Episode 94: Alex Sirota

Introducing Alex Sirota

Alex is a father, a husband, a son, director of NewPath Consulting, contributor in the WordPress Toronto community, a trumpet player and a University of Michigan football fanatic.

Show Notes

Twitter | @alexsirota

Website | New Path Consulting

WordPress Community | WordPress Toronto

Episode Transcript

Tara: This is Hallway Chats, where we meet people who use WordPress.

Liam: We ask questions, and our guests share their stories, ideas and perspectives.

Tara And now the conversation begins. This is episode 94.

Tara: Welcome to Hallway Chats. I’m Tara Claeys.

Liam: And I’m Liam Dempsey. Today we’re joined by Alex Sirota. Alex is a father, a husband, a son, the director of New Path Consulting, a contributor in the WordPress Toronto community, a trumpet player and a University of Michigan football fanatic who wants to see software make the world a better place. Welcome Alex.

Alex: Hi Everybody. Hi Tara. Hi Liam. It’s very nice to meet you.

Tara: It’s great to have you with us today. Thanks so much for joining us Alex. Can you tell us more about yourself please?

Alex: Sure. I live in Toronto Ontario Canada. It’s also known as the great white north. Actually, I’m looking outside the window now and it’s a sunny spring day. We’ve had a very long winter and it’s very nice to see that it’s warming up. Everyone is coming out of their hibernation mode. I have lived in Toronto for 22 years. I’m originally from Michigan. I grew up in the Detroit suburbs area. I came here actually in December of 1996 for a job and I stayed here. I actually emigrated from the US to Canada, which is pretty unusual. There are about a million of Americans who live in Canada (that’s the estimate) and most people here are economic immigrants, meaning that they came here for some sort of opportunity or maybe got married to someone and they came here. But we do have actually…Canada is very interesting. We have about a quarter of a million immigrants from all around the world coming here now. About 100 to 150 thousand per year for the last probably 10 years have come to Toronto or greater Toronto area. It’s grown extraordinarily over the last few years. Their infrastructure is really getting tasked quite a bit.

Liam: I want to go back to Detroit for just a minute. This is more about me than about you. I’m originally from the suburbs of Chicago. I’m a big fan of Chicago style pizza. I met a guy recently who is from Detroit and talked to me about Detroit pizza and said it’s the best ever. Do you have an opinion on that?

Alex: They have a Detroit style pizza … I am not sure … there’s something about it. There’s a company there that kind of made it big called Buddy’s. Buddy’s pizza.

Liam: That’s the one.

Alex: It’s kind of like a local chain. You know? It’s a marketing thing really. It’s a special kind of feeling. It’s deep dish. I don’t really remember to be honest with you. I haven’t had it in a long time. There’s another one called Jet’s deep dish. It’s like crusty on the ends but I don’t think it’s as good as Chicago style. It’s good. It’s pizza, right? It’s a Midwestern thing cheese, bread, you know?

Liam: Well we can keep you on the show then. All right. Chicago’s the best. We are going to turn it back over Tara.

Tara: Well cheese and bread are popular topics too. But I think we’re going to talk a little bit more about you and your background and how relate to WordPress and in general how you relate to the world. So Alex what’s your background? How did you find your way to WordPress and a guest on our show today?