TechNet Events Team

Before he applied to Microsoft in 1994, Chris freely admits that he hadn't heard of Bill Gates or his global little computer company. That's all changed now. Chris is an enthusiastic TechNet presenter who gets a huge rush when audience members realize, "I didn’t know I could do that!" If you’re lucky enough to see Chris in action, prepare to be entertained. He tells jokes, shows funny pictures and ensures that learning new technologies is always fast-paced and engaging. He's even working on some simple magic tricks, just to keep it fresh. Chris cites his father as his role model and would only trade in his IT badge for a second career as a limo driver. It would be fun peeking into the lives of people who "can't or don't want to drive themselves around," says Chris.

Raised in Spokane Washington, Blain Barton has been with Microsoft for 19 years and has held many diverse positions. His career started in 1988 as Team Leader in Manufacturing and Distribution, then progressed to PSS Team Manager for Visual Basic Product Support, Product Consultant for Microsoft Word Division, OEM Systems Engineer and currently serves as a Senior IT Pro Evangelist. Blain has organized and delivered a wide array of technical events and has presented over 1800 live events and has received over six “top-presenter” speaking awards. He has traveled around the world 3 times delivering OEM training sessions on pre-installing Microsoft Windows on new PC’s. He attended Washington State University graduating with a Bachelor’s Degree in English/Business and Minor in Computer Science. After college, Blain taught snow skiing on a professional level in the Cascade Mountains before starting his career with Microsoft. Blain currently resides in Tampa Florida.

Yung Chou is currently a Technical Evangelist in Microsoft US Developer and Platform Evangelism team. Within the company, he has had opportunities serving customers in the areas of support account management, technical support, technical sales, and evangelism. Prior to Microsoft, he had established capacities in system programming, application development, consulting services, and IT management. His recent technical focuses have been in virtualization and cloud computing with strong interests in private cloud with service-based deployment and emerging enterprise computing architecture. He is a frequent speaker in Microsoft conferences, roadshow, and TechNet Events.

Matt Hester is a seasoned Information Technology Professional Evangelist for Microsoft. Matt has been involved in the IT Pro community for over 15 years. Matt is a skilled and experienced evangelist presenting to audiences nationally and internationally. Prior to joining Microsoft Matt was a highly successful Microsoft Certified Trainer for over 8 years. After joining Microsoft, Matt has continued to be heavily involved in IT Pro community as an IT Pro Evangelist. In his role at Microsoft Matt has presented to audiences in excess of 5000 and as small as 10. Matt has written 4 articles for TechNet magazine. In addition Matt has published 2 books: Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Administration Instant Reference by Sybex and Automating Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 with Windows PowerShell 2.0 by Sybex

Bob’s interest in computers and technology has been a lifelong passion. His roots in working with computers date back to his early childhood over 30 years ago and since then he’s touched virtually all major business computing platforms in some capacity. A 5+ year Microsoft veteran, Bob was previously a Unified Communications Technology Specialist in Microsoft’s Enterprise and Partner Group where he specialized in all flavors of Microsoft Exchange. Prior to Microsoft Bob had an extensive background in IT and IT Consulting at a number of Microsoft Certified Partners. He is currently an IT Pro Evangelist in Microsoft’s East Region where he covers the NY Metro area and Eastern PA and can share his passion for leading edge technology with those in the community. Probably Bob’s only passions stronger than technology is having fun and travelling with his family where he frequently visits Walt Disney World and warm, sunny places as often as possible. Bob is also actively involved with the community as a Board Member of Westchester Arc and supporting his school district on their Adaptive Technology Committee.

Brian enjoys working with all computer and networking technologies. He enjoys everything from programming and scripting to working with all types of infrastructure. There just isn’t a technology that isn’t interesting to him. Brian enjoys several hobbies outside of computers including rock climbing, trail biking, and swimming. Brian received his Bachelors degree in Management of Information Systems from the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee. One of Brian’s passions is computer security and he holds the Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) certification among other computer industry certifications.

Keith Mayer is a Technical Evangelist at Microsoft focused on Windows Infrastructure, Data Center Virtualization, Systems Management and Private Cloud. Keith has over 17 years of experience as a technical leader of complex IT projects, in diverse roles such as Network Engineer, IT Manager, Technical Instructor and Consultant. He has consulted and trained thousands of IT professionals worldwide on the design and implementation of enterprise technology solutions. Keith is currently certified on several Microsoft technologies, including System Center, Hyper-V, Windows, Windows Server, SharePoint and Exchange. He also holds other industry certifications from IBM, Cisco, Citrix, HP, CheckPoint, CompTIA and Interwoven.

Tommy Patterson began his virtualization adventure during the launch of VMware's ESX Server's initial release. At a time when most admins were only adopting virtualization as a lab-only solution, he pushed through the performance hurdles to quickly bring production applications into virtualization. Since the early 2000s, Tommy has spent most of his career in a consulting role providing assessments, engineering, planning, and implementation assistance to many members of the Fortune 500. Troubleshooting complicated scenarios, and incorporating best practices into customer's production virtualization systems has been his passion for many years. Now he share his knowledge of virtualization and cloud computing as a Technology Evangelist in the Microsoft US Developer and Platform Evangelism team.

A prolific blogger, Kevin shares his thoughts, ideas and tips on the TechNet Events Bloggers site and the IT Pro community site. He's also a strong speaker and webcaster who's landed several times on Microsoft's top 10 webcast list and has delivered at least three top-scoring TechNet webcasts to date. Kevin has worked as both a developer and an IT pro, so he loves sharing helpful new solutions and technologies with his IT peers. At Microsoft, Kevin relishes the opportunity to generate fresh ideas and run them down to the end zone. It’s a joy he says more companies should offer to their employees. Kevin received his BA in computer science at the University of Minnesota (Go Gophers!) where he also studied music theory and composition.

Dan Stolts (The “ITProGuru”) is a technology expert who is a master of systems management. He started his professional technology career back in 1987. He is proficient in many Microsoft products especially in the server area (Windows Server, System Center, Exchange, SharePoint, Virtualization, etc.) and holds many certifications including MCT, MCITP, MCSE, TS, etc. Dan specializes in System Management and is also very passionate about virtualization and cloud technologies. Dan is and has been a very active member of the community. Dan is most passionate in the community service he provides as the leader of his area local Cub Scout Pack. He is president of Boston User Groups, Founder of Virtualization Group Boston, Founder of North East Leaders and serves on many IT Community group boards. He is a believer in social networking and can be reached on twitter @ITProGuru. His primary blog presence is at http://itproguru.com. He has participated in many non-technology community groups such as: Rotary Club, Lions Club, local Chambers of Commerce and is a mentor for the local high schools. Dan is an enthusiastic advocate of technology and is passionate about helping others. Dan’s lifelong passion has been and continues to be to help and teach others!

Harold studied hard to snag an impressive array of certifications, including MCSE, MCT, CNI, CNE and HP Engineering. He's also delivered "too many events to count," and loves talking to customers about technology, especially when it's connected to deployment and better business impacts. Despite his many technological accomplishments, Harold says his biggest challenge has been raising two children. He's a self-described Type A personality with a dash of perfectionism and a rare even temper – all the better for delivering top-notch events. If he wasn't working in technology, Harold says he'd love to get into the kitchen and start chopping, slicing, dicing and creating gourmet masterpieces as a professional chef.