NearForm scores major coup with Silicon Valley hire

11 Jun 2015

NearForm founders Cian O’Maidín and Richard Rodger

Fast-growing Waterford software company NearForm – which is now the largest Node.js software consultancy in the world – has hired leading Silicon Valley technologist Eran Hammer to guide the company.

The Tramore-based software company recently announced 100 new jobs as part of its expansion and counts companies from Intel, Qualcomm and Universal to littleBits, DPD and Condé Nast among its customers. The WIT TSSG spinout company has in the past year trebled staff and revenue.

NearForm CEO and co-founder Cian O’Maidín said hiring Hammer is a major coup for the company.

Hammer is the influential creator of the Node.js framework hapi.js, which is used by multiple Fortune 500 companies including Walmart, PayPal, Yahoo!, and many others.

‘We have been quietly growing as a Node.js consulting company over the last three years. We’re on a major growth spurt and reaching critical mass’ — NearForm CEO Cian O’Maidín

He is also internationally known for leading the software development team at Walmart that transformed the US retail giant’s mobile e-commerce platform to Node.js and managed two extremely successful and uneventful Black Fridays, the busiest shopping day of the year.

Eran’s past roles include director of Web Standards at Yahoo! and lead author of the OAuth protocol. After a decade on Wall Street — his last role was at Citibank as vice president of engineering for the derivatives market — Eran founded Nouncer in 2007, a social content distribution start-up.

“We’re delighted that he chose to come to nearForm after leaving Walmart,” O’Maidín said.

“We have been quietly growing as a Node.js consulting company over the last three years. We’re on a major growth spurt and reaching critical mass. We are now the biggest Node.js experts in the world and growing at a rate of 10 people per month.

“Eran’s involvement is a major endorsement of NearForm. Expect some very interesting announcements over the coming months.”

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com