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.

Jennelle Crothers is a Microsoft Technical Evangelist who likes computer networking, server administration, dogs, quilting, popcorn and on most days, public transportation. Before joining Microsoft, Jennelle Crothers spent 15 years as a Systems Administrator "jack of all trades" overseeing Windows domains, Exchange Server, desktops and other IT systems where she struck fear into the hearts of end-users with complex password policies and email retention tags. When not thinking about technology, Jennelle volunteers with Guide Dogs for the Blind and sneaks away to read dystopian novels.

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.

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 shares 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!