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Episode 41: Mark Wahl
Introducing Mark Wahl
Mark helps build teams and manage processes to create digital products and services, often using WordPress! He is Technical Director at the Jake Group, a DC-based digital agency.
Show Notes
Website | Jake Group
Twitter | @markawahl
LinkedIn | Mark Wahl
Episode Transcript
Liam: This is Hallway Chats, where we talk with some of the unique people in and around WordPress.
Tara: Together, we meet and chat with folks you may not know about in our community.
Liam: With our guests, we’ll explore stories of living – and of making a living with WordPress.
Tara: And now the conversation begins. This is episode 41.
Liam: Welcome to Hallway Chats. I’m Liam Dempsey.
Tara: And I’m Tara Claeys. Today, we’re joined by Mark Wahl. Mark helps build teams and manage processes to create digital products and services often using WordPress. He’s a technical director at the Jake Group, a D.C.-based digital agency. He’s also a dad, amateur woodworker, cider maker, and a Yankees fan. Hi, Mark.
Mark: Hello.
Liam: Hey, Mark, welcome. Tell us a little bit more about yourself, if you would please, sir?
Mark: Sure. Thanks for having me. I am Mark Wahl. I live in Annandale, Virginia. I am originally from Western New York, Rochester New York, and I came to D.C. about 12 years ago, and I’ve been here ever since. I have two kids, I’m a dad, and I work in WordPress building websites and other products and services for all-manner clients.
Tara: How did you get started with WordPress, Mark? What’s your background with tech?
Mark: Sure. I thought about this a good deal and remembered some things that I hadn’t thought about for quite a while. I guess, when I was in middle school in the ’80s, my school offered a basic programming class. And I took that over the summer and I thought that was cool. Then I promptly stopped doing that sort of thing for about 15 years and went and studied English in college and literature. Then I came down to D.C. to work for environmental non-profits. That was my thing back then. But that was late ’90s and we were looking for new ways to communicate our message. The web was just sort of emerging then. I remembered how much I enjoyed that programming and I was kind of the guy, me and the other guy, at my organization that was willing to get their hands dirty figuring out HTML and the web, and I had a lot of fun doing that. Soon thereafter, I ended up in a graduate program at Georgetown called Communication Culture and Technology. That was very multi-disciplinary and people studied all sorts of different things from the economics of the internet to policy. And among the things that I studied was, actually, code, and I got involved with an internship there and a group building websites. I really enjoyed that and built some cool stuff for the university and some related clients. After that, I ended up still interested in advocacy and non-profits, I did that for about another year after grad school until I really realized my passion was more on the engineering side of things. I made some moves then, freelanced for about a year, and connected with some people. Then ended up building websites for living. I’ve been with the Jake Group for about 12 or 15 years now, building all sorts of different things.
Liam: That is a pretty impressive story, to work its way from Western New York down to D.C. and around to like– what really caught my attention and from the way that Tara is smiling, I think it caught hers, was the degree that you explored and got at Georgetown. Can you talk us through that a little bit?
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By Topher DeRosia and Nyasha Green
4.9
1717 ratings
Introducing Mark Wahl
Mark helps build teams and manage processes to create digital products and services, often using WordPress! He is Technical Director at the Jake Group, a DC-based digital agency.
Show Notes
Website | Jake Group
Twitter | @markawahl
LinkedIn | Mark Wahl
Episode Transcript
Liam: This is Hallway Chats, where we talk with some of the unique people in and around WordPress.
Tara: Together, we meet and chat with folks you may not know about in our community.
Liam: With our guests, we’ll explore stories of living – and of making a living with WordPress.
Tara: And now the conversation begins. This is episode 41.
Liam: Welcome to Hallway Chats. I’m Liam Dempsey.
Tara: And I’m Tara Claeys. Today, we’re joined by Mark Wahl. Mark helps build teams and manage processes to create digital products and services often using WordPress. He’s a technical director at the Jake Group, a D.C.-based digital agency. He’s also a dad, amateur woodworker, cider maker, and a Yankees fan. Hi, Mark.
Mark: Hello.
Liam: Hey, Mark, welcome. Tell us a little bit more about yourself, if you would please, sir?
Mark: Sure. Thanks for having me. I am Mark Wahl. I live in Annandale, Virginia. I am originally from Western New York, Rochester New York, and I came to D.C. about 12 years ago, and I’ve been here ever since. I have two kids, I’m a dad, and I work in WordPress building websites and other products and services for all-manner clients.
Tara: How did you get started with WordPress, Mark? What’s your background with tech?
Mark: Sure. I thought about this a good deal and remembered some things that I hadn’t thought about for quite a while. I guess, when I was in middle school in the ’80s, my school offered a basic programming class. And I took that over the summer and I thought that was cool. Then I promptly stopped doing that sort of thing for about 15 years and went and studied English in college and literature. Then I came down to D.C. to work for environmental non-profits. That was my thing back then. But that was late ’90s and we were looking for new ways to communicate our message. The web was just sort of emerging then. I remembered how much I enjoyed that programming and I was kind of the guy, me and the other guy, at my organization that was willing to get their hands dirty figuring out HTML and the web, and I had a lot of fun doing that. Soon thereafter, I ended up in a graduate program at Georgetown called Communication Culture and Technology. That was very multi-disciplinary and people studied all sorts of different things from the economics of the internet to policy. And among the things that I studied was, actually, code, and I got involved with an internship there and a group building websites. I really enjoyed that and built some cool stuff for the university and some related clients. After that, I ended up still interested in advocacy and non-profits, I did that for about another year after grad school until I really realized my passion was more on the engineering side of things. I made some moves then, freelanced for about a year, and connected with some people. Then ended up building websites for living. I’ve been with the Jake Group for about 12 or 15 years now, building all sorts of different things.
Liam: That is a pretty impressive story, to work its way from Western New York down to D.C. and around to like– what really caught my attention and from the way that Tara is smiling, I think it caught hers, was the degree that you explored and got at Georgetown. Can you talk us through that a little bit?