Geir Magnusson Jr. is the VP of Engineering at 10gen Inc, a "cloud" technology startup in NYC. He has a diverse background in both commercial technology development as well as open source. Commercially he's been a technology leader for companies such as Joost, Intel, IBM/Gluecode and Adeptra. He's a member of the Apache Software Foundation and currently serves on the Board of Directors.

He was instrumental in the founding of several open source Java projects, including Apache Harmony, an open source implementation of Java SE, Apache Geronimo, an open source implementation of Java EE, and others, such as Apache Velocity. In addition, he represents the Apache Software Foundation on the Executive Committee of the JCP where he's focused on making the JCP safe for open source implementations through better community transparency as well as IP clarity and fairness. He was an original recipient of a Google-O'Reilly Open Source Award recognizing his work in the Java ecosystem.

He speaks internationally on an array of subjects, and as a proud parent of two, is glad his conference schedule isn't like Rod's.

Mik Kersten is the President and CTO of Tasktop Technologies, lead of Mylyn and member of the Eclipse Architecture Council and Board of Directors.

While on the AspectJ team at Xerox PARC, Mik implemented the first aspect-oriented programming tool support. He then created Mylyn and the Task-Focused Interface during his PhD at the University of British Columbia. Mik likes building tools that offload our brains and make it easier to get creative work done.

Rod is the father of Spring. The Spring Framework open source project began in February 2003, based on the Interface21 framework published with Rod's best-selling Expert One-on-One J2EE Design and Development.

Rod is one of the world's leading authorities on Java and J2EE development. He is a best-selling author, experienced consultant, and open source developer, as well as a popular conference speaker.

Rod's best-selling Expert One-on-One J2EE Design and Development (2002) was one of the most influential books ever published on J2EE. 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 extensive experience as a consultant in a wide range of industries: principally, finance, media and insurance. He has specialized in server-side Java development since 1996. Prior to that, he worked mainly in C and C++. His experience as a consultant 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, which have delivered very poor results for stakeholders.

Rod is the founder of the Spring Framework, which began from code published with Expert One-on-One J2EE Design and Development. Along with Juergen Hoeller, he continues to lead the development of Spring.

He regularly speaks at conferences in the US, Europe and Asia, including the ServerSide Symposium (2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006), JavaPolis (Europe's leading Java conference) in 2004 and 2005, JavaZone (2004 and 2005) and JAOO (2004). He was awarded a prize for giving one of the top 20 presentations (by evaluation) at JavaOne in 2005, and delivered keynotes at the JavaWorld conference in Tokyo, June, 2005, the JAX conference in Munich (October, 2005) and the Spring Experience conference in Bal Harbour, Florida, in December 2005.

Rod serves in the JCP on the Expert Groups defining the Servlet 2.4 and JDO 2.0 specifications. His status as a leader in the Java community has been recognized through his invitation to Sun's Java Champions program. Rod continues to be actively involved in client projects at Interface21, as well as Spring development, writing and evangelism.

Prior to founding MuleSource, Ross Mason was Chief Executive Officer of SymphonySoft Limited, an EU-based company providing services and support for large-scale integration projects.

Previously, Mason was Lead Architect for RaboBank and played a key role in developing one of the first large-scale ESB implementations in 2002. Mason has also worked with NatWest Bank, Credit Suisse and UBS.

Mason founded the open source Mule http://mule.mulesource.org R project in 2003. Frustrated by integration "donkey work," Ross set out to create a new platform that emphasized ease of development and re-use of components. He started the Mule project to bring a modern approach, one of assembly, rather than repetitive coding, to developers worldwide.

Mason holds a BS (Hons) in Computer Science from Bristol, UK.