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Ramon de la Fuente

Ramon de la Fuente

When I was programming games in basic as a child, nobody said I could choose that as a profession. But when I found my way into IT as a systems administrator, I (re)discovered my love for writing code. I realised back then: in this field you are never done learning.

I’m very passionate about improvement - of myself, but also of my surroundings. This has driven me to organise PHP meetups, become a public speaker and chairman of the local judo club. I’m an experienced tech lead comfortable with different tech stacks.

I love thinking in systems and feedback loops - for the performance of my team I focus more on organization and communication than I do on the technology.

As a Speaker

As a Trainer

March 2025 - Present · Change agent

By utilizing serious games and hands-on exercises I help teams to internalize new concepts and practices. By safely experiencing situations and experimenting during play, teams can escape from past patterns and jump over obstacles that exist in “real life”. Lessons learned during play cause more profound change of behaviour and experiences are turned into practical and ready to use techniques during debrief.

March 2014 - 2018 · Coach at WeCamp

The goal of WeCamp was to conceive, build and present a product in 1 week in a team of total strangers. It took place on an island mostly in isolation. As a participant, coach and volunteer, this event has taught me a great deal about collaboration and the theory behind team performance.

As a Leader

Feb 2006 - Present · Owner @ Future500

Custom software solutions for the web, specialising in PHP/Symfony. Always aiming to deliver high quality solutions that solve the right problem. We are believers in automated testing, continuous delivery and Domain Driven Design.

Jan 2021 - Jun 2022 · CarNext

Technical lead mostly focussing on the PHP part of the stack and intra-team collaboration. CarNext was a scaleup, with over 16 development teams accomplishing the technical goals in a volatile landscape undergoing massive growth. The challenge was one of alignment, between teams as well as getting clear priority and goals from management.

Sep 2019 - Apr 2020 · VONQ

I was specifically hired to improve team performance in a time of fast growth of the product & engineering department. I was part of the Recruitment Analytics team, but involved in improving up cross-team communication and creating a culture of continuous learning.

Apr 2017 - Aug 2019 · Finance Matters B.V.

Responsible for adopting a large legacy codebase and a (still running) previous version in Visual Basic and porting it to a stable environment in PHP. Also responsible for leading the in-house development team in terms of technical decisions and work process. Working closely with the business to ensure focus on the right issues.

Jun 2016 - Feb 2017 · Schiphol

Interim technical lead (backend) for the development of the new Schiphol website and mobile application. Working with backend developers in multiple scrum teams to deliver a solid product for the future.

As a Community Member

Aug 2013 - Jun 2016 · SweetlakePHP SweetlakePHP was a PHP user group for developers in Den Haag / Zoetermeer. I initiated the group and was involved in organising the monthly meetings and arranging speakers and sponsors. I also opened the meetings and did some of the presentations.