About

I am a purist at heart, and a relentless pragmatist in practice. This means I always keep my ideal vision in my head as I doggedly push step after step to get there. Compromise is often the only way to make real progress. In software development as well as real life, I believe breaking large projects down into incremental and "potentially-shippable" steps is necessary not only for quality, but for maintaining your motivation.

We don't get a chance to do that many things, and every one should be really excellent. Because this is our life. Life is brief, and then you die, you know? And we've all chosen to do this with our lives. So it better be damn good. It better be worth it.

-- Steve Jobs

I was born in a Jersey suburb of New York City to a software project manager and a self-employed pharmaceutical regulatory consultant. I went to public school and often got straight A's. In seventh grade I taught myself HTML and started making websites for myself, school projects, and my Boy Scout troop. That led to high school programming courses and later enrolling at Rensselaer Polytechnic University in Albany, New York, where I studied computer science. My learning continued as I taught myself CSS, JavaScript, PHP, and MySQL, and developed websites for the RPI TV student club and the Rensselaer Artificial Intelligence and Reasoning Laboratory. Shortly thereafter I moved to Boston to pursue a career in business process management software at the market leader, Pegasystems Inc., where I am today.

I am absolutely passionate about creating pixel-perfect, elegant, and intuitive user interfaces. Simplicity is my ethos. My work benefits from my experience in usability, web development, graphic design, communication, project management, and agile practices. I've worked hard to develop these skills in all areas of software development so I can consistently turn out the best products possible.

This is America. Pick a job, then become the person that does it.

-- Bobbie Barrett, Mad Men

My passion for world-class products is equaled by my passion for studying the environments in which they are forged. I believe a work culture that (1) gives employees the ability to self-organize and (2) trusts them with decision-making power will not only win the battle for attracting and retaining top talent, it will consistently and sustainably produce the best results.

• Have been collecting liquor since 2009 and now own over 120 unique bottles.
• Started a class newspaper with friends in third grade and kept it going through the fourth and fifth grades.
• Was the top male in my high school graduating class, sixth overall.
• Earned the rank of Eagle Scout in 2001.