About the Author

My background is this -- "I'm a PC and I've been a PC for most of my life". How's that for an advertising slogan ???

In my career at Microsoft (starting in 1993, all of it in Consulting Services) I have progressed thru software development on Visual Basic and SQL Server, got into Windows NT networking and domain deployments, from there I got into Exchange Server 4.0, from there I got into Active Directory design and deployment, and from there I became a senior architect focused on Identity and Access management. It all ties together from my first project for MCS where I wrote an identity management system for a customer, we had an Access database, a VB front end, and did user account management in LAN Manager. Not coincidentally, I joined Microsoft just about a month after the original release of Windows NT. It was at this time that Microsoft started to become a serious player in the enterprise IT arena, and i've been fortunate enough to see first hand alot of the growth and development in this area.

Prior to joining Microsoft, between 1986 and '93, I was doing PC and LAN systems administration, got trained up to speed on Novell Netware, and did software development in dBase III, Foxbase/Foxpro, Clipper and C. Around the early 90s of course the "client/server" model started gaining mindshare and I was able to write a few applications on PowerBuilder using distributed SQL back-ends. Also in the early 90s Microsoft emerged as the overwhelming leader in PC software and so that was the force I wanted to align with. In 1993 I interviewed with Microsoft Consulting Services in the Los Angeles (Santa Monica) office, was hired as a Consultant, and have been here now for 15 years.  

I joined the industry in 1986 and focused entirely on the then-emerging area of personal computing - PCs and LANs. Prior to that I obtained a degree in Business Administration / Management Information Systems from California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo CA. My inspiration for entering the field was to do something intellectually challenging and have a part of a new trend that would change the world in positive ways.

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