S.A. Architect Leads

Hilton Giesenow

Hilton has been developing software professionally since 1997. Focused primarily on Microsoft tools and technologies, he works for ConseQuent Software Development as a software architect and technical lead on offshore enterprise projects. Hilton is a Microsoft MVP, a regional lead for S.A. Architect and S.A. Developer.net, the national INETA representative, and a regular author and speaker at community and academic events and conferences. His random ramblings can be found at http://hilton.giesenow.com/.

Robert MacLean

Robert
Robert began his working career in the web server hosting world, where he supported and developed code (in Delphi!) for the environments. It was in these environments he got exposed to the joys of Linux and later that enthusiasm for Linux and Open Source motivated him to an IT start-up where he developed all the code for the systems which were mostly Linux based. From that he moved to development on Microsoft technologies such as Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Microsoft SharePoint. His passion to knowledge transfer, sharing stories and always wanting to experiment and learn the latest technologies eventually took him out of the client focused world and led him to join the ATC team at Barone Budge and Dominick. When Robert is not working he spends his free time mountain biking or cycling on the road or relaxing with his wife at home.

Robert regularly blogs about development at http://www.sadev.co.za

Willie Roberts

Willie
Living in sunny South Africa, Willie Roberts has been actively involved in the IT industry since 1995. He develops software solutions for a major retail chain and holds various Microsoft certifications. He is passionate about technology and an active technology evangelist. When not in front of a computer he spends his time with his family and their collection of animals. Both him and his wife are avid gamers and enjoy spending time playing Rose Online or X-Box 360.

Willie's blog can be found at www.diago.co.za

Willy-Peter Schaub

Willy
Willy started his IT career in the early 1980’s during his Electrical Engineering studies, focusing on the BTOS/CTOS operating systems until he moved over to Microsoft technologies in the early 90’s.Since then his passion has been investigating, researching and evangelising Microsoft technology, best practices and striving for simplicity and maintainability. At BB&D he is responsible for the ASTRA Technology Core Unit, research and evangelism of Microsoft technologies, assisting project teams with solution architectures, committing all processing cycles to debugging, performance analysis and VSTS/TFS, and writing books such as ".NET Enterprise Solutions ... Best Practices” , “.NET Enterprise Solutions … Interoperability for the Connoisseur” and “Software Engineers on their way to Pluto”. Varied and extreme interests include scuba diving, cycling, science fiction, Star Wars, astronomy and most importantly his family.

Willy's blog can be found at http://blogs.msdn.com/willy-peter_schaub/default.aspx

Willy was a Team System MVP, now a VSTS Ranger at Microsoft.

Zayd Kara

Zayd
Our website administrator and server evangelist.

Zayd started his working life as a banker working in Home Loans for a South African Bank. It was his studies in Computer Science and his flair for computers that resulted in his transferring from a Banking role to an IT role. Initially he was responsible for MIS reporting within the banking business units after which he moved formally into IT as the Infrastructure Manager for the Testing Laboratory for Nedbank. His own passion for computers in general and Microsoft Technologies specifically resulted in him moving to Barone, Budge and Dominick (BB&D) in 2001. BB&D is a software development company where his skills were used as a Microsoft specialist on Microsoft Server technologies, including MS Server 2003 and Host Integration Server. Zayd has since moved from the projects unit in BB&D to the research and development unit known as ATC and is now responsible for ensuring that all BB&D teams have the necessary knowledge and awareness of MS server technologies, including TFS. Zayd is married with three children and spends time with his family to relax.

Zayd's blog can be found at http://dotnet.org.za/zaydkara