Jim Weirich has been active in the software development world for over twenty-five years, with experience that ranges from real-time data acquisition for jet engine testing to image processing and web services for the financial industry. Although Jim has experience in C++ and Java/J2EE technologies, his real passion is about delivering business value in a timely and efficient manner, and one of the best ways of doing just that is leveraging the power of Ruby and Rails. Jim is very active in the Ruby community and has contributed to several Ruby projects, including the Rake build system and the RubyGems package software.

Scott was set to swear off computers forever and become a plumber when he found salvation in the warm embrace of Ruby. Soon thereafter, Scott became a member of the Ruby on Rails core team and had the privilege of contributing to many of the innovations that have made the framework what it is today. In addition to his obvious passion for Ruby and Rails, Scott has more recently developed an interest in creating mobile phone apps. Scott has been crafting code for over ten years, and since he joined EdgeCase he has helped successfully deliver solutions for clients such as SCRIP-SAFE International and AT&T Interactive.

Scott attended Ohio University where he studied Computer Science and Linguistics. He is also a U.S. Army veteran where he served as a test equipment engineer. Scott also has a very cool 6-year-old son, fancies himself a coffee connoisseur, aspires to soon run his first marathon, and loves to cook, brew beer, and play the drums (but he's starting to suspect that he's more fond of his drum playing than others are).

Paul is an Agile/Extreme Programming coach and coder who has worked with many teams to improve their process and 'Agility'. He has been practising Test-Driven Development since 2000, and other Agile practices since 2002. He is an active member of the local Ruby and Agile communities, and co-organiser of the Scottish Ruby Conference.

Paul currently codes mostly in Ruby, and Objective-C, and Java but is open minded about other languages. He has spoken on topics such as organising a regional conference, working with resistance, and acceptance and test-driven development at events including European Rails Conference, The Naked Agilist Conference, and as a guest lecturer at Glasgow Caledonian and Napier Universities.

Brian has been developing software professionally for nearly fourteen years and since 1999 has been applying agile practices, primarily Extreme Programming, to the projects he has been involved with. He has a particular interest in automated testing and developed Exactor (http://exactor.sourceforge.net) an open source tool for automated acceptance testing, which he continues to support.

Brian has worked in a variety of languages from COBOL and Visual Basic to Java and Ruby, with a smattering of C# and Objective-C. He has successfully led a variety of teams transitioning to Agile, and trained both developers and managers in Agile thinking and practice.

Brian has presented at conferences including the European Conference on Extreme Programming and the Agile Business Conference.

Alan Francis was the third independent signatory to the Agile Manifesto back in 2001 and has been involved in Extreme Programming culture since 1999.

Alan worked as an XP coach for ObjectMentor and ThoughtWorks and these days he mostly does Ruby and iPhone development with companies like EdgeCase.

Alan is a core contributor to Rails and RubyGems, and has spoken at RailsConf, RailsConf Europe, and RubyConf. He also organises the annual Scotland on Rails conference in Edinburgh, UK.

Joe is a father, speaker, author and developer. Before helping found EdgeCase, LLC, Joe was a developer with ThoughtWorks and spent much of his time working with large J2EE and .NET systems for Fortune 500 companies. He has spent his career as a developer, project manager, and everything in between. Joe is a passionate member of the open source community. He co-founded the Columbus Ruby Brigade and helped organize the Chicago Area Ruby Users Group. His passions are Agile Development in the Enterprise, Ruby, and demonstrating to the Fortune 500 the elegance and power of this incredible language.

Ken is a Technical Project manager / Development Generalist who has successfully delivered software solutions in the Healthcare, State Government, Online Retail, and Tourism industries. He has over 10 years of IT experience, excelling in roles where he can build strong customer relationships by understanding their business needs and by translating those needs into technical solutions. His core skills include: communication, relationship building, leadership, technical and relational problem solving, release management, and automation.

Prior to partnering in the formation of EdgeCase, Ken helped found the Columbus Ruby Brigade a burgeoning group of professionals who are passionate about the Ruby programming language. He began using Ruby over three years ago on the job in a wide range of applications. In addition to being passionate about Ruby, Ken is an agile software development process evangelist.

Jerry can be found spending most of his time in Photoshop or coding the front-end of your web applications. In addition to his world-class graphic and user interface design skills, he also has extensive experience developing e-commerce sites and squashing Internet Explorer bugs. Jerry is definitely a designer first, but he's also a talented programmer and enjoys getting his hands dirty in an application's codebase when needed.

He also enjoys photography and riding his bike around the mean streets of Columbus, so if you see him, please wave.

As the logician at EdgeCase, Adam is responsible for ensuring that logic trumps nonsense at all times. He comes to EdgeCase after fighting The Machine of corporate IT for many years, so he is no stranger to nonsense.

Adam's passions include creating intuitive user interfaces, mastering the Ruby Way, and showing the world that JavaScript can be powerful and elegant. He is also a husband, father, and all-around swell guy.

Monica's on and off love affair with computers began with a high school course in BASIC. After graduating from The Ohio State University, she found herself writing assembly language code for IBM. She left to pursue an MLS from Kent State, and has been a librarian, software trainer, Java developer, and PTA president.

Monica finally found her niche as a business analyst and project manager, and enjoys playing the middle role between the technical and business sides of things. She especially enjoys analyzing business requirements so that we build the right products for our clients. She's also thrilled to be part of a team that understands and embraces agile processes, and hopes to never again write 60-page formal requirements documents.

Marc comes from a deeply rooted background in Java but began his fascination with other JVM languages after discovering the power and elegance of Ruby not possible in his beloved Java language. He has been exploring new language paradigms ever since.

Marc now sets out to bring the power of the Ruby language to Java enterprises everywhere with the help of his trusty sidekick: JRuby, the Ruby implementation on the Java platform. Together, he and JRuby shall achieve unparalleled prosperity and business value for all who are willing to taste the glory of its sweet IT nectar.

He and his wife also bake cookies. Those are pretty tasty, too.

Leon has been bringing value to clients large and small for over ten years, and has a passion for technology, art and community. He has experience using technologies ranging from ASP.Net and C++, to Objective-C, Ajax, and Actionscript – and of course, Ruby and Rails. Leon also has high hopes for IronRuby and the much needed efficiency and agility that it has the potential to bring to the .Net world.

A believer in building strong communities, Leon spends time presenting on a wide variety of development topics at events and user groups in the region. He loves nothing more than to be around other developers, working together to create something unique and fresh; something that has never been done before. He believes there is no challenge that can't be overcome with passion and creativity. He spends his spare time with his wife, two beautiful girls, two sweet kitties, and his ukulele.

Mark is an Artisan at the EdgeCase office in Edinburgh, Scotland. He graduated from the University of Aberdeen in 2008 (MSc E-Commerce Technology). Since then, he has specialised in developing web applications using Ruby and Rails. Prior to joining EdgeCase, Mark worked with a number of clients developing Ruby applications across a variety of business domains.

Mark is passionate about programming, business process, and producing maintainable software that provides real business value.