Hi, I'm Ben.

A Software Engineering student based in Adelaide.

Previous Career:
3 Hat Sommelier | Business General Manager

My Journey

From sommelier to small business manager to software engineer...


Sommelier career beginnings
Scotland Early Years — 2009

Sommelier Career Begins

Entered the wine & fine dining industry, beginning a journey through cellars, vineyards, and fine dining rooms across the globe.

Montalcino, Italy
Montalcino, Italy 2010 — 2012

Head Sommelier & Fine Dining Awards

Formative period as Group Head Sommelier for one of Australia's top regional fine dining restaurants, gaining experience working in local wineries by day, and working the restaurants by night.

Royal Mail Hotel Royal Mail Hotel Cellar
Royal Mail Hotel 2012 — 2015

New States, New benchmarks

Sommelier roles in Vic and WA — earning top industry accolades as part of world class teams: 2x Australian Restaurant of the Year, 3x Australian Wine List of the Year, 2x Wine Spectator's Grand Award (2 of 3 awarded in Au)...

Cellar work
The Cellar 2015 — 2018

Winemaking Studies

Studied Viticulture & Oenology at the University of Adelaide — deepening technical knowledge of winemaking from vine to bottle through hands-on cellar work.

Independent wine store
Independent Wine Retail 2018 — 2023

Business Leadership & Overhaul

Joined as a casual while studying and finished as General Manager; led a complete business and culture overhaul — from bookkeeping to building an e-commerce platform, modernised operations, and returned the business to profitability.

Adelaide University Software Engineering
Adelaide University 2023 — 2024

Career Pivot & University

Transitioned from leveraging technology within wine to building technology as a core profession. Enrolled in Bachelor of Software Engineering (Honours) — formalising & building upon the skills developed through years of self-directed problem solving.

Software engineering
Building 2024 — Present

Software Engineer & Continuing Student

Studying Software Engineering at Adelaide University while building full-stack applications with Python, FastAPI, React, and TypeScript.

Projects


Other Work

5000 Product WordPress Online Store
5000 Product WordPress Online Store

Woocommerce, Custom CSS/JS, 360 product images, custom build allocations system, automations and marketing workflows.

WordPress WooCommerce CSS JavaScript PHP
Personal Portfolio Website
Personal Portfolio Website

FastAPI backend, Jinja2 templates, Responsive Design

Python FastAPI Jinja2 Bootstrap SQLite
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