Meet the Team
The Payara team consists of Engineers, an international Support Services team, Human Resources, Project Management, Accounting, Customer Service, Sales and Marketing departments.

Get to Know the Management Team
Steve Millidge

Founder
Hi, I’m the founder of Payara. My goal is to build a sustainable open source business around the Payara Platform. I get to work with some of the most passionate people in the industry, trying new things, building new technology while growing and helping our community of users and customers. My role as founder is to do the jobs that nobody else is doing and then hire someone better than me to take it on. As a techie there’s no better job. My motto is: “Do stuff and stuff happens”.
Julia Millidge

Human Resources / Operations
Hi, I’m HR and Operations Manager at Payara. It’s a great job as every day is different and I get to recruit and work with some of the best people around. My team strives to build a lively, passionate, open community as we know the business thrives on this. Helping people develop to their full potential is what I love doing … I started life as a Primary school teacher.
Dominika Tasarz-Sochacka

Marketing Manager
Hi, I’m Head of Marketing & Community Builder at Payara. I’m proud to say that I’ve been with Payara from the very beginning, and over the years I’ve been responsible for building and improving its brand, as well as growing our community of users and customers. I really enjoy my job as I can work with a great team of passionate people and witness the enthusiasm and commitment of the Payara community – it’s a very rewarding experience! After graduating from university, I thought I’d be a radio journalist but luckily I ended up in the Java industry, and never looked back.
Sarah Roberts

Finance Manager
Hey there, I’m Sarah and I’m the Finance Manager and Office Manager at Payara Services. I keep a tight reign on both the company figures and the office staff ensuring both produce excellent results. The office in Malvern is a great place to work with a good friendly atmosphere and lots of cake. I have always worked in finance since leaving college in oodles of diverse industries.
Fabio Turizo

Service Team Manager
Greetings! I’m a Senior Service Engineer at Payara Services. My main drive is to assist our customers with their specific technical issues while sorting out the challenges they face on a daily basis, and as part of the service team our efforts are focused on understanding the needs of our customer base as best as possible to improve our products in the right direction. And improvement is what I enjoy the most! When problems are solved and crisis are averted, the lessons learned in the process will be extremely useful not only for the business, but for me as a professional, too. My background as a software developer helps me a lot as well!
Eliot Martin

Technical Delivery Manager
Hello there, I’m the Technical Delivery Manager at Payara Services, leading the Software Developers who build Payara Platform, and the Service Engineers who support the people that use it. I am concerned with the health and happiness of the Technical teams, connecting them to the wider organisation, ensuring that they are agile and lean in the delivery of the Payara Platform vision. It’s a complex and fast-moving environment with daily challenges, but I work with fantastic people across the entire company and my role is hugely rewarding.
Maria Trincheira

Head of Sales
I’m happy to be a Payaran! As Head of Sales, I’m in charge of developing seasonal sales targets for the department, examining growth opportunities, enabling sales improvements, product mix development, and taking responsibility for the department’s performance against targets. I’m focused on establishing and overseeing the adoption of vision and values, which forms part of the Payara Services work culture, and identifying the roadmap that will lead to achievement of the department’s goals as well as the overall goals of the business. I also identify areas of improvement in strategy.
More from the Payara Team
Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery (BCDR) 08 Feb 2021
… or Best Laid Plans! Writing this, I’m sitting in a country faring badly during the Covid-19 pandemic. Lockdowns, curfews, restrictions on personal freedoms, mask wearing and armed police on the streets … not to mention the strain on mental health and, of course, risk from the virus. However, one thing I am NOT worried […]
Seven Steps to Create a Business Plan 15 Jan 2021
So, following on from my last blog about cashflow, I thought it useful to cover a business plan. There are always opportunities for new businesses. If nothing else, the coronavirus (COVID-19) disruption has given people the time and space they need to be creative and to think of new business ideas. Additionally, the unreliable employment […]
11 Quick SEO Wins for 2021 04 Jan 2021
Growing a steady flow of website traffic can be challenging, but there are some quick and easy, fundamental core strategies that you can use to optimise and develop your website for more traffic. In the article below I have outlined some of the key Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) you should be using, divided into two […]
A Perfect Payara Candidate 23 Dec 2020
In reality, the “perfect” applicant doesn’t exist. Agree? Let me explain. Here at Payara we like to do things differently. That includes candidate selection. Not because we want to be noticed and branded with glory and fame and have our name up in lights on a grand stage at a gala award ceremony being lavished with trophies and gifts from high-level celebrities – but because it is often the right thing to […]
Instagram for B2B Marketeers 16 Dec 2020
In September, Instagram celebrated its 10-year anniversary. This makes it the youngest of the big social media giants (Twitter is 14, YouTube 15, and LinkedIn 18), but it also stands out for other reasons. Firstly, it focuses on images and visual content over and above the written word. Secondly, its user base is much younger, […]