I help software companies and teams realize the value of complex software technologies by aligning strategy, teamwork, and developer tools.

After graduating Purdue University with a BS in Computer Science, I joined General Electric to attend their three year Software Technology Program at GE’s Corporate R&D (CRD) center (now GE Global Research) in Schenectady, NY. The program consisted of corporate training in Software Engineering followed by three year-long assignments working within R&D groups at CRD. I built a programming language (Omega Lisp) for GE’s Cross-Omega Connection Machine (massively parallel computing system); I developed IDE software for an Ada workstation; I developed software for image processing pipelines for non-destructive X-Ray evaluation of GE Aircraft Engine turbine blades. GE also funded my graduate study in Computer Science at RPI, where I earned a MS in CS while working full time at GE CRD. Those projects instilled my strong desire for building developer tooling to make software <developers|development> better, stronger, faster.

After completing the program at GE, I worked briefly at Data General in Research Triangle Park, NC, building workstation software for a DG AViiON desktop workstation.

In 1989, I joined SAS as a software developer. There, I rewrote the SAS/CALC spreadsheet formula interpreter for SAS’ multi-vendor architecture (PL/1 -> POSIX C), adding capabilities to build 3-dimensional spreadsheets. I was soon promoted and I managed the team which built the SAS webAF Java IDE, and created object-oriented and list data structure libraries for SAS Control Language. When SAS adopted Java in 1996, I became the local Java expert and was appointed as R&D Java Strategist to run the Java Technology Board (JTB), helping the company widely adopt and succeed with the Java Platform. The JTB established corporate Java standards, processes, and tools. I later joined the Advanced Computing Lab as a founding member, researching advanced high performance programming languages and building a high performance multi-dimensional data server. I implemented an MDX parser and a multi-dimensional search library implementation of a Patricia TRIE to enable scalable multi-dimensional search features.

During my tenure, I organized a peer-led technical book study program in SAS R&D, studying books such as Design Patterns, Java Patterns, Java Puzzlers, The Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs.

When SAS began digital transformation to a web API-based architecture, I moved to SAS’ enterprise architecture team and founded the SAS API Center of Excellence, which helped SAS migrate to REST APIs and a resource-oriented architecture. The CoE defined SAS’ REST standards, style guide, and provided API design expertise for SAS’ product teams. I led the CoE for 5+ years, during which SAS delivered over 120 APIs while modernizing thwir web application-based products. I also created and developed SAS’ API Developer Portal.

Around 2010, I help found a grassroots effort within SAS R&D to improve developer productivity. I created saspedia (and built it with WikiMedia software) to house SAS’ internal documentation, and was primary evangelist and editor for 7 years. I helped create guidelines for content authoring, naming, structure, categorization, linking, and taxonomies. Seven years later, saspedia had close to 30,000 entries, documenting everything from products, people, and teams, to tools, standards, and processes. saspedia was one of the most used resources across R&D’s 1800+ staff.

In 2017, I accepted an opportunity to create and lead the API programx* for a new startup, Apiture, which aimed to create open banking APIs in the US. I joined as a Principal API Architect and was soon promoted to VP, API Platforms, and in 2021, Apiture created the Chief API Officer role, which I have held since. In creating the API program, I established a core set of API design principles, the Apiture API Style Guide, and an API Design Patterns catalog, and began evangelizing an API First approach to building the Apiture platform. I created a portfolio developer tools to accelerate the design of Apiture’s APIs (openapi-templates, openapi-lint, openapi-dependencies, openapi-version, openapi-annotations, api-doc). I managed the API First Office. I created and published Apiture’s Developer Portal. I also established API University and designed and presented training programs on many aspects of APIs (architecture, design, HTTP and related standards, contract-based testing). I later morphed API University into the broader Apiture University to allow more teams to collaborate and share knowledge. Apiture University provides a vehicle for people to grow professionally.

I built a successful API program and was invited to speak at numerous conferences and podcasts about APIs over the years, gaining recognition as an API industry thought leader.