Today we are featuring Gary McPherson from London, England. Gary is a digital tech founder, consultant and speaker. Black people in WordPress are consistently building, designing, and moving the open source project forward. In this series, we highlight members of the BlackPress Slack channel who are doing amazing things with WordPress.
What do you do? What are you passionate about?
My primary role is as an instructor and consultant for a UK-based organisation called Coding Black Females that aims to train and support Black women in technical roles. I’m passionate about supporting Black people across all dimensions of the tech industry and generally empowering and advancing communities across the diaspora.
How and when did you get started with WordPress?
My earliest experience was back in 2013 when I had a few project commissions to set up or recover WP-based websites. I used it for my own projects for the first time the following year.
How do you use WordPress?
Currently, I maintain a WPMS network containing two sites for CBF and also use it for a personal side project I’m developing at https://tech.frocentric.io, along with occasional support/maintenance requests for other sites
How has the WordPress software or community helped you to grow or helped you accomplish a goal?
It allowed me to build my project relatively quickly and also opened the door to a speaking opportunity at WordCamp
What is something you’d like to do or build with WordPress in the future?
I plan to extend the Frocentric site into a network supporting members across different industries and I’d also like to consolidate some of my employer’s other websites into our WPMS network
When you were little, what did you want to do when you grew up? Do you still want to do that?
I had no idea what I wanted to do. Lol.
What do you like to cook for other people?
I don’t often cook for guests, but I might offer something like jerk salmon with rice and peas.