Toronto Agile Community Growing Agile locally

Gino Marckx - gino.marckx@xodiac.ca

In 2002, Gino started working with some of Belgium's most prominent Agile promoters. Very soon after that, he joined the Belgian XP/Agile User Group and became actively involved in promoting Agile techniques and practices, because he believes in their effectiveness. As a consultant he has shifted his practice to coaching individuals and organizations as they embrace Agile. Gino strongly relies on his passion for team dynamics, his experience in leadership positions, and his technical expertise. Gino is co-organizer of XPDays Benelux, and is actively involved as a participant and speaker in a number of Agile user groups in Belgium and Canada. He likes to spend his spare time with family and friends enjoying cycling, travel, art, music, poetry and bragging about the supreme quality of Belgian beer.

Jas Madhur - jasmadhur@sierrasystems.com

Jas is a Hi-Tech project manager and process guy; likes metrics and dashboards. He was part of the original RUP team, and then discovered "agile" as a good communication mechanism to help teams achieve results. He frets about estimating and how development teams effectively mesh with the business side and the enterprise in general. In his copious spare time he lectures on "Software Engineering" and "Software Architecture" for continuing education at the University of British Columbia (UBC). He has been a contributing author on a couple of RUP-based books, and a few papers at Agile-Vancouver conferences. In general he likes to work with multi-cultural, distributed teams.

Lawrence Ludlow - lawrence@intelliware.ca

Lawrence has been using Agile techniques since 2000 to help development teams deliver successful software solutions. Day to day he focuses both on helping project teams deliver better software faster and also project definition and planning. Lawrence’s specialty is using Stories for scoping and developing strategic development plans for projects of all types and sizes. Lawrence is a Professional Engineer with over 20 years experience in project management and delivery in multiple technical fields. Lawrence is very active in the local Agile Community, for the last 6 years he has run the XP/Agile Toronto Community Group and has presented at a number of meetings.

Michael Sahota - michael.sahota@agilitrix.com

Michael has a deep passion for personal and organizational success through improved work methods and has had a keen passion in Agile methodologies since reading about XP and Unit Testing in 2001.  Michael has been a Certified Scrum Master (CSM) since 2004 is a Certified Scrum Practitioner (CSP).  He is a speaker and participant in Agile/XP Toronto Community Group.  Michael brings 7 years of proven Agile leadership with V.P., Director and team lead roles as well as 14 years experience in software development.  Michael is currently working as an independent Agile coach in the Toronto area.

Shawn Phelps - s_d_phelps@yahoo.com

Shawn Phelps teaches business writing workshops at some of Canada’s biggest banks and corporations across Canada. Previously, she taught writing and editing in Centennial College’s graduate Book + Magazine Publishing Program. Her journalism experience includes stints as senior editor at Financial Post Business (then National Post Business) and editor-in-chief at HR Professional (Canada’s biggest HR magazine). Her articles have appeared in The Globe and Mail, National Post Business, Canadian Shareowner, Canadian Living, Homemaker’s and Outpost. She has also written and edited corporate publications. In her spare time, she runs a children’s education charity with projects in Laos. She is excited about Agile's emphasis on teamwork and communications.

Sergiu Ivasenco - sergiu.ivasenco@intelliware.ca

Sergiu started using Agile three years ago. At the time, he was working as a software developer on projects with complex business processes, and these projects had very high standards in terms of code quality and delivery. It was during this busy period that he developed a deep understanding of the importance of agile practices and, especially, how they were able to help him and his team perform at their best. Now, Sergiu participates daily in scrums, estimation meetings and uses pair programming to build quality software. He is also J2EE certified and passionate about Artificial Intelligence.

Thanou Thirakul - thanou@intelliware.ca

Thanou was introduced to Agile over 9 years ago, and quickly embraced it as a great way to meet clients' needs more easily. More personally, he saw how it could help him become a more productive developer and better communicator. It must have had some effect, as he has since created and facilitates a full-day Agile workshop for all new developers at Intelliware Development Inc. (where he also works as a senior developer). He is also a regular presenter at the XP Toronto Group's monthly meetings. Outside of the Agile world, his passions include helping children through the education charity he co-founded--Jai Dee Children's Fund--and helping the environment, as both a High Park steward and as lead for Intelliware's "Green Team."

Tom Alexandrowicz - tom@alexandrowicz.ca

Tom has been writing software for over three quarters of his life and became interested in Agile techniques as a way of improving the success rate and quality of the projects he works on. He's currently working in Toronto writing ERP software for large general contractors. He looks forward to a day when more companies in Toronto embrace Agile methodologies.

Regan Johnson - regan.v.johnson@gmail.com

Regan has been writing software since he was introduced to punch cards and Wang BASIC at the tender age of 13. He has spent most of his career working in telecom, and has worked in a number of positions throughout the software development life cycle. When he first heard about Agile methods, he had an "AHA!" moment, and has been looking for ways to use it to improve quality, cost, and time to market ever since. Currently, Regan is working in the banking industry, designing contact centre software.