Fred George, ThoughtWorks

Fred George is a consultant with over thirty-eight years experience in the industry including nearly twenty years doing object programming and eight years doing XP. He claims to have used over 60 languages in various projects over the years. A veteran of the IBM-Microsoft wars, Fred did early work in computer networking, LAN's, GUI's and objects for IBM. As an independent consultant from 1991-2003, he counted HP, Morgan-Stanley, American Express, IBM, and USAA among his clients. He gave the first XP experience report at OOPSLA about an embedded system done in Java, and has mentored many clients in use of objects in Java under an XP process. He has shared the stage at JavaOne with Martin Fowler, acting as his foil, and assisted in XP Immersion sessions with Kent Beck, Ron Jeffries, and Robert Martin. Fred spent a year as a visiting lecturer at N.C. State University teaching Java programming to over 800 undergraduates, with a generous dose of object design, patterns, and XP practices thrown in. Fred joined ThoughtWorks in 2003, delivering yet more projects using agile processes.With ThoughtWorks, he has done a ten-month assignment in India, four months of projects in China, and is now posted to their London office. He believes in objects, lean processes, fun in programming, and the client's successes. He holds a bachelors degree from N. C. State University in Computer Science, and a masters degree from MIT in the Management of Technology.