EllisLab Staff
Rick Ellis Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Rick Ellis has a diverse background in media technology, having worked in creative and technical capacities on interactive projects for Disney, to feature films for Oliver Stone, and almost every kind of web-based project in-between. EllisLab is the culmination of his passion for the internet and a desire to enable people to use it in meaningful ways.
Leslie Camacho Vice President
Leslie has a BBA in Marketing Management, and has been a web developer, project manager, and internet coach since 1994. "I love helping people. That's my passion. The EllisLab family helps people succeed online, that's why I love the products. They are an extension of that passion. I know that sounds cheesy, but it's true." When he closes his Powerbook he can usually be found wrestling with the dogs and teasing his beautiful wife.
Derek Jones Chief Technology Officer
Derek is a former graphic designer and video producer hailing from the Mississippi / Ohio River valley. He knew that programming was his true schtick after realizing that whenever he met new people, he tended to greet them with "Hello World." Funny old world. Funny old world? Dog my cats! Dog my cats indeed. Derek's troika is normally pursued by wolves, but the cookie always arrives unscathed. And just in time for his wife and cat, Jinxie. Er...his wife and his cat. Not his wife the cat. Promise. Derek blogs on occasion at derekderekderek.com.
Kurt Deutscher Chief Technology Evangelist
Kurt holds a Bachelor's degree in Business Management and Communications from Concordia University and is also a veteran of the United States Marine Corps and is the past chair of the Multnomah Education Service District Foundation. He spent over a decade working in public education and has served in a number of executive, management, fund-development and leadership roles in diverse organizations including Volunteers of America, Earth Share, United Way, the Oregon Zoo and public radio.
Lisa Wess Director of Community Services
Lisa reads voraciously - which is a good thing since her degree is in English Language and Literature. She also loves doing tech support and teaching so helping the EllisLab community is something that gives her many hours of enjoyment. She's been using the web since before it was 'a thang' - running her own BBS on WWiV until 1994, and then using chat systems and IRC as the web grew; all based off shell accounts on SPARC boxes in a friend's basement. When not at her computer (a rare occasion) she enjoys socializing, preferably in the woods by a lake.
Derek Allard Technology Architect
Derek is a programmer, author, and award-winning instructor based in Toronto, Canada (eh). He builds web applications, is a standards and accessibility supporter, a scripting and database guy, and a PHP junkie. He's one of those strange people who equally enjoys both the "front-end" work of a web application, and the "back-end" work of the server. He spends most of his time working with XHTML, PHP, Flash, XML and Javascript, although much of his focus lately has been on the PHP framework CodeIgniter. As a Canadian, he can properly spell the word "colour", decipher the metric system and lacks any ability to understand or engage in pop culture. He blogs about all things web at derekallard.com.
Paul Burdick Online Technical Consultant
Paul hails from a small town in the midwest where the inhabitants were conservative and prone to worship. He attended a small liberal arts college in the Pacific Northwest where he gazed at his navel and penned a thesis entitled, "When you see a turtle on a gatepost, you know it didn't get there by itself." He has a degree in Philosophy, which he assumed would get him chicks. It didn't. When he's not at EllisLab, you'll find Paul...sleeping.
Michael Boyink System Evaluator
Michael has over a dozen years experience building "stuff on screens" — starting in TV news production, moving to software and finally the web. He has worked for small consultancy firms and Fortune 500 companies. In 2002 Michael founded Boyink Interactive which provides internet consulting, strategy development, information architecture and complete website development for clients around the globe. 2002 was also the year Michael discovered EllisLab and pMachinePro and he's been pogo-sticking through the community ever since. Michael is a married father of two, and when not at the keyboard can usually be found in the garage grinding, welding, drilling and painting on a large mass of metal that is slowly starting to resemble an actual, driveable 1964 Jeep. Michael blogs about Jeeps and ExpressionEngine at http://www.boyink.com/.
Julie Lau Chief Executive Officer, Hosting
Her web experience started in college with web site development in 1995 while she was getting her BA in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Mills College, and continued while assisting the Department of Immunology at the Mayo Clinic with their web site development needs. She now has a Masters of Science in Immunology from the Mayo Graduate School and continues her love for the Internet by making sure day to day operations of Engine Hosting flow smoothly.
Nevin Lyne Chief Technology Officer, Hosting
For almost 20 years, Nevin Lyne has worked with servers and networking in a number of technology sectors, with over 25 years of computer and online experience overall. His clients have included small businesses, to enterprise level institutions like the Mayo Clinic. In 1998, Nevin founded Gippy's Internet Solutions, a provider of hosting and web-based services and solutions for a very select group of clients. As the Director of Technology at Engine Hosting, Nevin brings a wealth of experience and a proven commitment to our clients.
Robin Sowell Tech Support Specialist
Robin first became involved with EllisLab back in the early days, using pMachine Pro as a basic CMS to power a personal site. With the advent of ExpressionEngine, her casual interest grew into a full blown obsession. She's now a fair hand at PHP and MySQL and enjoys nothing more than seeing what new tricks ExpressionEngine can be coaxed into performing. She took the tech support gig because she enjoys the teaching aspects and the EllisLab community. Also, she's hoping Rick will one day buy her a pony. It's good to hope.
Sue Crocker Tech Support Specialist
Mother of four, grandmother of five, Sue was born in Reno, Nevada in 1954, joined the Air Force in 1973, and had four children in five years shortly afterward. In 1988, she had a business called CompuTrain teaching people how to use MS-DOS and WordPerfect. A year later, she went to Microsoft to work in Product Support Services. Two years of phone support later, Sue became a Knowledge Base Lead for Microsoft Excel and Project. In August 2003, Sue left Cerner to work for herself doing custom coding for pMachine and later ExpressionEngine. So it's all Rick and Paul's fault.
Ingmar Greil Tech Support Specialist
Ingmar was born in Vienna, Austria where he continues to live to this day. Despite that, he is in possession of a passport and not afraid to use it. Consequently, he spent a year in France during his university studies. After law school, a short stint in a big law firm persuaded him to post-pone a legal career to pursue the computer field, another long-standing interest of his. Ingmar is married and has a young daughter. In his free time he enjoys reading, mountaineering, and skiing, for which his native Austria provides ample opportunity.