, and ever-evolving company with a great atmosphere, then Leaseweb is the place.”
What will someone who joins Leaseweb have to look forward to?
“To be part of one big family and work on cool projects that have a significant impact on the company and how we operate.”
Julia’s Leaseweb employee experience (so far)
Julia Gortinskaya’s current role is Managing Director at Leaseweb Asia Pacific. Like Danny, Julia first joined the Leaseweb team at the Haarlem office. However, she joined in 2012 – by which time Leaseweb had over 100 employees and was expanding globally.
Why did you initially decide to join Leaseweb?
“It was a new challenge. Coming from a telecom background, it was interesting for me to expand my horizon and learn about a new industry.”
Why did you decide to stay?
“The team was great, and the business was constantly evolving. I saw an opportunity to develop personally and professionally.”
What was different at Leaseweb when you started from how things are now?
“I started as a Senior Account Manager focusing on the Russian-speaking market. We were a much smaller team. It was more of a start-up atmosphere; account managers had to do many things independently. For example, we did not have technical pre-sales, so I had a lot of conversations with Mark Burkels (Dedicated Servers Manager) to figure out which technical solution would work best for a client. I would have network and solutions diagrams drawn on napkins during lunch by Bastiaan Spandaw or Peter Lonis. We still worked in CAS and quote sheets in excel. We did not have Cloud or CDN. Leaseweb APAC, Hong Kong, Australia, UK, Japan, and Canada did not exist yet, and Leaseweb US was just starting.”
What have been some of your Leaseweb career highlights?
“When the US launched, quite a few team members from the Netherlands took turns going there for a few weeks to share our knowledge with the team there. I went there in the summer of 2013 and loved the experience. We had events for the team, and it was an excellent opportunity to connect with colleagues overseas. Hopefully, we can revive those after the pandemic is gone. Management training was a great learning experience that helped us bond with many colleagues. Organizing and running Damloop and, of course, an opportunity to move to Singapore and run the organization here.”
What is your favorite thing about Leaseweb?
“Great colleagues – a lot of them have become friends by now. Leaseweb is a wonderful example to the whole world of how people of about 50 nationalities can work together and achieve great things united by a common goal. Empowerment of women in IT: we have quite a few women now in key positions. When I joined Leaseweb 10 years ago, I was the first and the only female Account Manager.”
Why should others join us?
“We are a Cloud provider with a human face. Despite our significant size, we have a personalized, flexible approach to each customer and their needs.”
What will someone who joins Leaseweb have to look forward to?
“The opportunity to grow personally and professionally whilst having fun.”
Leaseweb is truly privileged to have Danny and Julia onboard for so many years. As you can probably tell, they have been indispensable regarding Leaseweb’s growth in the US and Singapore and are a part of the fabric that makes up our DNA as a company. We hope to have many more years with these two excellent individuals.