My formal education began with strong results in almost every subject in 10th grade and vocational study in metalwork with a focus on electronics. I later studied on the Danish HTX technical programme and on a computer science programme but did not complete those two courses. My work in software, operations, customer delivery and people leadership has been my most important professional education since then.
Looking back today, I consider my working life my real education. That does not mean a diploma is unimportant. It means I have learned by solving problems, standing behind decisions and helping others develop.
A good start at school
I finished 10th grade with high marks in almost every subject. In other words, I had a good academic starting point. My path onwards just did not become the straight line through completed upper secondary education and a finished higher education degree that you might expect of someone who would later work with technology and leadership.
After 10th grade, I took a vocational foundation course in iron and metal with a focus on electronics. It was a practical way into technology. I later started technical upper secondary school but did not complete it. I was tired of school at the time. It is part of my story, and I would rather say it as it was than embellish it.
Computer science studies and a break in the course
I later enrolled on a computer science programme at academy profession level and reached the final semester. When my mother died, I did not complete the programme. It was a difficult time, and my studies ended without a diploma. That is why I have never described myself as a graduate of that programme.
I took what I had learned with me into working life. I was then hired as a system administrator at Skive Municipality. There, my knowledge was put to the test in an everyday setting where systems had to work for other people. That transition came to shape the way I learn: understand the task, take responsibility for a solution, listen to the people who use it and learn from what happens afterwards.
My working life became my real education
Since then, I have worked with technology from several angles. As CTO at Mira Internet, I was responsible for hosting, servers, capacity, backup and redundancy. It taught me what technical decisions mean when customers depend on solutions working. An architecture is not just something you draw; it also has to be operated, monitored and kept running when something goes wrong.
At Modified Solutions and later Growix, I worked with customers, developers and software delivery. I helped build a company with up to 16 employees. I hired people, developed them, owned the customer dialogue and prioritised between tasks, time, quality and finances. That part taught me something neither code nor a project plan can teach on its own: how to create direction without taking technical ownership away from the specialists.
With avecdo, I helped build a SaaS product from idea to daily operation. The solution reached around 3,000 users and 1,500 webshops and processed about 15 million products a day. That experience has taught me to think across product, customers, development capacity and stable operations. When a service is used every day, the consequences of both good and bad choices become very concrete.
Those assignments have not given me an academic title. They have given me experience in making decisions, following them through and correcting course when reality turned out differently from the plan. That is the experience I bring into a leadership role.
I am still learning
Technology changes, and acting as if I had finished learning has never served me well. In recent years, I have spent a lot of time on AI in software development. I have worked with Codex, Claude, ChatGPT and other OpenAI tools myself, and I have helped developers use AI for analysis, task breakdown, implementation and review of their work. To me, it is not enough that a tool can produce a quick answer. The team also has to be able to assess the result and stand behind the quality. Here I explain more about that way of working.
I also learn from the people I work with. Developers often know more than I do about their current specialist area. Customers know more than I do about their daily workflow. My job is to understand enough to ask good questions, bring the different perspectives forward and help us choose a path that works in practice. I have written more about this on the pages about leading developers and going from need to software delivery.
What does this mean if you are considering hiring me?
I have described my formal education openly here. The practical part is visible in my cases, recommendations from colleagues and the systems I have helped build and operate. If that combination is relevant to your challenge, I would be glad to discuss it.
Contact: kontakt@tomc.dk · +45 299 297 67