Rod Johnson, Creator of Spring

Rod Johnson is hot right now. The creator of Spring is about to sell his life's work, Springsource, to WMware. Price: $420 mill.

Rod is a thought leader on open source, as well as a popular speaker at conferences and symposia around the world. Spring was based on the code published with Rod's best-selling Expert One-on-One J2EE Design and Development (2002). This book was one of the most influential books ever published on J2EE and the sequel, J2EE without EJB (July 2004, with Juergen Hoeller), has proven almost equally significant, establishing a comprehensive vision for lightweight, post-EJB J2EE development.

Rod has specialized in server-side Java since 1996 across a wide range of industries. His hands-on experience has led him to see problems from a client's perspective as well as a technology perspective, and has driven his influential criticism of bloated, inefficient, orthodox approaches to J2EE architecture.

Rod is a member of the Java Community Process (JCP) Executive Committee (EC). EC members guide the evolution of the Java technologies by approving and voting on all technology proposals. They are also responsible for defining the JCP's rules of governance and the legal agreement between members and the organization.

Rod holds a BA with Honors in Computer Science, Mathematics and Musicology as well as a Phd from the University of Sydney.