A journey in tech and life, in-between cultures
An interview by Stefan Janssens
I met Chase Farmer at Expedia, in those still-dark pre-7am hours in London when even most coffee shops are still closed and the trains carry more silence than conversation. We were both early arrivals, minor outliers in an office that warmed up slowly. Some mornings we would watch the sun rise over Angel, takeaway cups in hand when we could find them, talking about data science, office life, and which Korean restaurant we should try next. It felt unhurried. That rhythm has stayed with me as I’ve watched Chase move through different chapters of his career.
Before London, there was Zambia. And South Africa. And a childhood shaped by red dust roads, layered histories, and the kind of perspective that only comes from belonging to more than one place at once.
Currently, Chase is the Founder of Meiwood (link), a consultancy that helps organisations solve complex business problems using data, technology, and clear thinking. Prior to Meiwood, he served as Data Science at Expedia, and as an Analytics Consultant for Capgemini.
This is a conversation about growing up between cultures, building things and planning flexibility, family and culture, staying sceptical in the middle of AI hype, and optimising for the future.
GROWING UP IN ZAMBIA
From our earlier conversations you mentioned that you grew up in Zambia. Can you tell us more about it? What stays with Chase Farmer from growing up there?
Chase: Zambia for me was about being curious and exploring. I was constantly outdoors, nature was in our garden. I had some unique experiences with monkeys, chameleons, and the occasional snake. It was very humbling, even as a child.
My family grew significantly through my time in Zambia. I gained an adopted mother, an amazing extended family that I remain close with, and a younger sister that was born there. Zambia is a very warm place, and those people and experiences are a constant reminder to treat people with kindness and respect (pauses).
It also makes you very aware of context. Zambia isn’t one story. You have local communities, different languages, expat circles, economic disparities, colonial history. All layered. I think growing up in that environment meant I was always comparing perspectives. You’d hear one version of an event in one setting, and another version somewhere else. You learn early that reality depends on where you’re standing.
As you just mentioned, it’s all layered: Local communities, different languages, expat circles, economic disparities, colonial history, and more. So what did school look like in that environment, with kids from all those different backgrounds in one big classroom?
Chase: I went to school there at a young age, but over the years, it taught me to listen. If you assume everyone thinks like you, you get surprised pretty quickly. So I became comfortable asking, “Why do you see it that way?” rather than defending my own position immediately.
There was also a practical education in unpredictability. Infrastructure (power availability, water supply, transport interruptions, etc.) could be inconsistent. Plans sometimes shifted at the last minute.
For sure it was a challenge and could be annoying at times. In what way have those affected and influenced how you handle situations and changes now?
Chase: You really get used to adaptation. If the power goes out, you adjust. If the plan changes, you adjust. That kind of flexibility becomes normal and ingrained to you. I don’t think I realised until later how useful experiences like that would be in life. Zambia requires flexibility, it taught me to plan around it.
And because you tend to plan a lot based on your growing up experience, people may sometimes read you as rigid. How do you see that planning working in relation to flexibility?
Chase: Scenario planning is something I have done throughout my career, both formally and informally. People have often interpreted that as me being rigid, or having a compulsion to stick to the plan, but it couldn’t be further from the truth. I plan to enable flexibility with pragmatism. Plans are sets of options for the future that take into account that unpredictability.
“Zambia requires flexibility, it taught me to plan around it. I plan to enable flexibility with pragmatism.”
SOUTH AFRICA AND LIVING WITH CONTRAST
You also grew up in South Africa. How did that experience differ with growing up in Zambia?
Chase: South Africa felt more tense. The contrasts are closer together. Wealth and inequality, optimism and frustration, pride and tension. You would see it daily.
It is a country where history is not abstract. It shows up in neighbourhoods, in language, in opportunity.
You can’t grow up there without being aware of the past, because it is so unbelievably recent. It shapes conversations, even when you’re not explicitly talking about it. That awareness forces nuance. Things are rarely simple.
Sport carries a particular weight in South Africa. From rugby and cricket to football, national teams have often represented more than just competition — they’ve symbolized unity, pride, and shared identity. What does supporting the national team mean to you personally?
Chase: Supporting South Africa in sport is emotional. It’s symbolic. When the national team wins something significant, it feels collective — like the whole country is breathing in the same moment. It’s about more than a trophy; it’s about shared pride and a reminder of what we can be together.
You also learn resilience. Results fluctuate. Hope fluctuates. There are highs that feel euphoric and losses that sting deeply. But you stay with it. You show up again. You believe again. You ride it out, knowing that the next moment of joy is earned precisely because you stayed through the difficult ones.
Growing up between Zambia and South Africa, and now living in the U.K., how do you think about your own identity now?
Chase: I don’t feel like I have split identity until I visit somewhere with a very singular view of what it means to be from there, which can happen often in the UK. Friends and I often talk about my family as a ‘blended’ family, and I see my identity and personality in the same way, it’s blended from all the parts I have loved and respected in the places I lived and family I interact with. I feel like my world view has expanded greatly from these experiences. This has really helped me be open minded throughout my life, and relate to different reference points. That’s helpful in work, too. Different teams, different cultures, different priorities.
“I feel like my world view has expanded greatly from these experiences. This has really helped me be open minded throughout my life, and relate to different reference points. That’s helpful in work, too. Different teams, different cultures, different priorities.”
A MIXED-CULTURE HOME
How does that blended identity show up in your own family life? I also notice you’re quite deliberate where you draw the line between public and private.
Chase: In the everyday stuff. What we cook. What we celebrate. The teams we argue about on the sofa. My partner is mixed Taiwanese and Irish, so the last Rugby world cup in particular was tense (smiles). It’s subtle. It’s not a performance. It’s just normal to us that there are multiple influences in the room.
I’m comfortable talking about the influence of culture, particularly in how it influences the next generation of my family. I want my daughter to feel that she can hold different cultural threads without having to choose one as the “real” one. That sense of expansion I mentioned, I hope she experiences that too.
On a lighter note, what do your weekends tend to look like nowadays, in terms of family, sport and food?
Chase: I like sport. FYI rock climbing is something I actually picked up in South Africa, we’d do it before at school and on actual mountains. Good memories, good fun.
Somehow recently I no longer play sports myself a lot. Time and parenting win. I’ve accepted that. So now I watch [sports], often live, mostly with family and close friends. Arsenal teaches patience. Supporting South Africa teaches perspective.
“It’s just normal to us [in the family] that there are multiple influences in the room.”
EARLY MORNINGS AND SYSTEMS THINKING
Do you think your upbringing influenced how you think about data and systems?
Chase: Definitely. When you’ve seen how context shapes outcomes, you become sensitive to systems. Data science is really about understanding systems. What drives behaviour? What influences results?
What pulled you toward the more disciplined side of testing ideas rather than just debating them?
Chase: I liked that it cut through opinion. It’s a bias removal mechanism when we are surrounded by them. If someone claims X causes Y, you can examine it. You might find the relationship is weaker than expected. Or stronger. Either way, you learn.
I’m comfortable revisiting decisions. If new evidence emerges, we adjust. I don’t see that as instability. I see it as responsiveness.
How did your work evolve from hands‑on coding into product and engineering leadership, where you’re shaping direction more than writing code yourself?
Chase: At that level, the technical challenge is often secondary. The real question is alignment. Are teams incentivised properly? Is communication clear? Do people trust each other? Are the structures in place to enable people to flourish? If those elements are off, even excellent technical work stalls.
“If new evidence emerges, we adjust.”
BUILDING MEIWOOD
You’re building something now. What are you actually doing day to day with Meiwood?
Chase: Very practically? I’m working with a small number of teams, across both the SME and enterprise space, to make data assets significantly more useful for their business use cases. The practical work ranges from platform architecture, data engineering guidance, building business cases, or simply implementing strong business processes that improve transparency, accountability, and most importantly discipline.
Right now, that looks like implementing a robust product strategy and scrum processes for a cutting edge data and AI platform that is enabling some really high value use cases at an enterprise client.
Almost very team I have worked with in my career has involved setting up disciplined business processes. Once the initial friction from the increased transparency and accountability is resolved, the people in these teams are significantly happier and more effective. It’s unclear why this gap exists so often, but it is fairly prevalent.
That sounds almost unglamorous.
Chase: It is. But once the basics are solid, everything else moves faster. How we work matters as much as what we work on. Once that is resolved, we have fewer, but more deliberate, meetings. People behave like team members, supporting each other. The ‘what’ we deliver becomes easier to evaluate from the transparency, and higher value from the accountability.
Teams stop trying to do it all, and focus on the few things that matter the most. Deliver fewer things but deliver them to the best of your ability. It’s a concept that comes through in literature for over 100 years, from Pareto to Jim Collins.
“The practical work ranges from platform architecture, data engineering guidance, building business cases, or simply implementing strong business processes that improve transparency, accountability, and most importantly discipline.”
And beyond the client work, what principles are guiding how you’re building Meiwood as a company?
Chase: Meiwood is in a growth stage. We’re refining the scope, tightening the offer. But the core is consistent: only take on work where we can deliver at the highest quality, always communicate proactively and transparently, and behave in a way that builds trust with everyone we interact with.
It’s less about launching something flashy. More about operating in line with our principles, and doing so with extreme discipline.
AI, HYPE, AND FOUNDATIONS
You’ve been measured about AI. What’s your view right now?
Chase: I think the excitement is understandable. The capabilities are impressive. But there’s a gap between what’s technically possible and what most organisations can realistically implement well.
Where do you see the clearest benefits of AI right now?
Chase: In coding, productivity gains are real. Faster prototyping. Fewer repetitive tasks. That’s tangible.
Outside of developer tooling, where do you see the main friction or limitations with AI in organisations today?
Chase: Many companies have messy data and unclear processes. If you layer advanced AI on top of weak foundations, you amplify the weaknesses. You might generate more output, but that doesn’t guarantee better decisions.
“If you layer advanced AI on top of weak foundations, you amplify the weaknesses.”
What concerns you most about the current level of expectation around AI?
Chase: I’m cautious about the current hype cycle. Markets swing. Narratives swing. Long term, I’m optimistic. The underlying technology is powerful. We just need to anchor it in real problems with measurable value.
You sound both optimistic and cautious at the same time. How do you hold those two things together when you advise teams?
Chase: It’s fine to be excited. It’s also important to stay grounded.
OPTIMISING FOR THE FUTURE
At this stage, what are you trying to optimise for?
Chase: (thinks for a few seconds) Impact. And sustainability.
Impact in the sense of building products and teams that genuinely improve something. Sustainability in the sense of maintaining perspective and building long-term relationships. I’ve seen how easy it is to let work expand to fill every space, or pull back from your principles when it’s convenient.
How did Zambia and South Africa shape your sense of what “success” looks like, and how does it feed into what you’re optimising for now?
Chase: Growing up in Zambia and South Africa provided a wide frame of reference. Community mattered. Success looked different depending on who you asked. That perspective helps. Career is important. It’s one dimension. Family, community, health, curiosity. Those are dimensions too. I don’t have a perfectly mapped plan. I’m comfortable iterating. Try something. Learn. Adjust.
“Long term, I’m optimistic. The underlying technology is powerful. We just need to anchor it in real problems with measurable value.”
FINAL THOUGHTS
In this conversation with Chase, I find it humbling and admirable that Chase doesn’t lay out his life like a neat timeline of big wins. It’s more of these overlapping pieces that just sit together: Those wide Zambian skies that made everything feel possible and small at the same time. South Africa’s close-up intensity, where history and hope crash into each other every day. The quiet pre-7am trains in London, coffee still brewing somewhere, talking shop before the world woke up. Projects he threw himself into, learned from hard, and eventually set aside without drama. Teams he keeps tweaking until the alignment clicks.
What pulls it all together is this low-key way he moves through things: pay attention, test what you assume, shift when the facts say to. He does the same with who he is; multiple backgrounds and influences just coexist, no need to pick a winner. Just do your best.
In a scene full of people acting like they’ve got it all figured out and yelling about it, Chase’s calm consistency is the thing that actually sticks with you. And that’s what really impresses me most.
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