CHRISTCHURCH, NZ, 23 December, 2014 – ARANZ Geo, a world leader in the visualisation and interpretation of geological sciences for the mining, hydrogeology and geothermal industries, today announced world-class software entrepreneur Scott Houston, the Founder of GreenButton, has been appointed to its board of directors.
Houston, the former CTO of Weta Digital, founded high performance cloud computer company GreenButton in 2006. GreenButton became the global leader in PaaS (Platform as a Service) enabling businesses to securely run software applications in the cloud with access to unlimited computing
Scott Houston
power. GreenButton was recently acquired by Microsoft Corporation.
Andrew Simmonds, Chairman of ARANZ Geo’s Board of Directors, says “Scott’s experience will be invaluable as we keep pushing the innovation boundaries, especially as we move more applications to the cloud.”
ARANZ Geo is well known as the developer of Leapfrog® 3D geological modelling solutions for the mining, hydrogeology and geothermal industries that enable executives to make dramatically better decisions. The Leapfrog suite of 3D modelling packages has revolutionised the way geological models are developed and used, and are trusted decision-making tools used by the world’s leading mining companies and investment houses.
Shaun Maloney, CEO of ARANZ Geo, says “We’re continually innovating to reinforce our position as a market leader. With Leapfrog now firmly established as the modelling tool of choice in our industry, we’re focusing on secure cloud-based applications to allow effective project collaboration across sites, offices and countries. Scott’s insights into developing world-class, scalable technology solutions will be enormously valuable as we make this move and continue to develop new products and markets.”
Houston says, “I’m really impressed with ARANZ Geo’s team and the success they’ve had to date. I’m looking forward to adding value with my knowledge in the high performance cloud computing sector around the world.”
Houston helped establish the super computer platform for Weta Studio’s used in the production of Lord of the Rings. At the end of the production he developed the idea for GreenButton as a way to use the spare processing power. His software platform enabled this capacity to be leased, on-demand.
“I’m excited to see how the cloud can further evolve ARANZ Geo’s technology,” he says.
ARANZ Geo has 100 staff around the globe with its R&D Centre and head office based in Christchurch, New Zealand. Local Leapfrog support offices operate in five key territories: Asia/Pacific, Africa, South America, North America and Europe.