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 kids, who will have to clean out the attic...), 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. In the following decade, I built a least one custom thousand-hour-plus application each year; most from scratch, but a couple which were rewrites or upgrades. 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 nearly a dozen 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 have eight narrowly targeted Linux and open
source books now available, with several more in the works. HWP's backlist now numbers over 40, with some 80 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 was on the board of directors of CISE, the small business arm of the Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce, in the late '80s, and 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 various young'un-related activities including scouts, soccer, swimming, and forensics. An avid distance runner, I've logged over 55,000 miles lifetime, including a dozen marathons and a 5K P.R. under 15 minutes. Due to two leg surgeries in the last ten years, I've had to add biking and swimming to the repertoire, which has had all my triathlete friends wiggling their eyebrows, saying, "You know....."
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