Blog » Bentley Hoke Celebrates 15th Anniversary

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

bride and groom at wedding 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.

screenshot of first Bentley Hoke website 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

baby in red shirt FirstChild = Person.new

2003

cscos.com website screenshot 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.

toddler outside SecondChild = Person.new

2006

Chartwell Booksellers website screenshot 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

office lobby 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 website screenshot 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

Rolling Stones on stage 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.

2010

Fishbone on stage 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

mph.net website screenshot Manlius Pebble Hill School Website
Redesigned website for MPH, a PreK-12 independent day school in DeWitt, NY

band on stage Old School
Played tenor sax with the band Old School at charity event at Syracuse’s Landmark Theater

2011

Hancock Estabrook website screenshot Hancock Estabrook Website
Launch redesigned website for Hancock Estabrook, one of Upstate New York’s leading law firms

cfins.com website screenshot 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 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 screenshot 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

man speaking at podium 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

onbar.org website screenshot Onondaga County Bar Association Website
Launched redesigned website for the Onondaga County Bar Association, professional organization serving attorneys in Central New York since 1875

Three people in front of soccer poster Chelsea Football Club
Visited London and saw Jose Mourinho’s only home loss in the Premier League at Stamford Bridge

Redesigned website for Critical Link, a leading developer of embedded solutions for a wide range of electronic applications

ABQ website screenshot Albuquerque Airport Website
Developed website for Albuquerque International Sunport

2015

accesscny.org website screenshot AccessCNY Website
Designed & developed site for AccessCNY, Central New York-based based human services nonprofit

 

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