Digivate, the web enabling and digital agency, today expressed its deep sadness and shock at the sudden death of Will Gotley and his wife Maria in the recent Italian earthquake.
Will, having obtained an engineering degree from Oxford, spent time at Cambridge University Press, Centaur Marketing and the Innovations Group where, as IT Director, he met his other Digivate partners, Lysander Meath Baker and Mark Bodoano, as well as investor Robin Klein and chairman Mark Dugdale.
Digivate was set up in 1998 and many retail and catalogue businesses delivered their first ever online transactions and e-commerce experiences thanks to Digivate’s bespoke web platform, TurboShop in whose development Will played a huge part. Online marketing services and consultancy were added very successfully to the web development division and Digivate thrived. The company was run as a triumvirate until 2004 when Will became managing director where he remained until the business was sold to PrismDM in 2011.
Current Digivate managing director, Mark Bodoano said: “Will wasn’t just a fine technician and respected digital guru, he was a perfect gentleman, fair, courteous, self-deprecating with a fine sense of humour, providing Digivate with an enviable reputation of being great people to work with. All staff past and present extends our deepest sympathy to Will’s family, especially his children. He and Maria will be hugely missed but we salute his contribution both to Digivate and to digital retailing in general.”
Former colleague Lysander Meath-Baker added “Will had a great ability to see the amusing side of any situation, which helped keep up team morale. He was always organised, calm, and thoughtful. He was one of those rare people whose desk was always clear at the end of every day and who kept his task list up to date. This made him very reliable; when he said that he could do it ‘on Wednesday’, he really did.”
Mark Dugdale commented “Will was quiet, courteous, of impeccable honesty and fairness (which is one reason why so many businesses enjoyed working with Digivate) but also with a delightful self-deprecating sense of humour: his face lit up when something tickled his fancy. A good guy to work with, very intelligent (let’s not forget he was an Oxford graduate) and he will be missed by everyone: in his quiet way, he was a real multi-channel pioneer. The only comfort is he died with his wife in a place that he clearly loved but our thoughts are with his family, especially his children.”
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