This seems like a question that should be easy to answer, but whenever someone asks I find I always pause and have to consider how to answer. As with everyone out there I do a lot of things and depending on who asks the answer should be different. So I thought perhaps I should (for my own benefit) add a post that talks about my job and my involvement in the community.

By day I am the Director of IT for Business Transitions in Portland, OR. Titles are kind of a joke to me. I am “Director” because of the level in which my decisions affect the company. I report to the sole owner of the company and make recommendations on all of our technical decisions. I am responsible for all hardware (desktops, servers, printers, phones, etc.) and software development for the company. All employees of the IT department report to me. This is where the joke part comes in; there is only one (soon to be two) employees other than me in IT.

By night I run Simb Development, which is a Development and Hosting company that I mostly ignore. I am not really an entrepreneur and have no interest in “being my own boss.” The sole reason this company exists is to support friends and family who have technical needs. I had a friend who wanted to do web development and needed somewhere to host. I needed to host my own sites, so I got some dedicated servers and I offer hosting. I have friends that are designers and wanted to offer more robust services to their clients, so I sub-contract small jobs from these folks to help them better meet their clients needs. I am not currently accepting RFQ/P’s nor hosting customers :)

Beyond the things I get paid for, I am also heavily devoted to community involvement. I am the Adobe Developer User Group manager in Portland, Oregon. When I took over the group over two years ago we were a strictly ColdFusion group. But after Adobe’s merger with Macromedia, I felt it was important that we look at all the tools available to us. I am an Adobe Community Expert. The “Community Expert” (previously “Team Macromedia”) is a designation reserved for individuals who demonstrate a strong commitment to helping out in the community. I am also an Adobe Certified Instructor for Flex 1.5 and 2.0. I am an Adobe Certified Expert for ColdFusion. In addition to those Adobe centric programs, I am also a member of “Team Fusion” and “Team Fusebox” community led support projects. I also host the Subversion and Trac project repositories for Fusebox 5, Model-Glue Unity, Reactor, and CFEclipse. I have made small code contributions to those projects as well as the ColdSpring IoC/AOP Framework for ColdFusion.

Last year I had the opportunity to be involved with several conferences. I presented on three topics at CF.Objective last year. I also presented at CFUNITED in Washington D.C., and MAX ‘06 in Las Vegas.

Beyond the technical things I do, I am also a new dad and a loving husband. I absolutely dote on my wonderful family. I am the proud owner of two wonderful black labs and the keeper of the house which two cats proclaim dominion over.