My real name is Harry Pierson, but I've gone by "DevHawk" online since I started this blog back in 2003. My blog originally ran on an engine of my own design, then DasBlog, then WordPress. However, I missed having my own sandbox on the web, so I built a new engine called Hawk (natch) to power the blog. It's written in C#, uses ASP.NET Core, runs on Azure and the source is up on GitHub.

I'm known best for my involvement in the Microsoft development community. I was with with Microsoft from October 1998 until June of 2019 - over 20 years! In that time, I had a wide variety of different jobs. I started in Microsoft Consulting before moving into a technical evangelism role. I spent a short time as an architect for Microsoft's internal IT department. When I finally joined the product groups, I started as the program manager for IronPython before spending most of the second half of my MSFT career as part of the Windows team.

I spent the Windows 8 and 8.1 product cycles as a program manager on the team that built Windows Runtime. After four years as a PM, I got tired of writing specs so I switched to a developer role. I spent most of 2014 with the Midori research project working on C# for Systems. In 2015, I rejoined joined the core Windows team, working on the cross-platform plumbing that powers SmartGlass which eventually evolved into Project Rome. After that, I helped form the xlang team, with the goal of bringing Windows Runtime's language projection technology cross platform.

As of June 2019, I'm officially a Microsoft Alumni. I traded in my blue badge to join the new Seattle office of NEO Global Development.

I always say that the only way to build great products is to talk to the people who use it. So feel free to contact me - email or Twitter are usually the best ways.

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