Mark is a software developer and agile coach with over 20 years of experience. His passion is teaching Extreme Programming (XP) practices in small groups and promoting a culture of trust through continuous team learning. This includes a focus on the relationships the team maintains with the users of the system as well as any other individuals that are part of the delivery process.

He started his career working for a Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) Level 5 organization and later worked for an XP organization. Having experienced these two significantly different approaches has allowed Mark to deeply understand their trade-offs. This has resulted in a deep appreciation for importance of code readability, frequent user feedback, and runtime performance to produce simplified solutions.

Mark has also been a functional team lead as well as a volleyball tournament director. Both of these roles have influenced his overall approach to managing relationships while satisfying diverse operational challenges.

He is an active member of the PhillyXP user group and is a certified Professional Scrum Developer and Professional Scrum Master. Mark is a lifetime learner through a combination of reading, podcasts and a regular practice of meditation.

Mark received his Bachelor of Arts in Computer Science from Susquehanna University. He lives in the suburbs of Philadelphia with his wife and kids. He enjoys biking, volleyball, and spending time outdoors.