Home of Poi - Meet the HoP Shop team

In the Warehouse

Chris	Chris is our longest serving employee (besides Malcolm) at HoP. He has known Malcolm for over 16 years; Chris had his own company called Burning Statements and then hooked up as part of HoP back in 2003. Chris is our main guy for all enquires about product and spends his day between answering customer e-mails, packing orders and designing and refining products to support all our Hoppers as best and as fast as possible. Any "difficult" enquires/problems Chris will solve it. Outside HoP - Chris is a country boy, lives in the middle of nowhere, meaning you have to get across paddocks just to reach his house, Chris has a pet Goat called Peanut and a dog called Iggy Toejam, he loves to spin fire. Chris's weekends tend to consist of spinning fire, drinking too much red wine, spending time with friends and laxing in his outside bath naked - lucky you live so far away! Check out his profile here, introduction thread here, and his photo gallery here.
Nick	Nick is more or less our "class clown" keeping everyone entertained, and when he is working he is most probably making your firepoi or staves. Nick has been with HoP since March 2006. Nick is a very hard worker but always manages to crack the typical "Nick" joke or find something or someone to amuse the rest of the staff. Outside HoP - Nick is a bit of a fire deviant also and likes his music and partying. He thinks sliced bread is over-rated, and Nacho's are a great excuse to eat sour cream! (Which will maybe give you some idea about him!)
Alex	Alex is our latest full time employee who started 10 Sep 2007. He isn't really a Tele-Tubby - he just had the haircut specially before starting to work with us! Alex is using his "DIY" experience to make staves, poi etc. Outside HoP - Alex is the classic fire deviant. His favourite toy is the staff and we see him bouncing our shop sample all over the ground outside HoP all the time! He loves raves and drums and Bass. He's a computer nerd from way back and his favourite colour is black - the colour of the soul banana, and he says he doesn't know how far is too far - "I'm the king of bad taste" he can be heard to say!
Charlie	Charlotte is our latest full time employee. She started out her HoP life as one of our casual per piece contracotrs but moved to full time manufacturing in April 2008. She throws a mean needle, she does, so chances are your stitched firepoi have passed throguh her delicate hands. Outside HoP - Charlotte is a crystals and stone expert. A bit of herbology doesn't escape her either...
Sue	Sue is our wonderful, long time, 'per piece' sewing contractor. She's been with us since 2005 and does the majority of our sewing: Flags, fuffy poi, leather and nylon handles, etc - that's her forte. Working 'per piece' she can fit the workload around her busy teenage daughter and other activities (and of course she can hide from that Nick fella easier!). Outside HoP - When she's not sewing for us or someone else (her skills and willing nature means she gets snaffled to do sewing for many people), she's out and about stopping moving cars with her legs or other stunt-man activities! She's a bit of a wild one our Sue and hard to keep up with, but she does like to chill with a spa and a nice wine.
	We have a number of other 'per piece' contractors helping out with the workload. This scheme allows us to help out some of our members who are doing the CirCo Arts course (e.g) and want a bit of part time pocket money.

In the Office

George	George is our General Manager. He keeps the day-to-day functions running as smoothly as possible. You will quite often see him lurking around the messageboards (mainly in "Social" areas). George is always thinking of new product, new articles, and new business to be added to our site. George has been with HoP since October 2006. George has over 27 years experience with the last 6 years in high-tech, global, electronic companies at senior management level - this is what we need in the business to keep it running the way it should be. Along with these skills, he provides essential "cannon fodder" for the rest of the team during breaks (Call of Duty)!! Outside HoP - George is a Kendo fanatic! We're not sure how good at it he is though as we have seen a lot of nasty bruises after the competitions/training. George enjoys the outdoors and spending time with his wife and 3 teenage boys. In his BC days (Before Children!), George was very keen into his long distance running/biking and kayaking and has run more than a handful of Marathons and finished the Speights Coast to Coast solo. He has also travelled abroad reasonably extensively (including a month down in Antarctica) and he loves meeting the new people and cultures that travel exposes you to. Check out George's profile here, introduction thread here, and his gallery here.
Nat	Nat has been with us since January 2007 and controls all stock, and product ordering from overseas. Natalie deals with all overseas clients when it comes to sourcing new products, also all general office duties. Natalie is the only female in the HoP company so you can imagine what she has to put up with on a daily basis. :-) Outside HoP - Natalie is a very keen Netball player, and has been playing in premier grade since the age of 12, she loves to socialize sometimes a little too much and spend time with friends and family, loves the Vino's and laxing in the spa after a busy week at HoP. Check out her profile here, and introduction thread here.
Malcolm	Malcolm: You all obviously know Malcolm as the founder of HoP which kicked off in October 1998, but there is more to him than that; - he is our "handyman". If its broke, Malcolm will fix it, if we need it Malcolm will build it, not to mention the castle he has built upstairs of HoP building for Jessie to play in while he is hard at work. Malcolm is very computer savvy and is constantly thinking of new ways to improve our website and our service to all our wonderful HoPpers. Outside HoP - Malcolm is a family man and loves spending time with his wife Cherry and wee boy Jessie. Malcolm loves teaching Jesse the manipulation arts. Check out his family photo gallery, profile here, and his introduction thread here.

Lost Souls!

Timmy

Tim was our manufacturing Team Leader at HoP. He was with us from March 2004 until Feb 2008. Timmy has taken his "Atlas Boy" skills to Australia where he moved to with his partner to take advantage of a great nursing oportunity (for her, not Timmy!).

Malcolm was going to make a cardboard cutout of Timmy so he would never leave us, but his spirit lives on in the product book, so we can never forget the Timmy!

Cory

Cory started out with us as a 1 month fill-in job before heading off overseas on his OE. Well, that was his story - but he was still here several months later until he finally did go on his OE a few weeks after Timmy left us

If this teller of 'tall stories' turns up in your area on his worldly travels, please take good care of him and send him back to us in one piece.

"Home of Poi" - Meet the Shop Team