Michael “Buddy” Collins

It’s unusual to meet someone who is both deeply analytical and a “people person.” Even as a young child, these paradoxical traits were apparent in Michael. He recalls becoming his school’s 5th grade chess champion and developing a reputation as a “nitpicker”, but on the other hand, he was so friendly and outgoing he also gained the nickname “Buddy.”

Buddy has his bachelors degree in Social Welfare from UC Berkeley. For almost a decade, he focused on SED (severely emotionally disturbed) children, but from a variety of different perspectives—as a residential counselor in a group home, as a behavioral counselor in a day treatment setting, as a group home manager, as a behavioral trainer for special education teachers in the public school sector, and as a support counselor for foster parents.

When a friend introduced him to the web in 1996, he spent hours looking at content and following links. “I had to find out how it was done,” he recalls. “What’s behind those web pages? Databases, operating systems, mail programs? How did they do that?” Within that first year, Michael had taught himself CGI and PERL, had built his first web site, and developed a content management system for his organization’s job postings.

Shortly thereafter, Michael went to work as a programmer for a small web startup in San Francisco. Within months he was promoted to Technical Project Manager. During his stay there, he wrote several custom applications including Chronicle Books’ first e-commerce package, and a data collection management system for the Bar Association of San Francisco.

In 1999, Michael co-founded SkyMind Development. Since then he has worked with the SkyMind and Simplexity teams building websites, developing custom web-based applications, running the Simplexity Production office, and evaluating client requirements in near real-time.

When Michael is not thinking about using technology to solve communication problems, he can be found hiking and biking around the Bay Area with his wife, camping in Yosemite or just making dinner with friends.

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