Energy, laughter and a contagious passion for coding - Mike brings it all to the podium. His career has taken him from minion to business owner, and he's been programming since the late '70s, when a friend brought a Commodore CPM home for the summer. He wrote his first software in Basic (including a math game that was shown at the University of Wisconsin in 1982) and later completed a degree in aerospace engineering. In 1994 he started a consulting firm with his brother, focusing on the effective use of relational technologies for scalable, high performance and mission critical applications. Mike has worked in a variety of roles including architect, project manager, developer and technical writer. The coolest part of his job? Running into people who are still using (and liking) his software applications. Mike is a published author with WROX Press and APress Books, writing primarily about getting the most from your SQL Server database. Since appearing in Microsoft's DevCast in 1994, Mike has presented technical information at seminars, conferences and corporate boardrooms across America. This music buff also plays piano, guitar and saxophone - but not at his MSDN Events.

Rory claims he started coding shortly after completing his toilet training. We didn't ask for further details. All we know is he began by programming a Timex Sinclair in 1983 and has never looked back. Before joining Microsoft, Rory worked as an independent consultant, providing code and concepts to companies of all shapes and sizes. He has experience with many different platforms and languages, but his passion lies in using and helping people understand .NET technologies. Rory also works as an author, and wrote his first book about the Linux Bash shell and various Linux command line utilities. In his spare time, he co-hosts the .NET Rocks internet talk show, writes a blog, keeps an eye on Longhorn, and writes the occasional song. If he wasn't so passionate about development - and his beloved expense account - Rory says he'd like to be an astronaut. A few years ago, he even offered his services to the independent space race. He's still waiting for a response.

Ron drinks Red Bull like Homer Simpson swigs beer, so get set for a well-caffeinated presentation. Ron loves challenges, tight deadlines and boosting productivity, but dislikes status meetings, slow drivers and waiting for downloads. Could there be a pattern here? Ron began his programming career at the tender age of 10, when he decided his Commodore 64 games weren't quite cutting it. He then downloaded technical info from BBS and wrote his own games using sprite graphics. Before joining Microsoft in 2002, Ron designed and implemented a global online commodities exchange system for an ISV. He has also held management and technical leadership positions with a Microsoft partner. His certifications include MCSD, MCSE, MCDBA, MCP+I+SB - and he's working on extending the list. Ron has led 56 MSDN events to date and participated in over 20 user group meetings throughout Kansas, Missouri and Tennessee. Ron lives in Memphis with his wife, Lisa, and his children, Kayla and Ryan. No word if their Dad has passed on his passion for the Kansas City Chiefs.

Got a puzzle, problem or project that's testing your nerves? Bring it on, says Jacob, who loves collaborating with customers and fellow developers to solve even the most teeth-grinding challenges. Even when he can't answer a question, Jacob works hard to get every question answered. Jacob joined Microsoft in 2003 as a Developer Evangelist in the Industry Solutions group and became a DCC shortly thereafter. He's already hosted 74 in-person events and 25 webcasts for the Midwest community. Jacob is a self-proclaimed C# developer, but dabbles in other languages, from VB .NET and C++ to the more esoteric tongues, including Scheme and Pascal. His favorite development project? Working with a crack coding team to develop a wedding photographer robot, which ultimately became part of the Emerging Technology event at SIGGRAPH 2002. In his downtime, Jacob co-produced a film short that was aired at the 2003 St. Louis Filmmakers Showcase and earned him recognition on the (somewhat) exclusive IMDB.com. He has received less formal praise for playing the 'nose whistle' - a little-known natural talent.

Russ wisely shelved dreams of rock 'n roll stardom in order to share his vast knowledge with developers nationwide. Given that he can't sing or play an instrument, we're all very grateful. Russ has more than 25 years of software development experience and reportedly passed all three MCAD exams in a 28-hour period – an experience he doesn't recommend to anyone. He's the creator of the Russ' Tool Shed developer seminar series and has donned his trademark suspenders, hardhat and tool belt in presentations for over 50,000 developers at 1,300 events. Russ also has expertise in developing Visual Basic and Web-based solutions using Microsoft tools. Before joining Microsoft seven years ago, Russ worked as a VB instructor, headed up a development department, and created several client/server applications and system software products. His specialties include development with VB.NET, XML Web services, ASP.NET, and debugging. But make no mistake - Russ is not all brains. His big heart led him to establish Take a Swing at Cancer, Inc., a non-profit organization that holds softball and golf-based fundraisers to battle cancer.

Call it a tech-world walk on the wild side. Glen once used a VB 3.0 data control in a production application – and lived to tell about it. Now he's getting his adrenaline fix by diving deep into the .NET technologies. "There's a lot in there!" says Glen, a self-described natural paraphraser who has a knack for explaining complex ideas without inducing snores. Glen, who is MCAD and MCSD.NET certified, has over 12 years of experience as a software trainer and presenter. He's delivered MSDN Events seminars to thousands of developers and spoken at conferences including Tech-Ed and Dev Days. Glen has also managed the design, implementation and deployment of several enterprise software solutions built on Windows DNA and .NET architectures, and has worked extensively with Microsoft SQL and other members of the Microsoft server family. His expertise includes designing for scalability, usability and supportability, and his current passion is developing mobile applications. Glen graduated from Georgia Tech with a degree in Applied Psychology, specializing in learning and human-computer interactions. Originally from New York, Glen lives near Atlanta and spends his downtime relaxing with his wife and three children, playing the piano and performing improv comedy.

Some people do crossword puzzles to relax. Anand jumps out of airplanes. He's traveled from India to Indiana to the Middle East and Silicon Valley, and loves meeting customers with different cultural and professional backgrounds. Before joining Microsoft, Anand worked for a networking bellwether company, pioneering XML-based manageability solutions for an embedded operating system. During his five-year tenure as a software development engineer, Anand worked closely with customers to fine-tune his product features and drive problems to a full resolution. Anand has extensive experience in routing and switching technologies, and has worked on several development platforms, including Linux and Unix. He is fluent in C, C++ and Java, and scripting languages such as PERL. Anand has also earned two patent awards related to manageability solutions on networking platforms. Anand graduated from Purdue University (Go Boilers!) with a Bachelor's in Computer Engineering. In his professional daydreams, Anand is on the gridiron, working as the quarterback coach for his beloved Alma Mater.

Rob dreamed of scoring a Microsoft ID badge when he installed Windows 3.0 back in 1990. He's now spoken at over 100 developer events, user groups and live webcasts, including the Office 2003 launch and TechEd. Rob was also a featured presenter at the SetFocus Career Night for aspiring .NET developers and created the Tech Breakfast seminar series. Rob brings more than 12 years of experience in IT, working with developers, managers and organizations in the New York metro area. Before joining Microsoft, Rob worked for several ISVs, developing applications that manage internal business operations in areas including IT service management, travel and entertainment expense management, and asset lifecycle management. Rob was responsible for building integrations between an ISV's products and the client's IT infrastructure. He also spent more than five years at AT&T;, where he developed a customer relationship management application that helped more than 3,000 salespeople gain access to better client information and boost customer satisfaction indicators. Later, Rob served as the product manager for AT&T; WorldNet, responsible for building client software for the service. Rob cites Charlie Brown as his role model and says he loves the crackling energy of the New York City events. There's nothing like giving a show that's literally on Broadway.

Talk about well-rounded. Ken has toiled as a semi truck driver, a horseback-riding cowboy in South Dakota, a typographer, a farm hand and an enlisted Marine. Lucky for us, he finally chose software development over roping cattle. Perhaps it was good early instincts, but Ken began writing line-of-business applications in junior high school, working on microcomputers including the PDP-8, PDP-11 and VAX, and followed his early hero, Dave Cutler (the architect of Windows NT), into Microsoft platforms. After working with Paradox for DOS and Windows, he discovered Visual Basic 3.0 and Access 1.0 several years later. Throughout most of his career, Ken has been an independent consultant for customers including Merrill Lynch, Walt Disney World and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Ken truly earned his stripes when he built a database for a law enforcement organization that needed to protect the identities of undercover officers. With a role model like Yoshiyah ben Amon - an ancient king of Israel who quickly and single-handedly reformed his kingdom - prepare for some serious coding inspiration when Ken's in the house.

Geoff's been writing code since he learned BASIC in high school, back when dinosaurs (or at least card punches) roamed the earth. Geoff hung around Cambridge University long enough to attend some really good parties, some of which involved falling in the river. Eventually, they gave him an M.A. in Computer Science. Geoff launched his career by writing Z-80 assembler for tamper-resistant computers. Since then, Geoff has developed interactive video system software, MS-DOS TSRs, computer-based training, communications software, client-server business applications, and every variety of web application. Geoff wrote his first Windows programs back in 1985, using the Windows 1.0 beta SDK. He joined Microsoft in 2001, after working as a team leader and architect building business systems for consulting clients in the DC metro area. Geoff started with Microsoft Consulting Services, where he built some cool multi-threaded Windows services in .NET, and he's currently with the developer evangelism team. Despite Geoff's British upbringing, he's become obsessed with the NFL and swears that the Baltimore Ravens will be back in the Superbowl next year. When asked what he likes about his current job, Geoff replied, "My boss lives in a different time zone!"

It's all about the light bulbs. Joe lives for those moments when a developer makes new connections or suddenly gets it. But don't cross the line - Joe has won national kickboxing championships in three countries. Joe joined Microsoft in 2001 as a Technical Evangelist and brings more than 30 years of diverse Information Technology and Software Engineering experience to the job. He's worked with several startups and venture capital-funded companies, writing low level device drivers and serving as President & CEO of a publicly traded New York City consulting firm. Joe has created commercial software applications across a wide range of technical platforms, from Mainframes to UNIX and Linux, to Microsoft technologies on the Intel and Mobile computing platforms. Joe's latest technical obsession is application security, and he invented the MSDN Developer BlackBelt Webcast series. He's currently using that BlackBelt security research to develop a criminal investigation support application. Joe's also a frequent presenter at developer events including TechEd, The Microsoft Global Briefing, Microsoft Developer Summit, Dev Days and Web Services Edge. With over 100 speaking events under his (championship) belt, Joe's got you covered.

Bill loves creating the applications that often pop right into his head. Unfortunately, it takes his fingers a little longer to type them in. Bill is MCSD certified and has logged more than 15 years as a software developer. Previously, Bill worked for a regional consulting firm where he developed applications that managed internal business operations in areas including IT service management, transportation logistics, and financial management. Bill was responsible for building integration applications between various ISV's products and the client's IT infrastructure. He also spent more than seven years at StrideRite Corporation, where he honed his development skills in Visual Basic, C++ and a range of IT roles. Bill has been collaborating with Microsoft since 1992, and continues to prize his Visual Basic 1.0 Beta Thunder Clock. He's given over 200 presentations to date, and is currently developing a NASA flight computer for small aircraft. What's the toughest part of managing a 50-member team? "Those developer types always think they know it all," Bill says with a wink. When he's not giving presentations, Bill is busy giving back to his community. Last year he was recognized by the Make-A-Wish Foundation for providing trips to four children with life-threatening medical conditions.

As the mind behind the Geek Speak blog, David thrives on the constant change and challenge of software development. David (MSCD, MCAD) has been building applications for over 12 years, and has presented at the Office 2003 Launch and Dev Days 2004. He's also a regular Webcast speaker and counts Web and SQL development among his specialties. David graduated from Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia, AR, with a BS in Computer Science with a minor in Math. Before working at Microsoft, David served as an architect, designing and developing enterprise Web sites for clients. He also has a wide range of experience in creating everything from wireless manufacturing devices to commercial Web applications. David has participated in and led small-to-enterprise level development teams and has been involved in several VB.NET certification books - working as both an author and a technical editor. When he's not studying his role model, Colin Powell, David coaches youth soccer and shuttles his three kids between games and practices.

Perhaps coding logic flows right through Bernard's veins. When he's not creating new applications, Bernard's busy programming a dizzying array of synthesizers and electronic musical instruments – both virtual and classic. Since 1997, he's shared his development expertise at 18 Microsoft TechEd developer conferences in the U.S., France, the Netherlands, Spain, Japan, Malaysia and Singapore. He's also created and delivered presentations and demonstrations at three Microsoft Professional Developers Conferences and two Microsoft Visual FoxPro Developer Conferences. Bernard has participated in VBITS, Developer Connections, the Office Deployment and Developer Conference, Gartner Application Development, Software Development West, the Autodesk Developer Network, and industry shows including COMDEX, CeBIT, Consumer Electronics Show, Entertainment Expo, InternetWorld, PC Expo and the high-pressure cooker that is Demo Showcase. Before joining Microsoft, Bernard worked as a consulting engineer, programmer and a general music industry lackey – a role he hopes to revisit again some day.