The Early Years
I was born in a US army hospital in Germany, but grew up in Northampton Massachusetts. I began writing software in elementary school, and never really looked back. My first attempt to prepare for a career in computing was the Data Processing department (now called Information Technology) at Smith Vocational and Agricultural High School. From there, I went to Springfield Technical Community College for two years before transferring to WPI, where I earned my BS and MS in Computer Science.
I have fond memories of all the schools I’ve attended, for many different reasons. Some of the best educators I’ve encountered have been at places where you’d least expect them.
Career
I joined Data General while earning my MS, in January of 1996. My fellow students were surprised I wanted to work for a company they felt was in decline and a relic of the minicomputer era. Very few people had heard about CLARiiON at that point, but that changed soon enough. I was fortunate enough to be one of the founding members of the Navisphere team, and to be mentored by some very skilled folks during my critical early years.
Soon after the EMC acquisition of DG, I explored some new options in the greater EMC. I was one of the first developers on EMC StorageScope, and stuck with the product as it evolved from a proof-of-concept chargeback application to the face of reporting for EMC ControlCenter.
In the summer of 2006, I stepped into the role of manager for the first time. I remarked that in the first six months, I felt like I encountered a new challenge that forced me to learn something new every month. You know what? That feeling never went away. Since then, a variety of circumstances have made me dip in and out of various levels of management and technical responsibilities, all in support of Storage Resource Management software for EMC.
A decade later, EMC and Dell combined and I’m excited to continue my work under the umbrella of Dell EMC.
I’ve encountered wildly varying aspects of corporate life while taking on these different roles, and that’s a big part of what I like to write about here.
Family
My wife Jessica and I live near Sturbridge Massachusetts with our daughter, a cat, and plenty of mosquitoes. We’ve been married since 1994, making me a husband for slightly longer than I’ve been paid to do this work.
Fun
My wife and I love to travel, and my favorite trip has to be the five-week road trip across the USA we took in 2002. I constantly fight the urge to be an indoor geek, as my main hobbies revolve around reading, writing, computers, and home entertainment. I try to counter that with hiking, kayaking, fishing, and geocaching, which has varying success depending on the season.
