Mik Kersten
CEO
Tasktop Technologies
Dr. Mik Kersten is the CEO of Tasktop and lead of the Eclipse Mylyn open source project. His goal is to create the collaborative infrastructure needed to connect knowledge workers in the new world of software delivery. At Tasktop, Mik drives the strategic direction of the company, Tasktop's key partnerships, and the culture of customer-focused innovation. Prior to Tasktop, Mik launched a series of open source tools that changed the way that software developers collaborate. At Xerox PARC, he created the first aspect-oriented development tools. He then created the task-focused interface during his PhD thesis and validated it with the release of Mylyn, now download 2M times per month. He has since created the Tasktop Dev and Sync product lines, as developer tool suites leading ISV partners including the SpringSource Tool Suite and Code2Cloud. Mik’s ideas on Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) and focus on the needs of the individual knowledge worker make him a popular keynote speaker, and he has been recognized with awards such as the JavaOne Rock Star and the IBM developerWorks Java top 10 writers of the decade. Mik’s entrepreneurial contributions have been acknowledged by the 2012 Business in Vancouver 40 under 40 and as a World Technology Awards finalist in the IT Software category. His software community involvement builds on his contributions as one of the most prolific committers to Eclipse, and now includes serving on the Eclipse Foundation’s Board of Directors as well as web service standards bodies.