Our expertise

Dave Kilbey

Founder and Director

Dave is an ecologist, gone rogue.

He's now worked in IT and education for 20 years. Still determined to save the planet he thought he could best contribute by putting his tech and business skills to better use.

Dave founded Natural Apptitude in 2013 and has overseen the company's growth from a part-time business concern to one that employs a burgeoning team of talented developers and designers.

When not helping clients to save the world he can usually be found exploring the Cotswolds, or trying to teach his puppy not to jump up at strangers. More usually, it’s both at the same time.

Joe Woodhouse

Chief Technology Officer

As our CTO, Joe often has to explain what those letters actually stand for. Well, in essence, Joe has the critical role of making sure that the technologies and approaches we use are optimal for the job in hand.

Having started his career in database development for Nokia, Joe then came to focus on front-end code and, as a result, acquired in-depth skills across a wide range of technologies and languages. This "full-stack" experience has given him the enviable ability to see from a wide range of perspectives when problem solving. In fact, given the number of languages he's familiar with we've considered changing the title of his post from CTO to C3PO. (That joke will be lost on anyone who's not a Star Wars fan).

When not adding the latest great feature to Coreo, or crafting new apps, Joe loves spending time with his young family - but is secretly looking forward to a time where he will get more than 3 hours of uninterrupted sleep in a night, and won't find jam and/or crayon on everything he owns.

Paul Smith

Senior developer

Paul has been building websites professionally for twenty years and specialises in WordPress and Drupal.

He worked as a Senior Web Developer and Researcher at the University of Bristol for fifteen years during which time he was involved with the development of countless websites both within and external to the University, using a variety of platforms from simple Perl-based applications, to complex installations using Open Source systems such as Drupal, WordPress, Plone, Zope, Moodle, and combinations of all of these. He also has expertise in mobile application development.

Jamie Forsyth

UX/UI Designer

Jamie spends his time thinking about you. Not in a creepy way, of course. He leaves no stone unturned in making our apps, websites and products as you-ser friendly as possible. He’s a master of designing solutions that are enjoyable and simple to use. His main test of success is if Dave, the CEO can use something (Oi! – from Dave).

Having worked in a variety of roles throughout his career, which have included environmental research and running a small Nepalese-based charity, Jamie brings a wealth of expertise and experience to his UX craft, and his passion for environmental and social subjects fits perfectly with Natural Apptitude's ethos.

When he’s not chatting with users or pushing pixels, you’ll generally find Jamie trying to hike up a mountain with his young family, or down the pub watching footy.

Oliver Ridsdale

Developer

Driven by a passion for technology and for making a positive difference, Oliver has been a natural fit for our team from day one. As one of the youngest members of the group Oliver can't necessarily always be relied on for the 80's round in a pub quiz - but for everything else, he's an assured hand.

Since joining us in the summer of 2017 Ollie has worked on several large projects and has been instrumental in helping to build our citizen science platform, Coreo.

In his spare time Ollie has a passion for motorbikes and if the weather's good he loves nothing more than to head off into the country to explore and relax.  He is also a regular at various tech meetups around Bristol... and has a small weakness for a good video game.

Máté Kiss

Developer

Máté joined Natural Apptitude in 2017 and is invariably the first person into the office each day. Despite these early starts he has an irrepressible sense of humour and sees the positive in every situation. Having changed career in 2016 Máté has found his niche with writing code and has the energy and flair to turn his hand to every new challenge he's offered.

When not writing apps to bring about environmental revolution he can often be found hanging about on cliff faces (or scaling the heights of Bristol's indoor climbing walls).

Hal Jones

Developer

Rumour has it that Hal's first words as a baby were in JavaScript. Others say PHP. Whichever it was, the truth is he writes some mean code.

Currently finishing an MSc in Computer Science at the University of Bristol Hal has a natural gift for seeing the big picture and architecting software. This, combined with an unerring eye for detail and the ability to switch between languages at the drop of a hat, makes him a first rate developer.

Hal's handiwork is evident in many of Natural Apptitude's products including Coreo. Hal also wrote our first data classification system, which is enabling projects with lots of data to verify their results using people power. Right on!

Matt Plumeridge

Developer and Designer

A Computer Science graduate from the University of Bristol, Matt joined the team in 2017. As well as being a developer Matt is also a talented designer and has designed and built a number of Natural Apptitude's recent apps.

A man of many talents he is also an accomplished guitar player, film maker and snow boarder.

David James

Designer

An art director and interactive web developer with over 12 years’ experience David specialises in the design process from concept, user experience and technical specifications through to design and build.

In the past he has worked at UK top 100 agencies for clients including Kia, Orange, Toshiba and English Heritage. He also works with clients to provide branding and digital strategies.