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Ken Auer is CEO, Founder and Master Craftsman of RoleModel Software, Inc. He has been active in the development of object oriented software since 1985. Though he has spent the majority of this time applying his craft, he has also played a variety of managment and mentoring roles. He has worked with various dialects of Smalltalk since 1985. In early 1996 he began applying his skills to Java.
Ken has always approached software as a craft, being part engineer and part artist, being able to recognize the need to switch hats (and being able to switch hats) at a moment's notice. He is not only considered a Master Software Craftsman by his employees and clients, but also recognized as a leader in the object technology community.
He was a founding member of the Hillside Group, and is a pioneer in software patterns. He is a member of the XP Leadership Group, and has helped influence the direction of XP since its early days (back when Kent Beck was just a yahoo in a funny shirt - wait, he still wears funny shirts). For many years, he had a vision of building a Craftsteam working in a Software Studio. With the advent of XP, that vision has been realized at RoleModel Software.
Prior to founding RoleModel Software, Mr. Auer served as Director of Applied Technology at Knowledge Systems Corporation (KSC) in Cary, N.C. KSC had been a leader in Object Technology concentrating primarily on Smalltalk consulting and training services. Mr. Auer joined KSC in 1988 as one of the initial five employees and had been a well-recognized force in its clients' success and KSC's growth. At the time of his departure, KSC had been named to the Inc. 500 five years in a row, and had grown to a $10M company.
Ken came to KSC from Paradyne Corporation where he was one of the key designers of a distributed, multi-user network management system that was built using Unix, C, Informix SQL, Objective-C, and Smalltalk. Earlier, he had applied his skills to other applications using UNIX and C as well as other technologies such as Touch Screen applications.
Mr. Auer received his B.S. in Computer Science with a minor in Management at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1984. | 