Allow me to introduce myself – I am Louis van Wyk – the newly installed Communications and Marketing Manager here at TUANZ.

A little about myself…

I am South African by birth, but a New Zealander by choice having made this country my home over the past seven years.

Career-wise I have spent the majority of my time in New Zealand reporting on the local IT sales channel – this is the community of folks who sell, implement, consult on, design, service, fix, break, re-fix, and market IT products and services – for a publication called New Zealand Reseller News.

I was editor of the publication for the past 20 months, and was a reporter before that. In between I had a one-year stint at Manukau Institute of Technology as communications advisor.

Back in the old country I started off as a reporter for some local rags, but soon gravitated toward business writing – mostly as a way to escape the trauma of being a crime reporter at a time when violent crime was still news in South Africa! Test driving diggers in my first trade journo gig for a construction magazine was not much safer though.

So what brings me to TUANZ?

I could say it is the view from the TUANZ office, which is a great, but hardly a reason to change careers.

I have long admired the great job Ernie and the TUANZ team have done in their fight for the rights of telecommunications end-users.

With my journalism background, a passion for the potential of technology and a love for fighting the good fight, I hope to ensure the voice of our members is heard loudly and clearly by the incoming government, regulators, telcos and the public at large.

After all, every New Zealander is a telecommunications user, and we will all benefit from better services, faster broadband, lower charges and more openness and competition in the market.

For now, I just hope I can stick to Ernie’s blogging rules and ensure I never convey my personal opinions, or entertain our readers in any way, shape or form. If anything you have read to this point has been entertaining or funny, please don’t tell Ernie – I’m trying to make a good impression here on my first day…