To provide a clear focus for each area the role of program chair for Agile2010 will be expanded to be a committee. The following outstanding individuals have agreed to lead a specific area of the program for Agile2010.

Business – Lowell Lindstrom

Lowell Lindstrom has been involved in developing and deploying software products for over nearly 25 years. He was among the early pioneers in bringing agile software development services to the marketplace. In 1999, as Vice President at Object Mentor, he developed partnerships with the leaders of the Extreme Programming movement, including Kent Beck, Ron Jeffries, and Martin Fowler to develop the ultimate agile learning experience. He was the Organizing Chair of the first North American conference on agile software development (XP/Agile Universe) in 2001 and the Program Chair in 2004, where he was instrumental in unifying the two agile conferences.

Lowell developed the first commercially available course on the business side of agile software development. He is a co-founder and former Director of the Agile Project Leadership Network (www.apln.org). In late 2005, Lowell founded The Oobeya Group, which helps organizations successfully spread the successful use of agile techniques to all teams and functional areas. He is published in the Cutter IT Journal, the Auerbach IS Management Handbook (8th ed.), and various conference proceedings. He is a Certified ScrumMaster, Practitioner, and Trainer.

Leadership & Organization – Pollyanna Pixton

An international collaborative leadership expert, Pollyanna Pixton developed the models for collaboration and collaborative leadership through her thirty-eight years of working inside and consulting with corporations and organizations. She helps companies create workplaces where talent and innovation are unleashed—making them more productive, efficient, and profitable.

Pollyanna is a founding partner of Accelinnova, president of Evolutionary Systems, and director of the Institute for Collaborative Leadership. She speaks and writes on topics of creating cultures of trust, leading collaboration, and business ethics. Her models are found in the book she co-authored, Stand Back and Deliver: Accelerating Business Agility, (Addison Wesley Professional, July 2009).

She has been involved with the Agile Conferences, serving on the organizing committee for the first one-day conference in Salt Lake City. At the first four day conference, Pollyanna helped with the marketing and organized the ice breaker and the DJ for the closing dinner. In 2004, she chaired the Executive Summit and in 2005, chaired the APLN Leadership Summit in Minneapolis. She contributed and held sessions in 2006 and 2007. In 2008 she was the assistant chair for the Leadership Stage and in 2009 was the Chair of the Leadership Stage. For 2007-2009 she has managed the media sponsorships for the conference.

She co-founded the Agile Project Leadership Network (APLN) and chaired Leadership Summits in London, Minneapolis, Richmond, Las Vegas, Orlando, and Dallas.

Technical – Brian Button

Brian Button is the VP of Engineering and Director of Agile Methods at Asynchrony Solutions, Inc., a St. Louis-based leader in Agile software development. Joining Asynchrony in 2006, Brian instituted an Asynchrony Center of Excellence, leading a group of agile trainers and mentors that train, innovate, and evangelize agile to Asynchrony’s internal staff as well as external project teams at corporations large and small. Brian has also pioneered the creation of coursework for educating project and senior level managers on how Agile affects their roles in software delivery projects and how to manage the transition from other traditional software development methodologies.

Brian has been in the software industry for 23 years and is a 10 year veteran in Agile practices. He has produced webcasts, spoken at conferences on subjects including Test Driven Development, Code Refactoring, and Extreme Programming, and organized local Code Camps focused on Agile practices. He was the Tutorial Chair for 3 XP/Agile Universe conferences, and has been the leading voice for agile adoption in St. Louis since 2000. He is a Charter member of the International Association of Software Architects, St. Louis Chapter, the founder of the St. Louis Extreme Programming Users Group, and writes the popular blog, OneAgileCoder. Before joining Asynchrony, Brian was a consultant to Microsoft‘s patterns & practices group and has traveled the world teaching clients about agile development.