Management
Of geeks. By geeks. For geeks.
Jonathan Lehr, President
Jonathan is a leading expert in Objective-C and Java programming, with well over a decade's experience with Apple's Cocoa frameworks, including hands-on software development on NEXTSTEP, OpenStep, Mac OS X, and iPhone OS, as well as WebObjects and other Java EE web frameworks. He has led numerous successful software projects for Fortune 500 and Federal Government customers. His enthusiasm for Objective-C and Cocoa is said to be contagious.
Jonathan has personally trained and mentored hundreds of Objective-C and Java developers, and has authored more than a dozen courses on relevant topics. His classes have garnered rave reviews from such notable companies as Apple, Adobe, Genentech, NASA, Symantec, Sybase, Raytheon, Yahoo! and IBM, as well as from such renowned educational institutions as Harvard and MIT.
Jonathan has also co-authored two well-regarded books on Java web frameworks: Jakarta Pitfalls (2004, Wiley), and Mastering JavaServer Faces (2005, Wiley), and he is an occasional speaker at user group meetings and industry events.
Kathryn Lehr, Registrar
Kathryn is usually the first voice people hear when they contact About Objects. With an extensive background in seminar management, she brings a deft touch to all phases of the registration process. And with her engaging personal touch, she helps ease the wrinkles when questions or problems arise.
Team Members
Instructors and Curriculum Developers
The brief biographies below give highlights on some of the outstanding instructors and course developers on the About Objects team.
Michael Sanford
Michael is well known as the founder and President of flipside5, developer of some of the world's most popular iPhone games. His intimate familiarity of Objective-C and the Cocoa frameworks dates all the way back to his experience with NEXTSTEP in the early Nineties.
In all, Michael has over twenty years of real-world enterprise computing experience and implementing production-grade applications with leading edge technologies including Java, Objective-C and open source frameworks. Mike is also noted as a co-founder of InLine Software, where he oversaw the development of Rational Software's J2EE developer tool product line, and more recently, as Chief Software Architect for a division of a Fortune 500 financial company
Julio Barros
Julio is a highly regarded consultant and freelance programmer with a real penchant for developer training. Julio has been creating iPhone software since the very first release of the iPhone SDK, and has helped develop a variety of commercial products in Objective-C, Java, C and C++ over the course of a nearly 20 year career.
Julio holds a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science from George Mason University, and a Master's degree in Computer Science from the University of Virginia.
Aaron Morse
Aaron learned the fundamentals of programming on an Apple II in the early 1980s. He began developing with Objective-C in 1989 on the NeXT Computer—the environment that ultimately became OS X and Cocoa. Through much of the 1990's Aaron was a Consulting Engineer for enterprise clients of both Apple and NeXT. Using WebObjects middleware, Aaron developed some of the first, web-based, e-commerce systems, including early versions of The Sharper Image's web catalog and the components of the original Apple Store.
Aaron began iPhone development soon after the announcement of the iPhone SDK, and he's been offering iPhone consulting services since prior to the launch of the App Store.
Aaron jointly manages Catapult Consulting, providing iPhone development services, with his partners Jazon Burnell and Dawn Morse. Their recent hit iPhone game Trenches rose to the #1 Hot New App and the #3 paid app on the iTunes App Store.
Jazon Burnell
Jazon began developing his first iPhone apps several months before the iPhone SDK was announced, and he's been devoted to iPhone development ever since. He was one of the first individuals accepted to the iPhone Developer's Program and was among the select few to have multiple apps available at the App Store's initial launch.
With a focus on game development as well as user interface development, Jazon has been the lead developer on multiple App Store top five apps, including SuperBall, TapDefense and most recently Trenches.
Jazon is a graduate of the University of Alaska, Anchorage, where he received his Bachelor's degree in Computer Science.
Carl Lindberg
Carl Lindberg has been contributing to open source since before there was a name for it, starting with the MiscKit project, a library of Objective C classes for the NeXT platform. He is a committer to the Rubicode project, which provides Mac OS X tools and utilities written in Objective-C.
For more than half a decade, Carl has provided technical leadership to Java EE projects at Fannie Mae. Prior to that he was a consultant to MCI, where he led a large and successful, multi-year, mission-critical project written in Objective-C on the NEXTSTEP platform.
Ajay Batish
Ajay Batish has been writing software for the web for over fourteen years using a variety of technologies–including Objective C, WebObjects, Java EE, and Java open source frameworks–initially at Apple and Delliotte, and later as an independent consultant for VeriSign, Standard & Poors, Priceline, Fannie Mae, and other high-profile clients. Ajay is particularly noted for his contributions as a co-founder of NeoKinetic Systems, Inc., where he helped design Resonance, the company's flagship syndication engine, used today in major Fortune 500 installations.
Shailesh Patel
Shailesh Patel has developed a reputation as an outstanding developer over his ten year career, bringing to bear his expertise in Unix and C, Java EE, open source, and Mac OS X in building high quality production systems for such major companies as IBM, Bell Atlantic, and Fannie Mae, The distributed content delivery system he designed for LogicTier delivered content to all the company's customer installations, including major websites for venues such as the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics. Shailesh holds a Master's degree in Information Science & Technology from Johns Hopkins University.
