Executive profile

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Heinrich Heesen

Owner and Founder of Barberry Labs, Technology Executive, Fractional CTO, AI Specialist, and hands-on systems leader

Heinrich brings over 20 years of experience spanning telecommunications, hosted voice, ISP infrastructure, IoT, cloud platforms, automation, AI integration, and operational systems. He excels at bridging strategy and execution, with a strong focus on designing and developing custom-built AI integration processes and systems that drive efficiency and enhance business operations.

  • CTO and CIO leadership
  • AI specialist focused on custom-built integration processes and business systems
  • Telecoms and VoIP depth
  • AWS, IoT, and systems integration
  • Product, operations, and delivery
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Executive summary

Heinrich Heesen is a senior technology leader with a rare combination of executive judgment and deep technical fluency. His experience spans CTO and CIO-level leadership, founder-led product development, cloud and IoT solution design, telecoms infrastructure, workflow automation, and operational systems built to perform under real-world pressure.

He has a strong and growing focus on artificial intelligence, particularly in the design and implementation of custom AI integration processes and systems that enhance business operations, improve decision-making, and unlock efficiency at scale.

Heinrich is especially effective in environments where technical architecture, customer impact, delivery quality, team alignment, and commercial realities intersect. This includes founder-led companies, operationally complex SMEs, service-driven organisations, and growth-stage businesses that require senior technical leadership without unnecessary bureaucracy.

What sets him apart

  • Moves comfortably between board-level technology decisions and hands-on execution detail
  • Deep credibility in telecoms, VoIP, ISP systems, and service reliability
  • Strong experience with AWS, IoT platforms, automation, internal systems, and custom AI integration workflows
  • Understands product, support, operations, and commercial delivery as one connected system
  • Proficient in Holacracy-informed leadership and distributed operational decision-making
  • Calm, practical operating style suited to high-trust, high-accountability environments
  • Experienced in training technical teams and sales teams to improve delivery and client outcomes

Selected highlights

iConnect SA growth

Played a leadership role in scaling iConnect SA into the biggest hosted PABX provider in South Africa.

Patented product builder

Founded Pro Automation and developed PoolSense, a patented smart water-quality monitoring product.

Public credibility

Innovation Hub GAP ICT recognition, ZA-INX committee service, and strong crossover between executive and technical credibility.

Asset Trail for EduPrac

Designed and built Asset Trail end-to-end for EduPrac, a specialised asset depreciation platform that simplifies and automates depreciation workflows for South African tax practitioners across multiple industries.

Water operations and telemetry systems

Led the end-to-end technical design, architecture, and delivery of critical solutions across the water sector, including telemetry systems, real-time dashboards, calibration workflows, and field-connected operational platforms.

Production platforms and business tooling

Led ongoing delivery across CRM, permissions, workflow automation, quoting, ERP-style processes, and customer-facing operational platforms.

Career timeline

2022 to PresentOwner and Founder, Barberry Labs

Leads Barberry Labs as a high-trust technology consultancy focused on AI integration, cloud-connected systems, workflow automation, product thinking, and business operations enhancement.

2022 to PresentCo-Founder, Red Olive

Consulting across IoT, cloud-connected systems, visualisation, dashboards, digital operations, and custom-built AI integration processes. This work includes solutions such as Asset Trail for EduPrac, an asset depreciation tool supporting South African tax practitioners across multiple industries.

2022 to PresentGeneral Business Manager, Unifier CCTV

Leads operations, project delivery, ERP improvement, automation, and technical execution.

2016 to PresentFounder and Advisor, Pro Automation

Founded the business and led the development of PoolSense, a patented IoT product.

2011 to 2022CTO / CIO, Director, Shareholder, iConnect SA

Led technology strategy, network and voice systems, billing, compliance, and platform reliability.

2018 to 2022Committee Member, ZA-INX

Contributed to governance, pricing, budgets, and operational oversight.

2008 to 2011Technical Director, ClearVoice

Led VoIP systems, support-team quality, and technical planning.

2006 to 2008Systems Engineer, Skycom Technologies

Worked on wireless, hosting, VoIP, and infrastructure delivery.

2006Radio Planning Engineer, Vodacom

Focused on radio planning, analysis, and optimisation.

Core strength areas

Leadership

  • CTO and CIO leadership
  • Technology strategy and roadmap work
  • Team leadership, mentoring, and training
  • Holacracy-informed leadership style
  • Cross-functional delivery

Technology

  • Telecoms and ISP systems
  • VoIP and hosted PBX platforms
  • AWS and IoT systems
  • Extensive expertise in ThingsBoard, building and deploying scalable IoT solutions, including telemetry systems, device management, and real-time operational intelligence platforms
  • Highly proficient in working with modern Large Language Models, including OpenAI GPT, Anthropic Claude, and Google Gemini, using them for reasoning, code generation, automation, and AI-driven workflow orchestration
  • Experienced in integrating LLMs into real-world business processes, building intelligent systems, and designing AI-assisted solutions that enhance productivity, decision-making, and operational efficiency
  • Security, monitoring, and reliability

Execution

  • Product development
  • Systems integration
  • ERP and workflow automation
  • Custom-built AI integration processes
  • Operational improvement

Education and credentials

BEng, Computer Engineering
University of Pretoria, 2002 to 2005

  • Vodacom bursary recipient
  • Performance bursaries for 3 consecutive years
  • Distinctions in Mathematics, Physical Science, and Computer Studies
  • Patent holder: PoolSense smart water-quality monitoring system

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