Willy[-Peter] Schaub - Who am I?

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I am often asked to create a biography for sessions, events, meetings and other reasons, finding myself scrambling for facts and doing it over and over and over again … now why aim for re-use other than with software?!?

For the sake of re-use, visibility and primarily my own benefit  … I can refer to this post in future :) … here is a brief introduction. Slide2I am re-using a lot of the bio that my former commander in chief, Peter Searle, created for one of the three books we wrote. Here is a slightly updated quote (changes indicated in italic) of the bio that Peter submitted for one of our books:

“Bio presented by Peter Searle …
Willy started his information technology (fancy term for bits and bytes) career in the early 1980’s and the “Swiss” working style and strive for quality embedded in the first years working for Burroughs, at the Swiss Banking Corporation, has created a foundation that has strengthened over the years.

The quest for quality and especially simplicity has remained a core objective and will continue to fuel his passion for successful business and technology solutions for many, many years to come. According to Peter Searle, Director of BB&D, Willy is at worst, passionate about technology and at best, a technological guru. At the time of publishing, Willy-Peter was responsible for the research of new Microsoft technologies, developer readiness, mentorship, creation of an internal knowledgebase, sharing of experience and good practices within the BB&D and South-African community. Documenting the experiences and best practices in MTUPress books such as ".NET Enterprise Solutions ... Best Practices for the Connoisseur", ".NET Enterprise Solutions ... Interoperability for the Connoisseur" and “Software Engineers on their way to Pluto” has become a hobby shared with his colleagues.

Varied and extreme interests include scuba diving, cycling, science fiction, Star Wars, astronomy (his project code names give this one away) and most importantly his family. Scuba diving, wreck exploration and shark observation is a passion he shares with his wife and sons … according to Willy diving must be the closest thing to spacewalks, with the exception that there are no sharks to admire in space.”

PC240103 To the right is the family clan. On the left our dear friend Brian, Thorsten in the front, Carola and Jacques in the middle, with Alexander and I hiding in the back. Picture was taken in Dullstroom, South-Africa, where we celebrated our last Christmas (for the time being) under the African stars.

What makes me tick?

  • Most importantly my family, whereby the pursuit of all the hobbies of my three sons is very challenging … but keeps me young at heart.
  • Technology … I regard the endless innovations in the field of information technology (IT) as a blessing, because it keeps us challenged, growing and able to enjoy the biggest and most exciting playpen in the world. I had and am having “fun” on most days in my career, whereby the words monotony, boredom and stagnation do not exist in IT.
  • Sharing and mentoring … I love to share information, collaborate with peers and create guidance that allows others to get to grips with technology more effectively. I had the privilege of co-authoring three books “.Net Enterprise Solutions … Best Practices for the Connoisseur”, “.NET Enterprise Solutions … Interoperability for the Connoisseur” and “Software Engineers on their way to Pluto” … all of are available from SA Architect here.
  • Nature … to the anguish of some of my family members I love to be out in the nature, walking and walking and walking in the mountains, scuba diving wherever there is water, exploring shipwrecks, caverns and admiring every shark I have the privilege of encountering in the blue paradise.

I am now a proud team member of Bijan’s VSTS Core Rangers, collaborating with experts from all walks of life, i.e. the VSTS product group, research teams, Microsoft Most valued Professionals (MVPs), community leads and many, many more in predominantly the Visual Studio Team System (VSTS) sandbox at this stage. The world of Microsoft can be daunting, as there are many bright and passionate people wandering around, but with tenacity, commitment and enthusiasm being a few of my traits, I will make this new home a “happy and fun” home as well q;-)