About Custodia
Stewardship deserves better tools
Custodia is built on a simple principle: capturing, maintaining and using heritage information should be easy, not a struggle.
How it all started
My journey into heritage preservation began at the Clyne Heritage Society, assisting with the opening of their new heritage centre in Brora, Scotland.
While I was there, I saw the community’s commitment to safeguarding the village's history and heritage. While seeing and working with various items in the workshop, I was intrigued by the stories these objects held about Brora's past.
However, as the workshop began to fill with new items, either found or donated, a clear challenge emerged. Managing such a growing collection efficiently would require a digital system to track object conditions, locations and to prioritise any necessary restoration work. This is when the idea of building a heritage application was born.
Meet the founder
Who's behind Custodia
Andrew Torres
Founder & Developer
Having worked with database systems across commercial and non-profit sectors, I've often found how conventional, proprietary software fails to deliver flexible, user-friendly solutions. These are generally costly, vendor-locked and complex tools that get in the way of the very mission they were built to support. With Custodia, my goal is to help heritage communities preserve and share their cherished collections through an intuitive platform that makes their work easier.
Away from the screen, I enjoy going for walks in the Scottish outdoors while listening to music.
People I've worked with
What they have to say
Juan José Alonso Ballesteros, senior DBA at Norsistemas (Spain)Over eight months, Andrew took full responsibility for installing and configuring all database systems for our most important client.
A valued figure in our systems department — particularly in database administration — he also contributed to a welcoming work environment due to his kindness and friendliness.
Dave Shepherd, IFES USA Director of Finance and OperationsAndrew is extremely capable and good-natured. In my decade of working with him, he has consistently been attentive. He listens very well to colleagues' diverse needs, challenges and concerns then applies his extensive skills to quickly provide beautiful solutions that benefit all.
Andrew delivers user-friendly results that increase the productivity of the team. His calmness, humor and sincere care help teams collaborate well and enjoy the process.
David Holland, IT manager at IFES UK officeHaving worked with Andrew for over a decade I can say it was always a pleasure. I never came across a situation where Andrew's response was "it's not possible". He always finds a way to solve the problem, find the information or come up with an alternative.
Nick Addo, former CFO at IFESAndrew is an incredibly competent IT guru with a "can-do" attitude who can do literally anything, utilizing technology once he is clear what the end goal is.
Over the years of our partnership, we achieved a lot for IFES finances and I knew I could not have done any of this without having Andrew in my team.