After several years of travelling the world with his family before settling in Thailand's Phuket, expatriate software guru Brian Peace has plunged back into the IT world with BrashTech – a 3D modelling service that uses drones to capture images.
Co-founded by Peace in association with Auckland computer scientists Ashley Schroder and Jim Mooney, the company has offices in Auckland, San Francisco and Singapore and offers automated infrastructure and inspection analysis of industrial facilities such as refineries, wind turbines and cell towers.
According to the BrashTech website, the service translates the enormous volume of raw data from inspections using drone-mounted sensors into usable information for asset management and automates the complete inspection change detection process using software algorithms.
Peace made his initial fortune from Peace Software, which he founded in 1984 and which grew to become a world leader in software for deregulating energy utilities, employing some 500 people worldwide before it was sold in 2006 for $115 million.
Originally from Kihikihi near Te Awamutu, Peace is well known for thinking ahead of the technology curve and was recognised with a Young Technology Entrepreneur of the Year award in 1999 followed in 2002 by the EY Technology Entrepreneur of the Year Award.
Peace, 60, is married to Sherin, a former model who devotes her time to running a rescue facility for stray and injured animals in Phuket called Doggie Heaven.