It’s been an action-packed 2018 for ABC Software Development. We had a lot of major milestones to be proud of, so here’s another big one for 2019: We’re excited to share that Emir Memić, our previous consultant for the architecture of LEONUS Banking digital, will be taking on the role of CTO.

In this new position, Emir will lead our innovation efforts while continuing to manage our world-class product engineering team.

In order to get to know Emir better, he kindly took the time to answer a few questions about his background, values, and vision for the future of ABC Software Development.

When and why did you join ABC Software Development?

Maybe I’m one of those who likes to bind their decisions to some dates which mark the beginnings of something. It’s not the first time in my life that I make important choices on January 1st. The decision to join the ABC team was brought after six months of being engaged as a consultant for architecture on the ABC’s LEONUS Banking digital project. Within this period, I’ve been able to see the strengths of the team and the potential of the addressed market but also to see the opportunity for increasing efficiency and team’s expertise with my contribution.

What will be your role at ABC Software Development?

My first tasks will be related to streamlining our development efforts through consolidating development tools and platforms that our teams use and making pools of developers specialized to particular technologies. That will enable us to use our resources in a more efficient way and to work in a multi-project environment sharing common practices and knowledge. We will gradually introduce the practices of continuous integration, automated testing, and systematic education which will lead to fewer bugs delivered and lower number of iterations when delivering the solutions. Besides that, my day-to-day job will include designing our solutions, optimizing their architectures and ensuring delivery to our customers’ environments in a most efficient way, contributing with my knowledge related to specific technologies and experience in financial sector.

Tell us a little bit about your background?

After a short engagement as a fellow assistant at Electrotechnical faculty in Banja Luka in early nineties, my real career started 1993 when I was a co-founder of Logos, a small, few people company in Zagreb which was developing interactive voice response and computer telephony integration systems. In a few words, my job was everything from assembling fault-tolerant hardware platforms used for these systems, installing and administering operating systems and databases, to software development and delivery to the customer environment. Later on, we extended our expertise to authentication, PKI and mobile applications development, delivering solutions for secure access to internet banking and complete mobile banking solutions. As the company was growing the tasks were delegated to new employees and my role changed to managing the teams and the projects. I can easily say that on that path, from being the two-man team to becoming a 260-employees company in the meantime acquired by Asseco, I did all technology-related jobs from hardware technician, database administrator, and software developer to project manager and CTO.

What are your main values?

I always try to see the value in each person and I believe everyone deserves an opportunity, or to be more precise, few opportunities because everyone has the right to make a mistake. Most of all I respect knowledge and science, and regardless of the topic, my main authorities are the experts in particular fields. However, I always evaluate and judge their expertise on basis of facts and proofs, strongly believing that nothing should be taken for granted without solid arguments and pieces of evidence. My associates can always count on my devotion to achieving a common goal and that’s what I expect in return. I don’t find myself particularly easy to cooperate with but I’m definitely a team player with decision-making abilities.

What do you do when you’re out of office?

I always try to spend my free time being active because this is the way I rest and recharge. My hobbies could seem a bit strange to somebody but I’m sure people do much weirder stuff in their free time. When I was 16, I started to fly, first glider planes and later powered aircraft, and that’s the passion that will keep me as long as I’m able to renew my pilot license. Regardless whether it’s flying across the continent or over the sea to visit the places or just enjoying local sightseeing flight, for me it’s important to spread the wings and get into the air. Similarly to being happy in the air, I enjoy being submerged in the water, from the simple sea diving along the local shore to diving in flooded caves. My hobbies are like my work, requiring dedication, focus, risk analysis, learning, and teamwork, leaving very little room for mistakes.