Chris Anderson

Chris Anderson has spent the last ten years at Microsoft as an advocate for the working developer. Chris joined Microsoft in 1997 as a developer on Visual Basic, where he worked on integrating Visual Basic with the Web.

Chris was a part of Microsoft’s Java effort, working as a developer on Visual J++ and the Windows Foundation Classes for Java. Chris’s primary responsibility was to ensure that Java developers had a world-class visual design experience for building Windows applications.

Chris was a founding member of the .NET Framework team where he worked as a developer/development manager on Windows Forms, ASP.NET and the Base Class Library (BCL). In this role, Chris was a key contributor to the design and implementation of every presentation technology used by .NET developers today.

Chris then played a key role in the next generation of this work, Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF). Chris was an architect on WPF, where he focused on the unification of Windows and Web presentation models into a coherent framework. Chris also drove the design and adoption of the eXtensible Application Markup Language (XAML) that is used to separate the declarative specification of presentation from application logic.

Since delivering the first version of WPF, Chris has turned his attention to building languages, frameworks and tools to simplify the task of writing applications and services. Chris now works on the “Oslo” project where he brings to bear his passion for user experience and empathy for the working developer.

Don Box

Don Box is an architect at Microsoft working on declarative languages and tools to simplify developing applications and services. In that role, Don is involved in creating languages, frameworks, and end-to-end experiences to help people translate their intentions and desires for software into a machine readable and executable form.

Don joined Microsoft in 2002 as an architect of Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), where he worked on software to enable programs to safely and securely interoperate with one another. Don’s responsibilities included both the design and architecture of the runtime stack, as well as interoperability protocols with IBM and other partners.

Before joining Microsoft, Don was an independent consultant focused on software integration technologies. Don was the leading external voice for Microsoft’s Component Object Model (COM) and Microsoft Transaction Server (MTS) and helped shape the way developers across the globe experience those technologies. In 1996, Don worked as a consultant to Software AG and Microsoft on the UNIX-based Distributed COM project; that work gave Don the desire to move away from shared-runtime distributed architectures and embrace data-centric message passing using XML. To that end, Don worked with Microsoft and Dave Winer to create the original SOAP specification in 1998.

Don is a respected writer on software development topics, serving as a series editor at Addison Wesley and as a contributing editor to C++ Report, Microsoft Systems Journal (MSJ), and MSDN Magazine. Don’s first book, Essential COM, remains a part of the C++ developer’s canon. Don was the first blogger to publish RSS from a Microsoft web property (http://www.gotdotnet.com/) and now (sporadically) maintains a blog at http://www.pluralsight.com/blogs/dbox/   Don has a Master’s degree in Information and Computer Science from U.C. Irvine and a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics from C.S.U. Long Beach.

Scott Guthrie

Scott Guthrie is corporate vice president of Microsoft's .NET Developer Division, where he runs the development teams responsible for delivering Microsoft Visual Studio developer tools and Microsoft .NET Framework technologies for building client and Web applications.

A founding member of the .NET project, Guthrie has played a key role in the design and development of Visual Studio and the .NET Framework since 1999. Guthrie is also responsible for Microsoft's Web server platform and development tools teams. He has also more recently driven the development of Silverlight – a cross browser, cross platform plug-in for delivering next generation media experiences and rich internet applications for the Web.

Today, Guthrie directly manages the development teams that build the Common Language Runtime (CLR), ASP.NET, Silverlight, Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), IIS, Commerce Server and the Visual Studio Tools for Web, Client and Silverlight development.

Guthrie graduated with a degree in computer science from Duke University.

Bob Muglia

Bob Muglia is Senior Vice President of the Server and Tools Business (STB) at Microsoft. STB is chartered to deliver on Dynamic IT, Microsoft's initiative focused on helping customers deliver technology innovation that helps IT pros and developers create highly-optimized and agile infrastructures that continuously align to changing business needs. As STB business leader, Muglia is responsible for developing and marketing Microsoft's infrastructure and developer software. This integrated set of products provides the foundation for IT operations, security, application development and integration. The infrastructure and developer software portfolio includes Microsoft Windows Server, SQL Server, Visual Studio, Virtualization products, System Center management products and the Forefront line of business security products, among others.

Muglia is a member of Microsoft's Senior Leadership Team (which includes Chairman Bill Gates and Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer) that is responsible for shaping the company's business and technology strategy.

Since joining Microsoft in January 1988, Muglia has served in a variety of positions, including managing the development of the MSN network of Internet services and Microsoft Office family of business productivity applications, Windows Server applications, and productivity appliances such as Pocket PCs, eBooks and Tablet PCs. In addition, Muglia helped to bring together the Visual Studio family of developer tools and drove the Win32 API, customer requirements and product specification for the Microsoft Windows NT operating system.

Before joining Microsoft, Muglia was a development manager at ROLM Co. He holds a bachelor's degree in computer science from the University of Michigan.

Ray Ozzie - Chief Software Architect

Join Chief Software Architect, Ray Ozzie, as he opens PDC2008 with Microsoft’s vision for a comprehensive platform for a software + services world.

Ray Ozzie, an industry visionary and pioneer in computer-supported cooperative work, is Microsoft’s chief software architect. Ozzie assumed the chief software architect’s role in June 2006, when Chairman Bill Gates announced his intent to relinquish his Microsoft day-to-day responsibilities in July 2008. In his role as CSA Ozzie is responsible for oversight of the company's technical strategy and product architecture. Ozzie is also directing development of the company’s next-generation software services platform.

Previously, Ozzie was chief technical officer from April 2005 to June 2006. He assumed that role in April 2005 after Microsoft acquired Groove Networks, a next-generation collaboration software company he formed in 1997. Prior to Groove, Ozzie was a founder and president of Iris Associates, where he created and led the development of Lotus Notes. Before Iris, he contributed to the development of Lotus Symphony and Software Arts' TK!Solver and VisiCalc, and was involved in early distributed operating systems development at Data General Corp.

Ozzie earned a bachelor's degree in computer science from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where he was first exposed to the nature and significance of collaborative systems and computer-supported cooperative work while working on the university's seminal PLATO project. This work significantly influenced his perspective on collaborative systems and the projects he has undertaken throughout his career. He’s subsequently been honored as one of the school’s distinguished alumnus.

Honored as one of seven "Windows Pioneers" by Microsoft, Ozzie was named "Person of the Year" in 1995 by PC Magazine, and has been inducted into the Computer Museum Industry Hall of Fame and the InfoWorld Hall of Fame. In November 2000, he received the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Computer Society's W. Wallace McDowell Award, and in 2001 he was honored as a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer. He has served as a member of the National Research Council's Computer Science and Telecommunications Board, and was a member of the NRC committee that produced the landmark CRISIS report on the societal impact of cryptography.

Rick Rashid

Senior Vice President, Microsoft Research

Currently charged with oversight of Microsoft Research’s worldwide operations, Richard (Rick) F. Rashid previously served as the director of Microsoft Research, focusing on operating systems, networking and multiprocessors. In that role he was responsible for managing work on key technologies leading to the development of Microsoft Corp.’s interactive TV system and authored a number of patents in areas such as data compression, networking and operating systems. In addition to running Microsoft Research, Rashid also was instrumental in creating the team that eventually became Microsoft’s Digital Media Division and directing Microsoft’s first e-commerce group. Rashid was promoted to vice president of Microsoft Research in 1994, and then to senior vice president in 2000.

Before joining Microsoft in September 1991, Rashid was professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). After becoming a CMU faculty member in September 1979, he directed the design and implementation of several influential network operating systems, and published dozens of papers about computer vision, operating systems, programming languages for distributed processing, network protocols and communications security. During his tenure at CMU, Rashid developed the Mach multiprocessor operating system, which has been influential in the design of many modern operating systems and remains at the core of a number of commercial systems.

Rashid was inducted into the National Academy of Engineering in 2003, and presented with the IEEE Emanuel R. Piore Award in 2008, for his work in operating systems and for innovation in industrial research.

He also is credited with co-development of one of the earliest networked computer games, "Alto Trek,” during the mid-1970s. An updated version of this game has been developed by Microsoft and has been released under the name "Allegiance.”

Rashid is a member of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Computer Directorate Advisory Committee. He is a past member of the DARPA UNIX Steering Committee and the CSNet Executive Committee and a former chairman of the ACM Software System Awards Committee. Rashid’s research interests have focused on artificial intelligence, operating systems, networking and multiprocessors. He has participated in the design and implementation of the University of Rochester RIG operating system (1975–1979), the Rochester Virtual Terminal Management System (1976–1979), the CMU Distributed Sensor Network Testbed (1980–1983), and CMU’s SPICE distributed personal computing environment, which included the Accent network operating system (1981–1985). He has published papers on computer vision, operating systems, programming languages for distributed processing, network protocols and communication security.

Rashid received master of science (1977) and doctoral (1980) degrees in computer science from the University of Rochester. He graduated with honors in mathematics and comparative literature from Stanford University in 1974.

Steven Sinofsky

Steven Sinofsky is the senior vice president for the Windows and Windows Live Engineering Group - the user experience of Microsoft Windows and Windows Live services. The group is responsible for the development of Windows Vista technologies, including user interface, device support, graphics and media as well as Microsoft Internet Explorer; the group delivers Windows Live services experiences, including Windows Live Hotmail, Windows Live Messenger, Windows Live Spaces and a rapidly growing list of user-centric Internet services, striving to build the most valued and trusted online community.

Sinofsky has held several positions on Microsoft product teams. Before his current position, he oversaw the development of the Microsoft Office system of programs, servers and services, responsible for the product development of the 2007 Microsoft Office system, Microsoft Office 2003, Microsoft Office XP, and Microsoft Office 2000. In 1994, when the Office Product Unit was formed, Sinofsky joined the team as the director of program management, and led the design of the shared technologies in Microsoft Office 95 and Microsoft Office 97. He spent about four years as a software design engineer and project lead in the Development Tools group, where he helped lead the development of the first versions of the Microsoft Foundation Classes C++ library for Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Visual C++. He joined Microsoft in July 1989 as a software design engineer.

Sinofsky holds a master's degree in computer science from the University of Massachusetts Amherst (1989). He holds an undergraduate degree with honors from Cornell University (Arts and Sciences, 1987). In 1998, Sinofsky held the appointment of visiting scholar at Harvard Business School. He spent the fall of 2004 living in Beijing, China, working on projects in sales, marketing, and research and development.

Amitabh Srivastava

Amitabh Srivastava is a Corporate Vice President at Microsoft with responsibility for major components of the company's next-generation services platform. He began working on the company's services platform in November 2006, after playing a pivotal role in shipping Windows Vista.

Srivastava joined Microsoft in 1997 as a Senior Researcher and led the Advanced Development Tools group in Microsoft Research that investigated new techniques to build innovative tools and technologies to improve performance and quality of Microsoft software. His vision and energy led to the creation of the Programmer Productivity Research Center (PPRC) in March 1999, which he has led since its inception. Srivastava's PPRC group, now known as Center for Software Excellence (CSE), has produced several tools and technologies that are critical to Microsoft product groups.

In January 2001, Srivastava became one of a select few to be named a Distinguished Engineer, now known as Technical Fellow.

Srivastava joined the Windows group in December 2003 as Corporate Vice President to redefine the engineering process for Windows Vista. He was responsible for the development of core operating system components such as the kernel, operating system architecture, definition of development processes, and development of advanced tools to automate the development processes.

Before working for Microsoft, Srivastava was the chief technical officer and vice president of engineering at TracePoint Technology Inc., a spin-off company from Digital Equipment Corp. He joined Digital's Western Research Labs (DEC WRL) in Palo Alto, Calif. in 1991. Srivastava's research on binary code modification at DEC WRL resulted in the creation of TracePoint. Srivastava started his career as a researcher at Texas Instruments Inc.'s Research Labs in Dallas, Texas in 1984 after graduating from Pennsylvania State University.

Srivastava holds 13 patents and has published a variety of papers. His paper on ATOM with Alan Eustace in PLDI 1994 received the Most Influential PLDI Paper Award in June 2005. He is the author of OM, ATOM and SCOOPS software systems, which have resulted in products for Digital Equipment and Texas Instruments on the Alpha and PC platforms. He led the design and development of Vulcan, a second-generation binary transformation system, at Microsoft. Vulcan is the foundation of a wide variety of tools developed at PPRC.

Srivastava delivered the commencement address titled "Fourth and Goal" at the College of Engineering graduation ceremonies at Pennsylvania State University, University Park on May 16, 2 008.

Srivastava earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India, and a master's degree in computer science from Pennsylvania State University. He received the 2003-2004 Distinguished Alumnus Award from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, and was selected as the 2004 Outstanding Engineering Alumnus at Pennsylvania State University.

David Thompson

David Thompson is an industry veteran with 30 years of experience in IT. As corporate vice president of Microsoft Online, he is responsible for leading the delivery of Microsoft's business software products as online services, to medium and large enterprises.

By his very nature, he is passionate about working with customers and partners to build great products that help people do their jobs better and more easily. Delivering world-class software products through online services, making them easily and broadly accessible to all businesses, is a fulfillment of that passion.

Thompson joined Microsoft in 1990. He initially led a development group in the Network Business Unit, working on the LAN Manager product. He later moved to the Windows NT team and formed the Networking Group for Windows NT, eventually becoming the general manager of Distributed Systems. He has been responsible for a variety of distributed system technologies, including Active Directory and Windows Security. In April 2000 he became the vice president for the Windows Server Product Group, assuming responsibility for the Windows 2000 Server product line. In all, he led major portions of the development of seven versions of Windows NT and the Windows operating system, including Windows Server 2003. In January 2004 he assumed leadership of the Exchange group, responsible for Exchange products and services through the release of Exchange 2007.

Before coming to Microsoft, Thompson worked for Digital Equipment Corp. on the first VAX Clusters and at Concord Communications as director of software development.

A New Jersey native, he holds bachelor's and master's degrees in engineering from Cornell University.

He is married, with two grown children. An active outdoorsman, he skis, snowboards, bicycles and hikes.

David Treadwell

David Treadwell is corporate vice president of Microsoft's Live Platform Services, a group that's defining and implementing the next generation of platform services that all Microsoft service-enabled applications and sites will use. These services include unified identity and directory, data synchronization, transport and presence, among others.

A recognized platform innovator, Treadwell most recently helped to start the company's Windows Live Core effort, an incubation project that's now a key component of the company's services platform that will allow the creation of compelling applications by making deep use of network-based information.

Previously, Treadwell ran the .NET Developer Platform team responsible for Microsoft's managed developer platform, which included the .NET Framework, ASP.NET and other technologies. Prior to his work on .NET, Treadwell was a developer for file server and networking technologies in Windows NT, co-author of the WinSock specification and the NT WinSock implementation, and the development manager for Internet Information Server.

Treadwell earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Princeton University in 1989 and joined Microsoft later that year.

Treadwell has two sons, David and Aiden, and is married to Lynn. Treadwell's hobbies include photography, triathlons, playing basketball with his sons and exploring the use of digital media technologies in the home.