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). Much of his early experience with XP was captured in the Addison-Wesley book "Extreme Programming Applied: Playing to Win" which he co-authored with Roy Miller. 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.