I grew up in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin in the United States and went to school at the University of Wisconsin EauClaire. I have been writing software full-time since 1994, when I released my first commercial software product.In 1998, I began my career with Pearson VUE, a provider of global-based testing solutions and a division of UK-based PearsonPLC, the international education and information company, whose businesses include the Financial Times Group, PearsonEducation, and the Penguin Group.
While at Pearson VUE, I held jobs of increasing responsibility including Software Engineer, Senior Engineering Lead, and SeniorSoftware Product Architect. I have extensive experience using Java, Groovy, Flex/Flash, C++, C#, Visual Basic, and PHP.
My specialties include software design and architecture,
refactoring, test/behavior-driven development, process automation,
and continuous integration. At VUE, I am well known for my ability
to solve the most difficult technical challenges and have invented
new design patterns, designed and implemented Computer Adaptive
Testing algorithms, and designed domain-specific languages and
implemented compilers for those languages. I was a founding member
of Pearson VUE’s first internship program and
mentored interns.
Outside of work, I sponsor and volunteer for TEDxTC, an independently organized TED event in St Paul, Minnesota, USA.I also worked with University of Wisconsin Eau Claire and Wisconsin Public Radio to design and develop an Open Source software program used to track local, state, and national election results in real-time. Not only is this software used to provide accurate reporting on election results, but Computer Science Seniors at the University use it understand how to write and maintain production quality software.
I am an avid outdoor adventurist, enjoying water skiing, snowboarding, boating and motorcycling. I am also a private pilot and enthusiastic amateur photographer.
I moved to Shanghai China in October 2011 with my girlfriend. We returned to Minneapolis in September 2013.