- Extracurricular activities:
- Guitar playing (I’m a Beatles fan); long-distance running (like 10Ks); swimming, including open-water swimming. Unfortunately the water around here (in the Bay Area) is too cold, but I do plan to train for a triathlon called “Escape From Alcatraz.” We’ll see.
Started programming at age:
6
Chose programming as a profession at age:
18, in university
Other professions considered:
Chemist. I love chemistry. I won the chemistry Olympiad in Argentina in high school. I had to compete at the school, state, and, eventually, country level. It was a great honor to win.
Topic of master’s thesis:
Aspect programming applied to distributed environments. Aspect programming is a relatively new paradigm, a powerful accessory to object programming. It’s still a research area in academia. Unfortunately it is not being used to its full potential by enterprises.
Potential of aspect programming:
Real. You can apply it in many more ways than people think. For example, design pattern implementation: with aspect programming you can have pattern libraries and reuse the pattern implementation, something that is not possible with object programming. Businesses are concerned about the level of complexity aspect programming introduces. I believe a good compromise can be found.
Other companies at which you’ve worked:
A five-person start-up, the main outsourced rent-an-engineer firm in Argentina, a technology firm in Australia, a top global software company. and a top five global bank.
Ways Medallia differs from previous jobs:
- Project focus: I can focus on one product, see how it grows, and see my contribution to it.
- Freedom to contribute my ideas: I am not told: ‘This is what you have to do, go execute it.’
- Impact of work: The first project I worked on was new interactive charts. It was presented at Medallia’s Best Practices Conference last September, and our clients completely loved it.
- Technology focus: I’ve worked for companies where technology was not the main point. Here it’s very different. The technology is the main point. My colleagues are much more worried about delivering a good product and focusing on details beyond what’s necessary to just satisfy the customer. That is not very easy to find.
Biggest challenge at Medallia:
Keeping up with the others and bringing ideas to improve the existing product.
