I’m Rich Dudley, and I’m a Technical Evangelist

My name is Rich Dudley, and I'm one member of a new team here at ComponentOne-the Technical Evangelism team. Our job is to support the community and raise awareness of ComponentOne products. We'll be covering the country, visiting and presenting at user groups, Code Camps, Give Camps and conferences. We aren't salespeople-we'll be bringing solid, useful content featuring the latest .NET related technologies. I'm based in the home office in Pittsburgh, PA, and I currently handle everything west of the Rockies-ish. In addition to travelling, we'll be communicating via our blogs, Twitter and Facebook, webcasts and supporting the forums. We are your go-to people if you need ComponentOne resources, whether it's sales, support or sponsorships.

About Me

Here's my official ComponentOne bio:

Rich Dudley is a former scientist, but these days instead of studying organisms you'll find him working with Microsoft Visual Studio. With over 10 years of enterprise development experience, Rich has written articles and given talks relating to ASP.NET, SQL, XML, and Azure. He enjoys working with the latest technologies, and finding the potential to solve business problems. As a technical evangelist for ComponentOne, you'll find Rich at your local user group event or tradeshow or blogging online. His passion for development is evident in his work, whether it's a demonstration, talk, or sample project.

It's all true! I have an MS in Biological Sciences, and worked in medical research for many years. The Internet began as a means of scientific communication, and that's how I got into programming. I have 10 years experience in enterprise development, mainly working with ASP.NET and SQL Server for business intelligence. I'm also the co-author of an upcoming book from Packt Publishing on Microsoft Azure. I love working with technologies, and I look forward to bringing y'all the good stuff.

About ComponentOne

Although we're 23 years old, there's still sort of a new startup vibe around here. Maybe the easiest way is to give a short tour of the Pittsburgh headquarters (click on any image for a larger view).

The first thing you notice when you walk in the door is Lucite. Lots and lots of Lucite. All together we have over 5 bookcases laden with recent industry awards, and I have no idea how many more packed away. Most of these are Reader's Choice awards, which IMHO are the best-these are voted on by our users, and it means a lot to have won these.

We're the third floor of an old industrial building, with open ceilings, wonderful skylights and walls that are more than 80% window. Here's my view of the historic East Liberty Presbyterian Church.

I'm a fan of the windows and skylights, but the technical writers, well, not so much. Something about the glare on their monitors, so they took matters into their own hands with a couple of beach umbrellas.

The new guy brought donuts on Monday, his first day. Hooray new guy! They didn't last long. Wednesday was a breakfast to celebrate employment anniversaries, including the founder, who has been here 23 years. Thursday is a lunch to celebrate the new guy. Sometime this week he'll get some work done, but in the meantime, Starbucks is across the street.

That's one quick lap around the C1 mothership If you need ComponentOne resources, or would like to discuss speakers or sponsorship for your user group, drop me a line at richd@componentone.com. I look forward to seeing you on my travels!