Hi! I am Robert. I’m the founder of Melapress. We develop a number of security and management plugins for WordPress websites and users.
I’m married to my wife Charlene. She used to work as a criminal lawyer, but after we had three children, priorities shifted. We now live in Wijchen, a small village in the Netherlands, close to the German border. It’s quiet, green, and a great place to raise a family.
From a small island to… everywhere else
I’m originally from Malta, from a small village called Siggiewi. Growing up in Malta was great, but Malta is a tiny island. So by the time I was 18, I’d been through pretty much every valley, hilltop, and beach on the island.
I was never a big fan of school; I found it very hard to sit down and listen to someone talking about things I am not interested in. For my tertiary education, I went to Fellenberg, a school focused on electrical and electronics engineering. During my third year, a friend of mine, David Vella, asked if I could help out at where he used to work, at GFI Software, to install a number of SCSI drives on Windows NT 3.5.
At the time, I didn’t even know what an IP address was. However, as part of my studies I was already fixing monitors, motherboards etc. So I was very handy with hardware and software interfaces etc. That job hooked me. I stayed at GFI for years, worked my way up to systems engineer, and ended up managing and running systems and networks in a number of offices around the world.
Learning by doing (and breaking things)
After GFI, I didn’t follow a neat career path. I moved around, a lot. I lived for about four years in Nicosia, Cyprus, working in product and project management roles at 3CX. I later spent around three and a half years in a small village called Bo’ness in Scotland. Along the way, I worked in product management, project management, R&D, sales engineering, technical marketing, research, and consulting. Sometimes as an employee, sometimes as a freelancer. I’ve seen and dealt with every department of software companies, which was the experience I needed to start my own company – Melapress.
Melapress and WordPress
Melapress started because back when I was cleaning hacked WordPress websites, I realised there were no longs in WordPress, no trail. So I built an activity log plugin for WordPress with the help of a friend, Costin Trifan. That plugin is WP Activity Log.
Today, at Melapress we build a number of WordPress security and user management plugins used by hundreds of thousands of sites.
Life outside of work
I love the outdoors. When we lived in Scotland and only had one child, which means I had way more time on my hands, I spent a lot of time mountain biking, mostly enduro riding. I raced at a few funduros as well.
These days it’s a mix of cycling, trail running, hiking, camping, bikepacking, and many other things. If it’s outdoors, I’m interested.
In a previous life, I was also very much into cars and racing. My father built me a go-kart when I was around ten. By twenty, I bought a professional one and raced “competitively” until my early twenties. It was fun, intense, and incredibly expensive.
Volunteering
I’ve also spent a fair amount of time volunteering. I volunteered for two months in India, for several years with the St John Rescue Corps in Malta, helped out at dog shelters, and I still volunteer with the Alverna Scouting group.
Why this website exists
I’ve long wanted to have my own website, but never had the time to do it. With the birth of AI I am allocating time to experiment with AI, and this website is exactly that; to experiment, build, and break with AI.
I’ve also created this website to share my ideas, thoughts, and things I’ve learned along the way. If something I write helps or inspires even one person, then it’s worth it.
That’s it, really.