Memphis/Mid-South JUG

Colin is Director of Technical sales at SpringSource. He is a co-founder of the company, and one of the original core committers on the Spring Framework project (gaining commit status in mid-2003). Since starting the company he has served in a number of roles, usually combining both technical as well as business and customer facing aspects. He is a hands-on architect with 20+ years of experience in developing commercial software, including all aspects of the software development lifecycle. Colin is co-author of 'Professional Java Development with Spring'.

Colin has had a long and varied career, including experience developing for and managing his own retail software company, other experience in the C++ shrinkwrap and enterprise software space, experience with Java since '97, and a complete focus on enterprise Java since '99.

Prior to SpringSource, Colin spent more than 4 years as architect then chief architect at a leading software incubator / VC. Colin's role was split between one part hands on architecture, design, and coding, another part mentoring and teaching best practices at the code and process level, and a final part performing technical due diligence and consulting for the VC arm. Throughout this period, Colin gained experience with and an appreciation for agile development practices as a vital part of software success.

Throughout his career, Colin's experience, wide ranging interests and general knowledge in the technology space have led him to be a resource that others have been able to draw on for advice. In general, Colin's background has left him with a deep knowledge of all it takes to successfully put out good software, at the code, process, and business level.

Along with client-facing work at SpringSource, Colin also spends significant time on Spring evangelism, having spoken on many occasions on Java EE and Spring Framework at conferences and JUGs.