I have been developing strategic database applications for Fortune 2000 firms in the manufacturing, financial, and health-care industries for over 20 years. I started out life as a custom software developer using dBASE II (I still have the original 8 1/2 x 11 grey binder of documentation, much to the chagrin of my wife), and switched to FoxPro in 1990. As an independent Fox developer, I billed over 15,000 hours in the 90's, including the requisite "1,000 hours in 3 months" Y2K emergency gig while recovering from leg surgery in late 1999. My custom applications and products have been used throughout the United States and in nearly two dozen foreign countries.

I've hosted the semi-annual Great Lakes Great Database Workshop since 1994, being voted the best Visual FoxPro conference in 2002 by participants of the largest on-line FoxPro forum, the Universal Thread.

In addition to developing applications, I've written and spoken extensively about software development, presenting more than 70 papers at conferences throughout North America and Europe, and was a columnist and later edited FoxTalk, Pinnacle Publishing's high end technical journal for 7 years.

In 1999, Microsoft contracted with me to co-author the Certification Exam for Visual FoxPro 6.0 Distributed Applications, which has since been taken by thousands of developers to help them achieve Microsoft Certified Solution Developer credentials. A Microsoft Most Valuable Professional from 1995 through 2003 for my contributions to the FoxPro development community, I received the first Microsoft Lifetime Achievement Award for Visual FoxPro in 2001.

I started writing in order to develop credentials to bolster my software development career. My first book, Rapid Application Development with FoxPro, showed up in 1993 ("Hey, look! A book!"), and six more have appeared since ("Hey, look! More books!"). I started Hentzenwerke Publishing in 1996 to self-publish a specialized volume on software development, and then began producing Visual FoxPro books when the major publishers abandoned the market in 1998. Sensing the impending acceptance of Linux on the desktop and anticipating a coming demand for custom business applications on those Linux desktops, I turned my attention to Linux in 2002, and will have eight narrowly targeted Linux and open source books available by the end of 2004. HWP's backlist now numbers over 30, with some 60 authors and editors on the payroll worldwide.

I have a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, named as the United States' top independent engineering school every year since 1999 by U.S. News & World Report. I served on RHIT's Commission on the Future from 1993 to 1998.

I currently spend my copious amounts of spare time with my five kids and volunteering for the local school district. An avid distance runner, I've logged nearly 50,000 miles lifetime, and, pending recovery from a compartment syndrome injury a few years ago, hope for one more shot at a sub-15-minute 5,000-meter clocking before age and common sense close the door on that activity.