Authors
Michael Shepard
Michael Shepard has been working with computers since the early '80s, starting with an Apple II in school and a Commodore 64 at home. He started working in the IT industry in 1989 and has been working full-time since 1997. He has been working at Jack Henry & Associates, Inc. since 2000. His focus has changed over the years from being a database application developer to a DBA, an application admin, and is now a solutions architect. In his years as a DBA, he found PowerShell to be a critical component in creating the automation required to keep up with a growing set of servers and applications. He is active in the PowerShell community at Stack Overflow and projects at CodePlex. He has been blogging about PowerShell since 2009 at http://powershellstation.com.
Chendrayan Venkatesan
Chendrayan Venkatesan (Chen V) is a SharePoint IT Professional who has worked for the Information, Computer and Technology industry since 2005. Chen V started his career as Windows XP technical support engineer and became a SharePoint IT Pro in the year 2007. He mainly focuses on automating Microsoft Technologies such as SharePoint, LYNC, and Exchange. He was awarded the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) in 2014. He speaks on Windows PowerShell, SharePoint Servers, Content Management, and IT Process Automations. He blogs in http://chen.about-powershell.com and is mentoring three IT professionals in PowerShell. He is a TechNet Wiki addict and has introduced Windows PowerShell as a category in the TechNet Wiki Guru award competition. To connect with Chen V you can visit his web site http://about-powershell.com or choose your favourite social media twitter @ChendrayanV or LinkedIn.
Sherif Talaat
Sherif Talaat is a young computer science addict. He holds many technology certificates. Sherif has been working in the ICT industry since 2005. He has worked on Microsoft's core infrastructure platforms and solutions with a focus on the cloud and data center management, IT Process Automation (ITPA), and scripting techniques.
Sherif is one of the early adopters of Windows PowerShell in the Middle East and Africa. He speaks about Windows PowerShell at technical events and user groups gatherings. He is also the founder of the Egypt PowerShell User Group and the author of the first and only Arabic PowerShell blog.
He has been awarded the Egyptian MCIT Shield and has won the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) award for PowerShell seven times in a row since 2009. He is also the author of three different Windows PowerShell titles for IT professionals and developers. Last but not least, he is also a TED conference speaker.
You can follow him on Twitter @SherifTalaat.
Brenton J.W. Blawat
Brenton J.W. Blawat is an entrepreneur, strategic technical advisor, author, and enterprise architect, who has a passion for the procurement of technology in profit-based organizations. He is business-centric and technology-minded. Brenton has many years of experience in bridging the gap between technical staff and decision-makers in several organizations. He takes pride in his ability to effectively communicate with a diverse audience and provide strategic direction for large and small organizations alike.
In 2013, Brenton authored his first book, PowerShell 3.0 WMI Starter, Packt Publishing. In March 2015, he authored his second book Mastering Windows PowerShell Scripting, Packt Publishing.
Brenton currently works at CDW as an Enterprise Architect in strategic solutions and services. CDW is a leading multibrand technology solutions provider in the fields of business, government, education, and healthcare. A Fortune 500 company, it was founded in 1984 and employs approximately 7,200 coworkers. In 2016, the company generated net sales of more than $13.0 billion.
His current specialisation sits on top of 15 years experience spread across (predominantly Microsoft) systems, (Juniper and Cisco) networking, and security.
