Our Team

Advanced DataTools is excited to announce that Thomas Beebe and Mike Walker have formed xDB Systems, Inc. and acquired the customers, contracts, DBA support agreements, service agreements, and customer obligations from Advanced DataTools. The transfer of these agreements and contracts will take effect on March 1, 2021. Please direct all future DBA support and database consulting requirements to xDB Systems at mike@xdbsystems.com, tom@xdbsystems.com, or phone 303-834-3567. Visit xDB Systems new website at https://www.xdbsystems.com

A great team of many professionals has contributed to Advanced DataTools' success over the last 28 years. Our team of Informix professionals has included 7 IBM Champions, 3 IIUG Directors Award winners, and an IBM Gold Consultant. We have, combined, over two hundred years of experience with the Informix product line and have completed multiple successful Informix projects. It has been exciting to see our consultants grow, take on new challenges, and move on to other ventures. It is a privilege to have worked with such an excellent team over the years:- Lester Knutsen, founder of Advanced DataTools.

Lester
Knutsen
President
Advanced DataTools was founded in 1993 by Lester Knutsen, who serves as President and Principal Consultant. Lester has been building large data warehouse and business systems using Informix Database software since 1983, and focuses on large database performance tuning, training, and consulting. Lester Knutsen was one of the first to receive the IIUG Directors award in 2002. Lester is a member of the IBM Gold Consultant program; he was presented with one of the Inaugural IBM Champion awards by IBM and has won this award every year since 2008. He is also one of the founders of the International Informix Users Group and the Washington Area Informix User Group. Lester Knutsen was honored to receive the IBM Champion - Lifetime Achievement Award from IBM on September 1, 2020.
Tom
Beebe
Director
Tom is the Director of Database Consulting and has been with Advanced DataTools since 2004. He is known for his expertise with database tuning, system migrations, data warehouse implementation, and software architecture. Along with standard DBA work, Tom does a good deal of development work in a variety of languages, both web-focused as well as traditional UNIX command line style. He has been working with Informix for 17 years. Tom is President of the Washington Area Informix User Group (WAIUG), has previously been a member of the IIUG Conference Planning Committee, and is an active member of the IIUG. He is also a frequent public speaker having released a series of webcasts on PHP and Informix, as well as speaking at WAIUG meetings and conferences, and is a regular speaker at IIUG conferences (2007-present).
mike walker
Mike
Walker
Director
Mike is the lead for Advanced DataTools’ Remote DBA Service, providing support and monitoring to a large number of Informix customers. Mike started using Informix in 1993 and works with databases of all sizes. He is an enthusiastic user and promoter of Informix running on small footprint ARM systems and the Internet of Things (IoT). He is experienced with Informix TimeSeries, passionate about performance tuning, and has performed many complex database migrations and upgrades. Mike is a member of the International Informix User Group (IIUG) and head of the Colorado Informix Users Group. He has performed and published independent benchmarks on the Informix Warehouse Accelerator (IWA) and has presented at user group conferences on topics regarding database administration, performance tuning, database monitoring and recently on IoT with TimeSeries. Mike is also an active participant onthe Informix list, and the IBM and Informix LinkedIn groups.
Arman
Prescott
Senior Consultant
Arman has over 25 years of experience developing applications using Informix. Also experienced with database design, data analysis, and data conversions, Arman takes pride in ensuring applications run smoothly and produce accurate results through establishing controls and ensuring data integrity as his role as Data Architect. He is a specialist in Informix 4GL, ISQL, Stored Procedure Language (SPL), UNIX scripting and is experienced with Informix database administration. See our blog post "Congratulations Arman Prescott" celebrating Arman's 21 years with Advanced DataTools in January 2020.
Art
Kagel
Principal Consultant
Art has been working with Informix products since the first SQL release in 1983. He is qualified in the administration of Informix v14 and all previous releases, and participated in the Beta testing programs for all major Informix releases from versions 6 through 12.10. His feedback to IBM and previously to Informix Corporation has resulted in many product improvements and new features. Advanced DataTools is fortunate to have Art as a member of our extended team since 2010. He is one of the most recognized and respected individuals in the Informix user community, and is a very active participant on Informix online forums. Art is a recipient of the International Informix Users Group's (IIUG) Directors' Award and has been named an IBM Champion every year since 2010. He is currently serving on the Board of Directors of the IIUG.
Laura
Hanley
Office Manager
Laura joined the company in February 2019 and brings over 20 years of experience with small and large businesses in office management, human resources, and accounting. Laura has become a valuable member of our team, and is already wearing many different 'hats'!