Biography
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Born and raised in Charleston, South Carolina, Brian had a love for technology from
a very young age. Intrigued by computers, he took every opportunity to take one
apart whenever he could. From a Pong video game recovered from a roadside trash
pile in 1979 to Commodore 16 computer received for Christmas in 1985, Brian spent
as much time as he could tearing into computers to see how they work.
At age 13, Brian took his first job working as a grocery bagger for a major Southeastern
grocery store chain. Working full time through high school, he worked in every capacity
available to him. Working during these younger years contributed knowledge and experience in how teams
operate and what is required of team members to get a job done.
After graduating from high school, Brian worked in various other capacities within
the company. Time spent working in the company’s distribution warehouse taught logistics
and distribution skills as well as warehouse operations. Eventually, Brian worked
his way into a position as an assistant store manager where he learned responsibility,
leadership and management skills.
In his early twenties, with a bright future ahead in retail distribution, Brian
married his college sweetheart and started a family. The next few years saw many
new firsts for Brian and his family. A first home and a first child energized Brian’s
desire for success. Although the future was looking bright, Brian’s true desire
was to do what he had dreamed of since he was a small child. So leaving behind a
fruitful career in retail distribution, Brian took a job as a data integrity analyst
and enrolled in college to earn a degree in Computer Science.
Two years later, after a second child, much sacrifice, and many sleepless nights,
Brian received his degree and took his first job at Cambar Software as a software developer. Getting
his coding chops in C, C++ and COBOL, Brian worked on development teams that created
software for major players in distribution, including United Parcel Service, Ingram
Micro, General Nutrition Centers and Owens and Minor. Working with these companies
led to inside experience in many facets of distribution, including automation and
third party logistics.
With the birth of his third child, the implosion of the tech market, and the move
to widespread outsourcing, Brian saw the writing on the wall. With software developers
becoming a commodity that could be found anywhere, it became necessary to focus
on what matters. Brian became engrossed in gaining solid chops in Object-Oriented
development resulting in certification as a Sun Certified Java Developer. He went back to college
to pursue a degree in Business Administration / Management, and then set his sights on the emerging
.NET framework.
After the release of the .NET 2.0 framework, Brian began architecting enterprise-level
solutions using Visual Studio 2005 and SQL Server 2005 while the technologies were
still in Beta. Over the next two and a half years working with the new Cambar Solutions,
Brian architected both Smart Client
and ASP.NET-based solutions for other major
players in distribution including Hagemeyer, North America and Comdata Corporation.
He focused on
learning strategies for legacy software modernization, using host integration tools
to put a .NET face on a green-screen world.
In 2006 Brian began following what was coming out
of Microsoft's patterns & practices group. The release of the Enterprise
Library, Composite UI Application Block, Guidance Automation Toolkit and the Smart
Client Software Factory offered Brian a chance to stay on the bleeding edge of software
architecture evolution. The technology direction, combined with study of agile software development
methodologies, has poised Brian to achieve his goal of becoming a leading .NET software
architect.
Brian is currently finishing the last course of his Business Administration / Management
degree, with an expected completion date of June 30, 2007. He has also started down
the path of Microsoft certification. He continues to keep a finger on the pulse
of the software industry and he is currently studying even more emerging patterns from
Microsoft, including the Web Services Software Factory and the Mobile Client Software
Factory. Brian is also excited about new technologies, such as Silverlight and SQL
Everywhere. 2007 is proving to be an exciting year.
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