I was born in Nebraska but, having been exposed to them on my path to Eagle Scout, longed for the mountains. I also started programming at an early age on a Commodore 64 and hence wanted to work for Microsoft. Moving to Washington state in the beautiful Pacific Northwest with my wife provided opportunities for both.

Prior to working for Microsoft, I was a Visual C# MVP and already had half a decade of experience with Windows Installer. I was hired into the Visual Studio and .NET Framework team and, through many organizational changes, worked there for 15 years. After architecting a faster, more reliable setup engine and working with a great lead and team of engineers to bring it to fruition, I moved into the Azure organization for, as Monty Python would say, something completely different. I work with a myriad of languages - some of which I know well, and others with which I was familiar and learning more - across a myriad of services.

I love exploring the Pacific Northwest. I’ve hiked countless miles, have taken several beginning and intermediate courses with the Seattle Mountaineers, aided as an assistant instructor for other students, and love both rock and glacier climbing. I have a group of buddies with whom I’ve done most of the highest peaks of Washington including Mt. Rainier, but enjoy taking out other friends with little to no experience to entice them outdoors. Snowshoeing and route finding are my favorite, since there are no trails on which to stick when there’s many feet of snow on the ground; otherwise, please stick to trails and never cut switchbacks!