Presenter Bios

Ultra passionate. That’s how Jeff describes his relationship with web development – and who’s to argue? Over the past 10 years, Jeff has enthusiastically applied his technical expertise to build industry-changing websites and marketing efforts for mega brands including Victoria’s Secret, Abercrombie & Fitch, Ford Motor Company, Sony, and several pharmaceutical companies. He’s especially proficient in user interface design, web standards and web application development. In addition to his developer evangelist role for Microsoft, Jeff contributes to the O’Reilly title Windows Developer Power Tools on the subject of code validation services and serves as an organizer for the CodeMash and Stir Trek conferences. On the academic front, Jeff holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology from Ohio’s Bowling Green State University. When he’s not solving web development challenges, Jeff’s on a mission to convert iPod users to the Zune MP3 player – one music lover at a time.

Jennifer claims she’s got the coolest job in the company. She learns about Microsoft’s new technologies for developers, takes them for a spin, then delivers the details to her colleagues and clients. She is a frequent speaker at software development conferences across the United States. In 2009, Jennifer was chosen as "Techie whose innovation will have the biggest impact" by X-OLOGY for her work with GiveCamps, a weekend-long event where developers code for charity. She has also received many honors from Microsoft, including the Central Region Top Contributor Award, Heartland District Top Contributor Award, DPE Community Evangelist Award, CPE Champion Award, MSUS Diversity & Inclusion Award, and Gold Club. Before she landed the prized developer evangelist gig, Jennifer was a software developer in Microsoft’s Natural Interactive Services division, where she filed two patents for her work in search and data mining algorithms. She also held positions with Ford Motor Company, Natural Instruments, and Soar Technology. Jennifer holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering and a Master’s degree in Computer Science and Engineering from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where her (seriously brainy) graduate work focused on artificial intelligence and computational theory. Jennifer blogs at http://blogs.msdn.com/jennifer and tweets at http://twitter.com/jennifermarsman.

Expect Brian to get (in his own words) “super excited” whenever he talks about technology, especially cloud computing, patterns, and practices. That’s a good thing, given that his job is to help customers strategically leverage Microsoft technologies and take their architecture to new heights. Before joining Microsoft in March 2008, Brian was senior director of technology strategy for a major Midwest partner and has over 13 years of expertise in information technology management. His consulting experience includes e-commerce, extranets and business technology for numerous industries, including real estate, financial services, health care, retail, and state government institutions. Brian also has exceptional proficiency in the Microsoft .NET framework, Service Oriented Architecture, building ESBs, and both smart client and web based applications. Brian’s the co-founder of the non-profit organization CodeMash (www.codemash.org) and speaks at various regional and national technology events, such as TechEd. Brian is the co-author of “Azure in Action”, published by Manning Press. Armed with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Computer Science and Physics from Capital University in Columbus, Ohio, Brian is a zealous gamer with a special weakness for Fallout 3.