Ben Alex, SpringSource

Ben Alex is a respected technologist, entrepreneur and speaker. Ben has been working professionally in software since 1995. The software project Ben is most widely known for is Spring Security, which he founded in 2003 and continues to lead at SpringSource. Spring Security is a popular, open-source security framework that is used in numerous government, banking and military installations. Whilst written in Java, the success of Spring Security has seen its architecture ported to other platforms such as Microsoft .NET and Python. Ben's career history also includes other accomplishments in software development and business. Most recently, Ben led the establishment and exponential growth of SpringSource's operations in Asia-Pacific. Before that he founded and grew a successful Australian software company, Acegi Technology Pty Limited. In his spare time, Ben has also been a director and advisor to businesses in industries as diverse as business services, intellectual property licensing and ecommerce. In recent years Ben has presented at technology conferences including The Spring Experience (2005, 2006, and 2007), SpringOne (2005 and 2006) , JavaOne (2008) and The Server Side Java Symposium (2007 and 2008). Ben is also a regular guest presenter at user groups across the world, with recent appearances in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Canberra, Perth, Singapore, Wellington, Auckland and Stockholm. He also authored the security chapter of the Wiley book, "Professional J2EE Development with Spring Framework."