Mike is a software engineer, agile coach, and technical instructor dedicated to discovering and delivering customer value. He knows that effective software development is a team sport powered by close collaboration, cross-functional teams, iterative development, and a relentless pursuit of simplicity. Mike loves to share knowledge and help others grow their craft.

Mike’s breadth of experience has informed his perspective. He has served many roles – Technical Lead, Architect, Product Owner, Development Manager – in numerous companies from startups to a multi-billion dollar corporation. He has delivered solutions in many industries including health care, banking, energy, credit scoring, factory automation, insurance, image processing, desktop publishing, web application frameworks, and government.

Originally trained as a mechanical engineer, Mike’s work on an innovative wind turbine design team was the basis of his Master of Engineering at UC Berkeley creating real-time microprocessor-based control systems. Other formative experiences include: developing factory automation software used by Daimler-Benz, working with Microsoft’s first employee, practicing XP at two companies in the late 90s, being on the team that created a bi-directional Internet messaging framework that was an early precursor of AJAX.

For 5 years, Mike taught introductory and advanced C++ classes at UC Berkeley Extension and Adobe. He taught C#, .NET, and web service courses at UC Santa Cruz Extension. Mike also developed and taught in-house workshops on agile, extreme programming, unit testing, design patterns, SOLID object-oriented design principles, lean coffee, and pair programming.

Mike has regularly presented at California Agile conferences, including co-presenting Modern Agile with Heidi Helfand (author of Dynamic Reteaming). He tweets technical tidbits from @rizzi.

Mike currently lives in Oakland, California with his partner Terri and their 13-year-old son. He volunteers at the local community radio station, managing 125 people, and has trained over 3000 aspiring DJs. He is a cactus, succulent and carnivorous plant enthusiast. Mike grows his own vegetables and loves to share his culinary creations.