Staff
At the DaVinci Institute, we have the luxury of surrounding ourselves with some amazing talent. Here are a few of the key Ruby on Rails specialists who are working overtime to make the DaVinci Coders Ruby on Rails Training Program happen.
In addition to the talented people below, each student will be paired with an industry mentor to help guide them through their training process.
Instructors
DANIEL STUTZMAN, Senior Ruby on Rails Instructor - Daniel is a freelance software developer in Boulder, CO. His nine years of professional experience include five years with Ruby on Rails for Rosetta Stone and Quick Left. This year he has coached novice programmers at prior DaVinci Coders sessions and presented an intro to Ruby workshop at Rocky Mountain Ruby conference.
JASON NOBLE, Senior Ruby on Rails Instructor – Jason is a Senior Software Engineer that has worked with Ruby and Ruby on Rails technologies for the last six years. He started professional life in 2000 with a systems engineering background. His first Rails website automated systems engineering tasks. He then went on to build websites dealing with cable TV content systems, and helping people find their next place to live. He moved to Colorado in March 2011, to work with Pivotal Labs in Boulder and currently works in the smart energy sector.While living in Atlanta GA, Jason taught a free intro to Ruby on Rails course which was offered as part of the Atlanta Ruby User Group. Over 100 students took this class, and a large majority of those graduates are now working with Ruby on Rails. He currently helps with the RailsBridge classes taught in the Denver Metro area, and mentors several aspiring software engineers.
Jason is a top 45 contributor (out of over 2800+ contributors) to the Ruby on Rails framework and has spent a lot of time helping to write the Ruby on Rails Guides, which are freely available to the public. He also has contributed to numerous other open source projects including the Pivotal Tracker gem and omniauth-github.
Jim Ray, Ruby on Rails Instructional Advisor - Jim is a seasoned veteran of software development, specializing in Ruby on Rails. He brings with him an unusual energy and passion for working with beginner-based programmers.
Jim’s experiences include everything from working on a TechStars company – BlipSnips, to large corporate experience with Lexis Nexis, to fast moving small businesses like LinuxGlobe, Jabber, MosaicGlobe, and ID Watchdog, to private contracting.
Peter Jones, Ruby on Rails Instructional Advisor - Peter is passionate about helping others succeed. With more than 18 years of professional experience as a software developer, mentor, and manager, he brings a wealth of experience to the classroom. He has been a regular contributor to the open source community with some of his software being used by organizations such as FedEx and NASA.
Shortly after he began using Ruby on Rails in 2005 Peter started a company focused on writing web applications. He continually contributes to the Rails community through code, lectures, and workshops.
His approach to teaching is highly interactive and approachable. Intellectual banter as well as Star Wars geekery are always welcome in his classroom.
Executive Team
Thomas Frey – As the Executive Director and Senior Futurist at the DaVinci Institute, he works closely with his Board of Visionaries to develop original research studies, which enables him to speak on unusual topics, translating trends into unique opportunities.
As part of the celebrity speaking circuit, Tom continually pushes the envelope of understanding, creating fascinating images of the world to come. His keynote talks on futurist topics have captivated people ranging from high level government officials to executives in Fortune 500 companies.
Because of his work inspiring inventors and other revolutionary thinkers, the Boulder Daily Camera has referred to him as the “Father of Invention”. The Denver Post and Seattle Post Intelligence have referred to him as the “Dean of Futurists”.
Before launching the DaVinci Institute, Tom spent 15 years at IBM as an engineer and designer where he received over 270 awards, more than any other IBM engineer. He is also a past member of the Triple Nine Society (High I.Q. society over 99.9 percentile).
Tom is the author of the 2011 book “Communicating with the Future” and has written hundreds of articles that have been published in publications around the world. He was recently named the Innovations Editor at The Futurist Magazine.
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Deb Frey- Deb is the Vice President of the DaVinci Institute with responsibility for the company’s Global Design and New Business Development. In this role, she continues to advance the corporate initiative, which is, as Deb puts it, “Creating the future we all want for our children.” As DaVinci Institute’s Vice President, Deb helps to define the key projects and initiatives for resource commitment by keeping her finger on the pulse of the local social climate while priding herself in understanding and embracing a talented and diverse world-wide community.
Deb is a social media expert which means that in addition to paying attention to her different networks, she avidly focuses on the latest trends in research, news reviews, topical studies, and all the “crazy stuff” ignored by mainstream media. In addition to her executive duties, Deb helps to systematize the many faces of DaVinci Institute including DaVinci Coders and DaVinci Inventor Showcase. Innovative and inventive her staff will tell you, “She sparkles”.
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Tom Snyder, Instructional Advisor - Having taught an ongoing stream of corporate talent ranging from IBM to Staples, Tom has a well-established track record of being the go-to guy for training the best and brightest.
He is an excellent team builder with polished presentation skills, as well as international and cross industry experience with achievements in large-scale and start-up environments.
As a serial entrepreneur, Tom not only knows how to design and write the code, but also how to develop business strategies that turn a good idea into a cash-generating revenue streams.
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Karl Dakin is the Under Secretary for Entrepreneurship at the Institute and President of DaVinci Quest. Previously he was the Principal at Karl Dakin LLC, a boutique law firm specializing in angel investment and business incubation. In this capacity he provided legal representation for emerging businesses, educational institutions, trade organizations and professional associations in a variety of legal matters including licensing, contracts, employment, intellectual property, litigation and dispute resolution on state, national and international transactions.
Mr. Dakin is the co-author of book: Technology Transfer: Financing and Commercializing the High Tech Product or Service–From Research to Roll Out. Published in 1991 by Probus Publishing Ltd., the book became widely adopted as a primer on the subject of technology transfer. From 1995 through 1997, Mr. Dakin wrote the SoftLaw column for the IEEE Journal on Software.
Within the last five years, Mr. Dakin has participated in raising over $15 million in angel funding and grants for several small businesses and non-profit organizations.
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Teresa Rabenberg Grobecker is an independent broker specializing in benefits, insurance, asset management and tax and estate strategy planning. She specializes in generational wealth building and transfer strategies through estate planning, primarily helping families with real estate portfolios and business owners with succession planning and advanced retirement planning. Most of her business is referred by attorneys, CPAs and financial advisers. She works closely with her clients to develop strategies around protection and tax advantages to both preserve wealth and protect assets.
Teresa is also a university professor and lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband Steve and their two sons.
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Tom Franklin is Under Secretary for Intellectual Property for DaVinci Institute and integral member of the operations team. Besides regularly speaking at events, Tom donates his time to advise the Institute on Intellectual Property (IP) legal issues. He can be found at many Institute events giving attendees advice on patent and trademark issues and regularly contributing to the planning and long term vision of the Institute.
Tom is a Patent Attorney with the Denver office of Townsend and Townsend and Crew, the oldest and largest group of IP attorneys in the West. He frequently speaks to groups around the country on the importance of protecting IP. Tom’s technical background is in electronics and software and his IP practice focuses on high-tech companies wanting to sensibly protect their IP.
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Darby Frey is the Chief Technical Officer at DaVinci Institute. Besides maintaining the office network and the bank of DaVinci Institute-owned servers, he spends his time researching emerging Internet technologies and business trends.
Darby brings with him a vast experience as a Systems Developer for Electricshoes Productions in designing computer networks, configuring hardware, programming web interfaces, and in developing e-commerce systems. His extensive technical background gives him unusually good insight into the intricacies of the emerging technologies. Darby currently works at Groupon.
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ground and makes them cooperative.
Andrew has a background in graphic design, technical writing, marketing, health care and magazine publishing, but spent over 12 years as owner of a music, gift and novelty store in Wisconsin before moving to Colorado in the summer of 2011. In the summer of 2012 Andrew moved back to Wisconsin and works remotely from there.
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Nancy Slattery is Operations Manager at The Vault and Executive Assistant to Vice President Deb Frey. Equipped with a long and impressive Guest Service background, Nancy exceeds the Institute’s standards for serving the community as a non-profit organization intent on making a difference worldwide.
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