Kevin M. Gates

I'm a Chicago native, husband, father, developer, photographer and software architect. My personal motto is to "learn, master and teach." In other words, I'm driven to learn new things, master it and teach others along the way. I began my technology career in 2000 as an intern at i.c.stars (http://www.icstars.org) - an organization that truly changed my life. I learned business and technical skills (HTML, .NET and SQL) and developed my love for writing code, which still exists today at dreaddontdie.com. During an i.c.stars fundraiser, i met an amazing employee from Microsoft who took me under his wing - and long story short - I started working at Microsoft on January 31st, 2001 at the age of 20. Today, I'm a Principal Cloud Solution Architect in the One Commercial Partner organization at Microsoft, helping partners modernize their applications with Microsoft Azure. My current focus is on application development, Kubernetes and DevOps. My previous roles have been: Global Account Technology Strategist, Technical Director, Unified Communications Architect and Datacenter Manager at the Microsoft Technology Center - Chicago. Over the years, I've inspired the next generation by hosting thousands of kids and adults at the Microsoft office for career days, workshops and tours. I've had the privilege of sharing my story at schools, community events, galas and fundraisers. Recently, I delivered the keynote presentation at the Illinois Science & Technology Coalition's 2017 STEM Summit and Northeastern Illinois University Nett Day. Learn more about my background: https://www.dreaddontdie.com/about