Robert Duffner is Microsoft's Director of Product Management for Windows Azure. Whether engaging with senior IT executives or developers, Robert is focused on amplifying the voice of the customer with the customer advocacy programs he directs to help shape the future product direction of the Windows Azure Platform. These include the Windows Azure Platform Customer Advisory Board as well as driving the Windows Azure Technology Adoption Program (TAP) to help our early adopter customers and partners validate the platform and shape the final product by providing early and deep feedback. Robert also stays engaged with the top Windows Azure experts in the world as the Community Lead for the Windows Azure Most Valued Professionals (MVP) program.
Robert is one of Microsoft's top experts in Open Source software (OSS) were he joined the company in 2007 as the Director of Open Source Strategy. Robert is a 16 year veteran of the software industry and an enterprise Java expert having worked for companies such as IBM, BEA Systems (acquired by Oracle), and Vignette.
Jason Follas is a Technical Architect for Perficient, serving clients primarily located in the greater Detroit region (including Toledo, where he lives and serves as the President of the Northwest Ohio .NET User Group). Since 1994, he has developed many interesting solutions on the Microsoft platform, including an Aircraft Weight and Balance system used by an air freight company, several e-Commerce websites, Risk Management systems, and blend optimization software. In the past, Microsoft recognized Jason as a Microsoft MVP (SQL). Jason is involved in organizing a number of local conferences including CodeMash and Ann Arbor Day of .NET.
You can find his blog at jasonfollas.com.
Chris Anderson has been very involved in Technology Commercialization in Ohio and the Central Ohio for more than 5 years. He has extensive experience in evaluating and developing business plans, investor presentations, as well as developing market entry strategies and execution. His experience on the funding side has allowed him to sponsor more than a dozen companies in raising capital and has performed due diligence on many others. He is currently the Director of Venture Development for TechColumbus where he provides business assessment, consulting, resource planning, technology community building, and capital investment services to Central Ohio technology based start-ups. Prior to TechColumbus he was the Technology Outreach Coordinator for the Technology Business Assistance Office at the Ohio Department of Development. In that role he managed programs with combined annual budgets of greater than $5 Million. Programs include the Ohio Research Commercialization Grant Program, Technology Investment Tax Credit Program, the Edison Incubator Program, Targeted Industry Attraction and the Small Business Innovation Research Outreach Program. Chris holds a Bachelor of Arts in Business from Miami University, Oxford, Ohio.
Steve Gruetter has provided the technology resources available from TechColumbus' Platform Lab since the company's inception in January 2002. As the non-profit organization's director, he was awarded a Wright Project Grant from the Ohio Department of Development in 2005 to expand Platform Lab statewide in order to provide a competitive advantage to Ohio firms. As one of the most successful Third Frontier Program grant recipients, Steve has driven business nationally into Ohio via the Platform Lab Cloud offering and the Platform Lab Expertise Partner Program, an information brokerage program that matches client needs to Ohio consultant core capabilities. Today, Platform Lab provides infrastructure for projects and testing for 300+ firms around the world.
Rick Kierner is the Solution Delivery Manager at HMB. He's been developing software for organizations around Central Ohio for over a decade. For the past few years, he's been delivering custom XAML based applications for his clients that complement the functionality and power of custom software components with robust, dynamic and fluid applications interfaces that work with users instead of against them.
Chris Woodruff (or Woody as he is commonly known) has a degree in Computer Science from Michigan State University's College of Engineering. Woody has been developing and architecting software solutions for almost 15 years and has worked in many different platforms and tools. He is a community leader, helping such events as Day of .NET Ann Arbor and Day of .NET Grand Rapids. He was also instrumental in bringing the popular Give Camp event to Western Michigan where technology professionals lend their time and development expertise to assist local non-profits. As a speaker and podcaster, Woody has spoken and discussed a variety of topics, including database design and open source. He is a Microsoft MVP in Data Platform Development and was recently recognized as one of the top 20 MVPs world-wide. Woody works at RCM Technologies in Grand Rapids, MI as a Principle Consultant.
Woody is the co-host of the popular podcast "Deep Fried Bytes" and blogs at www.chriswoodruff.com. He is the President of the West Michigan .NET User Group and also is a co-founder of the software architecture online portal nPlus1.org.
Woody has worked in many arenas throughout the years, including healthcare, manufacturing, publishing, promotion execution and the automotive industry. He has experience with starting and running new ventures, including past work with technology startups. Woody continues to develop his expertise by learning & developing new technologies to better meet the needs of his clients, while devoting his free time to improving the development community at large, and giving back to the community in which he lives.
Veenus Maximiuk (MCP, MCTS) is a Microsoft SharePoint Virtual Technical Specialist specializing in SharePoint architecture, design, and deployment. As ICC's SharePoint Managing Architect, Veenus is responsible for translating business requirements into technical solutions built on SharePoint. She specializes in Windows SharePoint Services 2.0 and 3.0, SharePoint Portal Server 2003, MOSS 2007, SharePoint 2010, SharePoint Designer, InfoPath, and integration with technologies such as Project Server, ISA Server, Performance Point, SQL Server Reporting Services, DocAve, and Quest Recovery Manager.
Veenus has designed and implemented enterprise SharePoint solutions for multiple public sector and private organizations. These solutions range from intranets for over 40,000 users, as well as secure and public internet sites. She is a recognized technical expert in the SharePoint community and is a dynamic informative speaker who has presented at multiple local, national, and international SharePoint events. Veenus' current focus is SharePoint 2010 architecture and design; she has been the featured speaker on SharePoint upgrade planning and migration at the SharePoint 2010 Comes to Columbus conference and the Microsoft Heartland Region SharePoint Conference.
Ryan Cromwell is Senior Consultant, Microsoft Team Foundation Server Technical Specialist, and Agile Coach with Strategic Data Systems. He has 10 years of experience as a software engineer, including expertise in next generation interactive applications with Windows Presentation Foundation and Silverlight. Ryan is committed to the continual improvement of development practices and techniques. His expertise and dedication has brought success to numerous projects, working with Marathon Oil Company, Speedway SuperAmerica LLC, FedEx-Kinkos, LNSSI, Reynolds & Reynolds, and more. He is a Microsoft representative for Team Foundation Server training and deployment. Ryan has also led presentations on effective team development and various technologies such as Agile, Scrum, WPF, WCF, Software Patterns, Team Foundation Server, and more.
Coming from both the design and development community working as an interaction designer, James has a solid design background as well as a deep technical experience. He currently works with government customers across the US in partnering opportunities, strategic advisory services and driving awareness of Microsoft UX technologies. Prior to joining Microsoft, James was employed at several Dallas-based design agencies as well as consulting firms such as Accenture, focusing on delivering rich interactive systems across a wide variety of industries. This ranged from Flash/Flex interactive applications to full blown Java open source implementations. James has a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Art Institute of Dallas as well as a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Colorado Tech.
James has been with Microsoft since March of 2008 as Senior Premier Field Engineer. Prior to that he spent 7 years as an IIS and SharePoint Admin and Architect.
James' current dog is Shane, a 10yr old, Boxer-Rott mix. That's him in the picture. Before Shane he had four Saint Bernards.
Jonathan has been working with Microsoft based technologies for over 10 years and has been developing against SharePoint since v2 of the product was released. He especially enjoys exploring the composite nature of the SharePoint platform, asking questions like: "How far can we take the platform without customization and development?" and then following with, "How can we completely solve our problem using .NET/Silverlight/Office etc?" Jonathan holds certifications in Windows Server and SharePoint 2010 Development. When he isn't tinkering around with SharePoint, Silverlight, and other related technologies, he enjoys spending time with his wife and two daughters.
I have a 160 lb. English mastiff named Henry.
Hi, my name is Bill Sempf, and I am a software architect. Though I used to hate the term 'architect', it is clearly the only thing out there that defines what it is that I do. My breadth of experience includes business and technical analysis, software design, development, testing, server management and maintenance and security. In my 17 years of professional experience I have participated in the creation of well over 200 applications for large and small companies, managed the software infrastructure of two Internet service providers, coded complex software happily in every environment imaginable, and made mainframes talk to cell phones. In short, I make the technology that people are using every day play nicely together.
I started playing with computers in 1979 and haven't looked back since. In 1985 I was helping my father (also Bill) manage Apple IIe systems at the local library. Since then I have built applications for the likes of Lucent Technologies, Bank One, Nationwide Insurance and Sears, Roebuck and Co. I am the author of Visual Basic 2008 and 2005 for Dummies; a coauthor of Effective Visual Studio.NET, Professional ASP.NET Web Services and Professional VB.NET; a frequent contributor to MSDN, Builder.com, Hardcore Web Services, Cloud Computing Journal, Inside Web Development Journal and Intranet Journal; and have recently been an invited speaker for the ACM and IEEE, DevEssentials, the International XML Web Services Expo and the Association of Information Technology Professionals. I am a graduate of The Ohio State University with a Bachelor's of Science in Business Administration, Microsoft Certified Professional, Certified Internet Business Strategist and Certified Internet Webmaster. My company is Products Of Innovative New Technology (usually called POINT) and I can be reached at [email protected].
Kristin Kiester is a Microsoft Dynamics Practice Lead for Dell Global Services specializing in Dynamics CRM and xRM Solutions nationwide. She has been working with the Microsoft CRM product from the beginning and is excited for the new release of CRM 2011 and the continual shift of CRM from a contact management system to a development platform. Kristin has architected xRM solutions for healthcare patient management, financial services and wealth management, professional sports teams and manufacturing and communications companies.
Sherri has been in the Communications Industry focusing on End User Solutions for 19 years. She has had Sales or Consulting roles with VMX, Octel, Avaya and Adomo. Currently she manages the Unified Communications space for Polycom in the Central Region.
Rob Hammersmith has worked for Citrix for 4 year, spending most of his time with Citrix specializing in Desktop Virtualization.
Prior to coming to Citrix, Rob was a contractor for the United State Department of Defense for more than 3 years, where he used Citrix technology to virtualize applications to more than 6,000 concurrently connected armed forces personal deployed around the world. Rob was hired by the Department of Defense due to his prior 8 years of experience working in IT focusing heavily on application virtualization. Rob was born, raised and currently lives in the Columbus area. While attending Ohio State, Rob was a five year member of The Ohio State University Marching Band, and had the honor of dotting the "I" in Script Ohio three times.
Jeff Hunsaker is the Microsoft Solutions Practice Manager for Cardinal Solutions Group in the Columbus, Ohio office. He is an ALM Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP), a certified Scrum Master and co-founder of the Central Ohio Application Lifecycle Management Group (COALMG). Jeff assists clients architecting and developing custom .Net applications, Team Foundation Server (TFS), Azure/Online Services and Microsoft Business Intelligence (MSBI) solutions. A frequent presenter at client and regional events, Jeff gets passionate about efficient, resourceful, and elegant technology solutions, agile development techniques and providing value for clients quickly and regularly. In his spare time, Jeff enjoys his family (two boys, wife Lisa), reading, and writing. You can keep up with Jeff by visiting his blog or on Twitter at @jeffhunsaker.
To support his dog, Harley, a 10 year old Black Labrador Retriever, Alexei joined Cardinal Solutions Group as an ALM Consultant and Senior Technology Lead. As a Microsoft Visual Studio ALM MVP he supports clients in their adoption of development processes, tools, and development techniques. His first day at Cardinal, October 4th, coincided with his professional passion for Visual Studio and .NET Framework: (10-4). Alexei's development background involves working with Microsoft based platforms and products with special interests in Team Foundation Server and Visual Studio. As a Professional Scrum Developer Trainer he offers PSD classes (see www.scrum.org for upcoming classes) and is eager to converse about development. Alexei is the co-founder of the Central Ohio Application Life-cycle Management Group (COALMG), an active member of the central Ohio IT community, and contributes to the Columbus GiveCamp planning. Outside of work he is passionate about science, science fiction, hockey, and his wife Tammy. In his free time, he is involved with "Pets without Parents" and ensures that Harley isn't bored by taking him for walks, on vacations, and visits to local pub/dining/shopping establishments. Click here to learn more about Harley or stay in touch with Alexei via twitter: @Leshka or his blog: govorin.blogspot.com.
Brian Jackett is a Senior Consultant at Sogeti USA specializing in Microsoft Collaboration and BI technologies, primarily SharePoint development and administration for over 3 years. Brian is a steering committee member of the Buckeye SharePoint User Group and enjoys giving back to the community through giving presentations, planning and volunteering at conferences, maintaining a Microsoft centric blog, and contributing to the SharePoint Twitterverse. He also holds several Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS) and Microsoft Certified IT Professional (MCITP) certifications for SharePoint technologies.
Mike Miller is a Systems Engineer supporting Ohio and Kentucky for KnowledgeLake. Mike has spent his career focusing on ECM (Enterprise Content Management) solutions. He has exposure and experience with both large and small implementations involving all aspects of document capture, imaging and ECM. He has focused exclusively on building ECM solutions on SharePoint for the past three years with the KnowledgeLake solution. He has presented on ECM with SharePoint at many SPUG's around the Midwest, including COSPUG, SharePoint conferences and at each of the DogFood conferences. You can follow Mike on Twitter @MikeMillerKL.
James is the Principal Technology Evangelist and Director of Application Development for the The Sophic Group in Columbus, OH. James has been involved in software development and architecture for 16 years. He has worked as a developer and architect on everything from small, single-user applications to Enterprise-scale, multi-user systems. His specialties are .NET development and architecture, SOA, WCF, WF, cloud computing, and agile development methodologies. He is an experienced mentor and author. James is a Microsoft MVP for Visual C#.
James is an active member of the development community. He is the current president of the Central Ohio .NET Developers Group and continues to lead the Columbus Architects Group and is the senior editor of first-party content for nplus1.org, an educational website aimed toward architects and aspiring architects. He is currently writing a book on Test Driven Development for Wrox Press.
James maintains a blog at jamescbender.com and his Twitter ID is @JamesBender.
Monish Nagisetty is a Principal Consultant with Neudesic for their Connected Systems practice. He is also a member of the BizTalk Virtual Technical Specialist (VTS) Program. He spends a majority of his time helping clients solve enterprise integration problems by using technologies like BizTalk, Windows Communication Foundation, Workflow Foundation and Host Integration Server. He also supports the community as the founder and group leader of the Mid-Ohio Connected Systems Developers User Group. You can tap into Monish's thought stream at his blog located at monishnagisetty.wordpress.com.
Mario is a member of a select group of individuals who have obtained Master Certification for SharePoint. The Master program is designed to be the top-tier technical certification for SharePoint Products and Technologies for years to come. The Master certification provides a means for training, recognizing, and developing the top SharePoint technical experts in the world. Specifically, the MCM is intended for technical professionals whose responsibilities center on designing, building, configuring, deploying, and supporting large, often complex, SharePoint environments.
Mark Levesque has over 18 years industry experience and currently holds the position of a Solutions Architect part of the HP Americas UC&C; Team. Based in Greenville, SC Mark focuses on Microsoft voice and infrastructure collaboration technologies in the pursuit and delivery of planning, design and implementation of UC&C; for numerous HP customers worldwide. Mark has concentrated on UC for the past five (7) years, specifically developing and selling OCS solutions starting with LCS 2005. Mark currently aids customers determine the value to the solution of leveraging OCS in new and existing environments.
