George Poulopoulos

A professional of bespoke solutions 
in digital transformation

A digital transformation specialist since 2013, with extended experience in archive digitization

Where I am, what I have been involved in, what I am curious about, what I keep myself updated on...

Athens, Greece-based

A local of Kesariani, Athens. Spending eight years abroad only made me appreciate the Athenian city life!

Paper Archive Digitization

Designing, implementing and supervising large physical archive digitization projects comprises the bulk of my experience.

Document Management

Being the usual interface between human users and an archive, ​I've come to be quite opinionated on the look and feel of EDMs.

Data Productivity Tools

When ad-hoc data parsing is part of daily life, having a versatile toolkit is essential. I can build my own as easily as I can shop around.

Electronic Engineering

A trained Electronic Engineer with a particular interest in embedded systems, Single Board Computers and their applications.

Customized Solutions

Off-the-shelf solutions cannot always model a custom workflow in its entirety, or do it in a simple and intuitive manner. I strive to build simple stuff that just works.

RAD-inspired Software Development Toolset

Rapid Application Development tools and practices are my natural preferences, as long as they allow for the required flexibility of the end solution. I find that they most often do!

A Social and Institutional Insight on Technology

Whatever solutions we build, integrate within a mesh of human and organizational actors. Charting and negotiating agency, can mean the difference between success or demise. I'm trained in this and try to live up to it.

Obvious Questions and Answers

Are you a freelancer? Can we do business together?

No, I'm not a freelancer at the moment. I work as a full time employee.

What we can do, is have a chat if you find it worthwhile. Talk is free, and networking is everything.

So, what's the point of this web page? And what's Covalent?

This page is part of my personal branding, it is not a commercial landing site. I present a brief overview of myself and run a blog where I give away small bits and pieces of technical challenges I've encountered. It also showcases examples of things I've experimented with from time to time.

Covalent is just the focal point of that branding. It sounds elegant and it's easier to spell than p-o-u-l-o-p-o-u-l-o-s dot info. It is inspired by covalent bonds in chemistry, the interatomic linkage that results from the sharing of an electron pair between two atoms. We bond by sharing.

What's your academic training?

I am an Electronic Engineer, a graduate of the Technological Education Institute of Piraeus (now University of West Attica).

Besides electronics, I had been following courses of the Philosophy of Science, Technology and Society MSc of the University of Twente, in the Netherlands. I didn't eventually graduate with a degree, but I think I got almost everything that program had to offer. It's a big part of how I understand the world and the role of technology in it.  

What do you consider key stations of your professional life?

I have worked for several years at Archeiothiki SA, an industry leader in physical archiving and archive digitization. A very fertile ground for my personal development at the time.

I currently work at Inform Lykos (a member of Austriacard Holdings), a Greek multinational with a diverse range of activities in Printing, Information Management and Digital Transformation.

I am particularly nostalgic about the time I spent working at a sorting center of PostNL in Utrecht, where I was unloading sacks of mail into conveyor belts. I felt complete after every shift, like going to the gym, but  doing something actually useful while at it.

I've also worked in tech support for consumer electronics At R Systems in Enschede, for a number of years. That built some considerable patience and the skill to explain AV equipment wiring to British housewives over a bad phone line connection. An exportable skill like no other!