What kinds of activities were you involved in while you were at Stanford? Did you join clubs or student organizations? What did you study? What were your favorite classes?
Theta Xi Fraternity, Cycling Team, Crew, Judicial Panel, University Singers. I liked all of my CS classes, but it particular I liked my senior project and my AI courses.<br>

When you first started at Stanford, did you have any thoughts about your career plans? If so, what were those thoughts?
I didn't really know what I wanted to do, but I knew I loved software and business and that eventually I wanted to run my own company, but not straight out of school because I didn t have the experience I needed.<br>

Did those initial ideas change or evolve while you were at Stanford?
My plans did not really change I always wanted to do something related to software.<br>

What did you do with your summers? Did you work? Did you have any interesting experiences? How did you find those experiences?

I managed to get lucky and land some excellent internships at Trilogy, Microsoft and Javasoft, which solidified my plans to go into the software industry. My summers were one of the best parts of my college years I learned a great deal and I met and worked with brilliant engineers who served as mentors and role models for me.<br>

What was your first job after graduation and what did you have to do to find it?
I joined Plumtree Software as their 26th employee and a consultant in their newly formed professional services department. I found the job through the career center. I dropped my resume in an employer preselect envelope and they selected me for an interview.<br>

What did you do at your first job? Was it what you expected?
The job was everything I expected and more. I ended up taking on several roles and responsibilities including servicing the first handful of customers by installing and deploying the first few versions of the Plumtree product. I traveled all over the country to work with different customers. I wrote custom utilities to help professional services, worked on in-house development projects, and eventually joined product engineering and wrote about 30% of version 3.5's user interface. I then moved to Integration Engineering, where I was responsible for suites and frameworks of products that integrated Plumtree with other major software vendors products such as SAP, Siebel, Documentum and Microsoft Office. Later I got involved in management, but still kept making contributions as a lead engineer and also did various customer projects, which, although I didn't realize it at the time, were instrumental in helping me develop the contacts I needed to start my own business.<br>

What skills/experiences from college were most important in your career development?
All of my CS courses have been really valuable over the years, but I also think getting involved in leadership positions in my fraternity and on the cycling team (where I served as sponsorship chair) helped me develop the sales, marketing and business development skills that contributed to my career at Plumtree and have been invaluable in my role at bdg.<br>

Any advice for students?
Take risks. There s plenty of time to make mistakes, learn from them, and start over again stronger and better off than you were before.<br>

Can you provide a brief description of the work you do and examples of typical task/projects.
I now serve as President and CEO of bdg, a small enterprise software consulting firm specializing in Plumtree Portal deployments and custom software development. I spend most of my time working directly for customers and I try to bill at least 40 hours a week. On top of that, I oversee all sales, marketing and business development activities as well as management of the other employees. I've hired some one to handle all the administrative and operational aspects of the business. Our typical projects involve Plumtree deployments, Plumtree training and other custom software development.<br>
Summer of 95: Trilogy Internship<br>Summer of 96: Microsoft Internship<br>Summer of 97: Javasoft Internship<br>1998: Joined Plumtree as a Consultant in their PSO<br>1999: Joined the Product Engineering Team as a Software Engineer<br>2000: Joined the Integration Engineering Team as a Senior Software Engineer<br>2001: Became an Engineering Manager and Lead Engineer in Integration Engineering<br>2002: Left Plumtree to start bdg<br>2003: Led bdg through Portal deployments at Merck, Exxon, and VHA; wrote custom software for GSK; taught training at Dex Media and Booz Allen Hamilton; landed a large contract doing a Plumtree deployment for the federal government<br>
The contacts I made at Plumtree directly contributed to the success of bdg. When you make a customer happy, they remember you and will be likely to come back to you for repeat business and serve as a reference which helps you bring in new business. My first manager at Plumtree stressed the importance of reference-able customers and now that's bdg's mantra.<br>

Can you provide a brief chronology of your career - probably the major projects or turning points?
Summer of 95: Trilogy Internship
Summer of 96: Microsoft Internship
Summer of 97: Javasoft Internship
1998: Joined Plumtree as a Consultant in their PSO
1999: Joined the Product Engineering Team as a Software Engineer
2000: Joined the Integration Engineering Team as a Senior Software Engineer
2001: Became an Engineering Manager and Lead Engineer in Integration Engineering
2002: Left Plumtree to start bdg
2003: Led bdg through Portal deployments at Merck, Exxon, and VHA; wrote custom software for GSK; taught training at Dex Media and Booz Allen Hamilton; landed a large contract doing a Plumtree deployment for the federal government

If you have not already addressed this; how has networking or being mentored shaped/helped your career?
The contacts I made at Plumtree directly contributed to the success of bdg. When you make a customer happy, they remember you and will be likely to come back to you for repeat business and serve as a reference which helps you bring in new business. My first manager at Plumtree stressed the importance of reference-able customers and now that's bdg's mantra.

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