Expression Community Site Team

Instead of finding ways to make computers more like humans, Kirupa spends most of his time trying to make humans more like computers. For his sins, he spent four years at MIT where he graduated with a degree in Computer Science in 2007. Having enjoyed his internship experience at Microsoft a year earlier, he and his computer set sail for the Emerald City to join the Expression Blend team as a Program Manager.

In his spare time, besides writing bios of himself in 3rd person, Kirupa hangs out at kirupa.com where he writes technical articles covering Flash, Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), and other technologies.

Howdy! I’m a Program Manager for user experience features on the Expression, MSDN, and TechNet sites, after having spent my earlier years with Microsoft in a software development role for MSDN, Visual Studio and Microsoft.com. Attracted to the power of digital multimedia in the early 1990s, I broke away from marketing in the entertainment industry to focus on the “inter-tubes” and all that it has had to offer. Enabling talented and creative people is my passion!

When I’m not hailing the future that is SilverLight and ASP.NET, or crunching code in C# and JavaScript, I spend time playing progressive music with some of the many friends that I’ve met in my travels.

I’m the Product Unit Manager for Expression Web at Microsoft, guiding the Development, Test and Program Management groups. I’ve been kicking around the graphics, multimedia and Internet industries for some years. I was the original product manager for Adobe Photoshop, and eventually managed Product Marketing for all of Adobe’s Macintosh graphics applications, including Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere, Dimensions and Streamline.

I joined Fractal Design Corporation in 1994 as its VP of Marketing, where I launched the first version of Expression, and did a stint as VP of Product Marketing for Macromedia’s Multimedia and Internet products group, where I helped develop the product strategy for Dreamweaver. I also helped launch one of the first photo communities at Zing.com in 1998.

In 1999 I started Halfbrain.com, the first company to build and launch a browser-based spreadsheet and presentation program—over 6 years before Google’s initiative. Most recently, I worked at Autodesk, overseeing Product Management for their GIS and Civil Engineering products.

I’m the Site Manager for a number of MSDN developer centers and the platform owner for http://expression.microsoft.com/.

I began my career in computers and design in 1993 when hired to do exploded illustrations for a peripheral company (I’d spent 10 years prior working with handicapped children and SCUBA instruction…not combined). Soon thereafter I started working with Digital Planet doing the very first movie industry websites and interactive press kits using Macromedia Director. In early 1995 I moved to Hawaii where I started working for the island’s largest ISP as a single-man web shop and ultimately worked up to the webmaster role where I was responsible for all of our web properties and several high-powered (for the time) SGI severs running IRIX.

In 1996 we moved to Seattle where I quickly began developing websites for Microsoft. The company I worked for did a lot of early adoption of applications like visual studio, Future Splash (became Flash) and Homesite… I left in 1999 to start my own firm (The WebForge LLC) and continued as a Web development shop vending for Microsoft and others for the next five years. As with all good things, I finally opted to roll my business into a larger firm and get some needed time off. After a few years with small and large firms (Interactive Director for MRM Worldwide comes to mind), I landed at Microsoft in what I think is the perfect job.

I currently lead the Server and Tools Online Front Edge Development Team, responsible for creating, maintaining and inventing new ways to make everyone on this page’s life easier. My professional career started at a very young age when I started playing with HyperCard™ in the high school’s computer lab back in 1988. That led to partnerships with teachers, school administrators and eventually Apple. I started to tour schools, and essentially became a poster boy for Apple’s education and multimedia endeavors.

The exposure led me to my first “real” job at an interactive design agency. In college, I studied Computer Science and moved from Apple’s to NeXT to Sun. After graduating, I moved to the great Northwest and adopted the Windows platform.

I was an All American swimmer in College, and I have many interests in the “physical activity” department. I’m apparently very “loud” and I like prime numbers, video games and puzzles. 

Hi - I’m Tiffany, the resident right-brained marketeer on the team. In my mind, a powerful platform is a killer shoe…but I’m getting in touch with my left brain at Microsoft. I get inspired thinking about how to communicate and connect with people in new, unexpected ways. I also studied art history in college and love the fact there’s always a “why” behind color, shape and image. I started out working at design agencies, and got curious about technology thanks to clients from Cisco, Sun and Apple.

Integrating my desire to craft stories with both text and visuals (and be employable…will work to travel) became marketing, and I’ve had the good fortune of developing communications, campaigns and visual identities for a few software companies, including Anark and Xaffire. Now I’m helping tell the Expression and Silverlight stories and hope this site allows more people to get creative with the tools (and, um, platform) plus get inspired by their potential. I know I am.

I have a propensity for quoting both NPR and 80s movies, and frequently daydream about living in Paris. I also love reading Gourmet magazine with a big mug of tea, prefer talking to email and advocate sequins in the workplace whenever possible.

Howdy! My name is Al Valvano, and I lead the team responsible for the global technical sites at Microsoft, including MSDN, TechNet & now the Expression community site.

I have nearly 15 years (gulp!) experience in media, publishing & the web. I joined the web team here at Microsoft about a year ago; just prior, I led the Microsoft Certification program where we worked for several years on an overhaul of the program to be more useful & valuable for our customers’ career & skills development. Before Microsoft, I was as an editor, writer & publisher on technology for various publishing houses, including Macmillan & Pearson. My area of focus has always been developer, IT professional & the web design community. I spent the formative part of my publishing career in the 90s working with the emerging web in New Riders, Adobe Press, Cisco Press & Peachpit Press, having the pleasure of working with authors like Jakob Neilson, Lynda Weinman, Scott Kelby, Hilman Curtis, and many many others.

When I am not working, I have fake-ninja fights with my boy, Avery, tickle fights with my daughter, Natalia, and new adventures in life with my amazing wife, Julie. I’m a gadget head, a lover of indie rock, and a voracious reader. I’m trying hard to get faster & stronger through running, biking, & snowboarding.

I am the Creative Lead for Microsoft MSDN, Expression, and TechNet. I began my creative journey about the same time terms like ‘online’ and ‘dot com’ began to emerge into our common vernacular. A former school mate of mine was sitting on the living room floor of his shared rental house banging out HTML for his ‘web site’ when the notion of being a part of this new industry completely consumed me. From then on it’s been a life’s pursuit to bring problem solving design solutions to the online world.

My career began in online entertainment and freelance consulting. From there it was on to the digital imaging industry with PhotoDisc, and later Getty Images. After that came the now ubiquitous start-up story. This one had a happy ending as the company, ShareBuilder, was ultimately acquired by ING Group. I’m proud of the role I played in helping bring an online presence to these companies.

My career with Microsoft began at the turn of the century with a stint in consulting before moving on to the IT Pro, Developer, and Designer space where I now find that this notion of bringing problem solving design solutions to the online world more exciting and rewarding than ever.