In many ways, Chris is not your typical consultant. Despite being a programming virtuoso, he wears many hats - and wears them well. Chris has deep roots in software development, with his first dabbling in HTML and web site design in 1995. Through the C++ teachings of Bjarne Stroustroup at Texas A&M University, Chris developed a passion for software development unseen by many. He quickly picked up and embraced PHP and continued the trend with C#, Java, and numerous other languages. After all, technology is a field where the learning never ends.

Chris did his “tour of duty” at Texas A&M University via several departments over 5 years. He started at Computing and Information Services and ended at the College of Architecture. Through these positions, he learned to push the limits of C# and the .Net Framework. His experiences with learning how to develop with Enterprise frameworks allowed him to bring his knowledge back to the PHP community via leveraging best practices in web applications development. Chris continues to quickly gain ground and mastery of best practices in application development through the use of design patterns (e.g. MVC, SOLID, etc.). In addition, Chris was in a unique position at the College of Architecture to help his team adopt Agile (specifically: Scrum). Through this experience, Chris managed to serve as a Scrum Master, Product Owner, and a Pig, giving him a broad perspective of all positions on an Agile team.

Eventually, the economy crumbled and employees with the State of Texas was on a path towards increased workload and reduced pay. Given he was already being paid less than industry-rates, it was time to jump ship. One of the most appealing companies that Chris sought out and went to work for was Improving Enterprises. As a Senior Consultant, he regularly develops in .Net and SharePoint for major multinational financial institutions. Yet, despite getting to focus more on .Net, there were many aspects about this company that appealed. First, excellence is one of the core values of the company, and that value is shown in the behavior of everyone, all the way up to our CEO. Furthermore, the company is very family-oriented, so putting in overtime is a rare occurence that’s strongly discouraged. Agile values and principles are at the heart of what everyone does, and we encourage customers to adopt these values on each of our engagements. In short, it’s been a real delight to work with some of the best and brightest in the consulting industry. Through the support of Improving, Chris regularly speaks at user groups, conferences, and tech fests on how to be a better agilist.

On Speaking and Outreach

Chris loves to help spread his knowledge with the community. Chris is the co-organizer of the Bryan/College Station PHP Users Group and regularly speaks there. However, Chris has also been honored to speak at several other regional user groups, conferences, and tech fests. His current topics of focus are:

• Agile Values and Practices
  • TDD
  • Continuous Integration
  • Continuous Delivery
• Identity Management
• PHP
• SharePoint and .Net

For a list of upcoming talks that Chris is giving, check out his SpeakerRate or CoderWall page.

On Family

Without-a-doubt, Chris would not be in the position he is in without the help, support, and patience of his calming and wonderful wife, Melissa and son Tristan. Melissa has been with him and supported him through the best times and through the worse times. Her patience, unending love and adoration, and want to see Chris succeed has kept him chugging along at rapid pace. Tristan has been a real blessing in his life, and has been as patient as ever with his father spending countless numbers of hours attending class, researching, and consulting. Despite putting in so many hours week after week, both Melissa and Tristan are by far the most important people in Chris’ life.

Past Ventures

Through his undergraduate career, Chris owned his own software consulting company, Cerberus Interactive, Inc. Through Cerberus, Chris grew to enjoy wearing the business hat that most developers hate, and under which has been able to bridge the gap between managers and developers. The tools and skills he has acquired has enabled him to push the envelope of what most businesses and organizations do today. Examples of customers include Studio Bella Voce, CFEgroup, Gophrz, LLC, Loupot’s Bookstores, and many others.