The timeline below highlights some key professional, volunteer, and personal moments from the past 15 years of my consulting firm, Bentley Hoke. Omission of any projects, clients, or causes below in no way implies a lack of respect for anyone – I couldn’t be more grateful to all of the people, companies, and organizations with whom I’ve had the great fortune to work over the past decade and a half.
–Brian Hoke
1995
Origin Story- Brian weds the lovely former Ms. Bentley, giving rise 5 years later to the name “Bentley Hoke” (and, to date, a wonderful marriage). 10 years on, she would change her last name to Hoke – thinking that, by that point, it seemed a sure enough thing.
2000
- The Entrepeurial Seizure
- Formation of New York State Domestic Limited Liability Company “Bentley & Hoke, L.L.C.” with articles filed by good friend George McGuire.
First Company Website- The first website went up that summer. Not sure what the login did, or if anyone used it. #coolsitebro
2001
- Degree from Dartmouth
- Brian completes his thesis The United Nations, the Greek Civil War, and American Policy: January 1946 – March 1947 and earns a master’s degree from Dartmouth College; along with his undergraduate degree (from Hamilton College, majoring in physics and minoring in English literature), this prepares him well to run a website consulting business.
2002
- YLGS
- 2002 – 2005: Brian serves as co-chair of Youth Leadership Greater Syracuse Program and member of board of directors of Leadership Greater Syracuse
- 40 Under 40 Award
- Brian is named as one of Central York’s business and community leaders under the age of 40
FirstChild = Person.new
2003
C&S Websites- 2003 – Present: Began consulting with C&S Companies, an engineering, architecture, planning, environmental, and construction firm with offices throughout the United States; would produce several redesigns of their website and various other internal and public-facing projects over the years
2005
- SXSW
- Attended South by Southwest in Austin, TX; saw Malcolm Gladwell speak. Other speakers include Jeffrey Zeldman, Ana Marie Cox, Alex Steffan, and Bruce Sterling.
SecondChild = Person.new
2006
Chartwell Booksellers Websites- Began serving as consultant to Chartwell Booksellers in NYC, the only standing bookshop in the world devoted to the writings of Winston Churchill; later developed site for Churchill Style, an award-winning book on the style of Winston Churchill
Downtown Office- Opened downtown Syracuse office in University Building
- Amy Andrews Joins the Firm
- Amy Andrews joins the firm as a wonderful full-time web developer; she should be with the firm for four years
2007
- Symfony
- Put a fair bit of time into learning and developing with Symfony, the PHP MVC full-stack framework. Used it to build web apps for the former Metropolitan Development Association and the Onondaga County Water Authority. Liked it.
- Chair, 40 Below Civic Engagement Task Force
- 2007 – 2009: Brian served as Co-Chair of the Civic Engagement Task Force of 40 Below, the Syracuse-based young professionals organization
- Syracuse/Onondaga County Youth Board
- 2007 – 2015: Brian serves as member of Syracuse/Onondaga County Youth Board, later as President and Co-Chair of Allocations Committee
2008
Mahoney Gives – ABC TV’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition- Developed site for Central New York episode of ABC’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition in which a deserving local family received a home makeover
- Ruby on Rails
- Learned Ruby on Rails to build a web application for the Greater Syracuse Business Corporation; have since used Rails to build dozens of web apps.
- Thursday Morning Roundtable
- 2008 – Present: Joined Thursday Morning Roundtable, a weekly civic forum bringing together a mix of citizens to learn about and discuss community issues; Brian has served on TMR Steering Committee since 2008
2009
Onondaga Historical Association Board of Directors- 2009 – 2012: Joined Board of OHA, Central New York’s history museum and research center; Brian would later serve as Chair of the Development Committee
- First @bentleyhoke Tweet
- Not sure why I was going to Atlanta.
Driving to atlanta – still in ny
— Brian Hoke (@bentleyhoke) April 9, 2009
2010
Party at Ground Zero- Saw Fishbone and The Beat in concert in St. Pete, FL
- TLS, Enable, AccessCNY Boards of Directors
- 2010 – Present: Joined Board of Directors of Transitional Living Services of Onondaga County, a human services agency serving people with developmental disabilities and mental health challenges; Brian would later serve as President of the board and lead the process of the agency merging with Enable and forming the new, combined agency AccessCNY
Manlius Pebble Hill School Website- Redesigned website for MPH, a PreK-12 independent day school in DeWitt, NY
Old School- Played tenor sax with the band Old School at charity event at Syracuse’s Landmark Theater
2011
Hancock Estabrook Website- Launch redesigned website for Hancock Estabrook, one of Upstate New York’s leading law firms
Crum & Forster Websites- 2011 – Present: Began working with national insurance group Crum & Forster, producing website for Crum, Seneca Insurance, CoverX Insurance, Fairmont Specialty Insurance, and a private, company-wide intranet
2012
- Authored Mobile Websites Course
- Authored Developing Mobile Websites training course for Webucator
Treadmill Desk- Got the treadmill desk and have since walked thousands of miles while working
- jQuery Course for WebMD
- Delivered jQuery training course for over 40 staff members at WebMD in Portland, OR
2013
Syracuse Airport Website- Launched site for Syracuse Hancock International Airport
- Ruby on Rails Course for Yale University
- 2013 – 2014: Delivered series of Ruby on Rails training courses for staff at Yale University in New Haven, CT
Presentation at WordCamp Montreal- 2013 – Present: Delivered presentation at WordCamp conference in Montreal; Brian would later deliver talks at WordPress conferences in Toronto (in 2014 and 2015) and Hamilton, Ontario – strangely, all of them in Canada.
2014
Onondaga County Bar Association Website- Launched redesigned website for the Onondaga County Bar Association, professional organization serving attorneys in Central New York since 1875
Chelsea Football Club- Visited London and saw Jose Mourinho’s only home loss in the Premier League at Stamford Bridge
Critical Link Website- Redesigned website for Critical Link, a leading developer of embedded solutions for a wide range of electronic applications
Albuquerque Airport Website- Developed website for Albuquerque International Sunport
2015
AccessCNY Website- Designed & developed site for AccessCNY, Central New York-based based human services nonprofit
