Meet the Scrum.org Staff

Ken Schwaber co-developed the Scrum framework with Jeff Sutherland in the early 1990s to help organizations struggling with complex development projects. One of the signatories to the Agile Manifesto in 2001, he subsequently founded the Agile Alliance and Scrum Alliance. He founded Scrum.org in 2009 in order to execute on his mission of improving the profession of software development. A 30-year veteran of the software development industry (from bottle washer to boss), he has written four books about Scrum: Agile Software Development with Scrum, Agile Project Management with Scrum, The Enterprise and Scrum, and Software in 30 Days. He lives in Lexington, Massachusetts.

Dave West is the product owner and CEO at Scrum.org. He is a frequent keynote at major industry conferences and is a widely published author of articles and research reports. He co-authors two books, The Nexus Framework For Scaling Scrum and Head First Object-Oriented Analysis and Design. He led the development of the Rational Unified Process (RUP) for IBM/Rational. After IBM/Rational, West returned to consulting and managed Ivar Jacobson Consulting for North America. Then as VP research director Forrester Research, where he ran the software development and delivery practice. Before joining Scrum.org, he was Chief Product Officer at Tasktop, responsible for product management, engineering, and architecture. As a member of the company’s executive management team was also instrumental in growing Tasktop from a services business into a VC-backed product business with a team of almost 100.

Christina is a cofounder of Scrum.org. She was a member of the first scrum teams, before the company knew they were doing Scrum. Her expertise is quality assurance and testing. She taught Ken the importance of test driven development and the definition of done. She also helped write and edit Ken's books and develop and teach classes.

She is also a PST.

Eric is co-author of UML for Database Design and UML for Mere Mortal. Eric is responsible for all aspects of marketing, support, outbound communications, Professional Scrum Trainer programs, partners and operations for Scrum.org.  Eric was program director at IBM and Rational Software where he was originally hired in 1999 by original Scrum Team member John Scumniotales for who he worked for several years and worked closely with another original Scrum Team member Jeff McKenna sitting in the next desk.  At IBM and Rational Eric was responsible for application lifecycle management (ALM), DevOps, Data Governance and Agile solutions. Previously he held the role of director of marketing for INetU (now ViaWest). Before INetU,  Eric has held product management and marketing roles with other organizations including: Ivar Jacobson Consulting, CAST Software and Logic Works Inc. (Acquired by Platinum Technologies and CA), as product manager for ERwin.

Janine Roberge is the CFO of Scrum.org. She leads the financial reporting, internal controls and human resources functions. Her career has been focused in financial management and business leadership in start-up and Fortune 100 companies. Before joining Scrum.org, she spent several years in life science and medical device companies. Earlier in her career she worked with GE, Siemens and Abbott. Janine earned a Bachelors Degree in Accountancy from Bentley University and is a member of the Bentley Executive Club.  

Ryan is a technologist with 20+ years of experience leading successful teams, developing quality software, and managing cloud and/or traditional network infrastructure. Ryan started his career in 1999 as a network engineer, and shortly after found an interest in software development where he has been involved in many successful projects, varying in size and complexity. In 2007 Ryan started Mantra Technology, a technology consulting company, where he helped companies like Intel improve their E-Commerce offerings. Ryan began working as a consultant (contracted CTO) with Scrum.org in 2014 and in 2018 joined the company full time as Chief Technology Officer. As CTO of Scrum.org, Ryan is responsible for driving change when looking at ways to improve the use of technology in support of operations, customers, and trainers. Ryan has also been closely involved in his local development community where he has organized, volunteered, and/or spoken at events.

Patricia Kong is the Product Owner of the Scrum.org enterprise solutions program which includes the Nexus Framework, Evidence-Based Management, Scrum Studio and Scrum Development Kit. She also created and launched the Scrum.org Partners in Principle Program. Patricia is a people advocate and fascinated by organizational behavior and misbehaviors. She emerged through the financial services industry and has led product development, product management and marketing for several early stage companies in the US and Europe. At Forrester Research, Patricia worked with their largest clients focusing on business development and delivery engagements. Patricia lived in France and now lives in her hometown of Boston. Patricia is fluent in 4 languages.

Betty Zakheim is focused on delivering learning solutions for Scrum Masters and Product Owners. Betty has over 30 years of experience in software development and delivery as a software engineer, engineering manager, product manager/owner, product marketing manager, independent consultant, software company executive and Gartner analyst. Almost her entire career has been spent developing and delivering tools and techniques that enable IT teams to be more effective. She was an early (in the 1980s) adopter of iterative software development and lean thinking. 

Rob is tasked with looking after the assessments at Scrum.org; ensuring that certification is an accurate representation of the certificate holders skills and knowledge of Scrum. Rob has worked in the software and systems development arena for 20 years in Product Management and Product Marketing. Starting his career at Rational Software working on Requirement Management solutions and eventually working on that same topic at Borland Software. Rob has also been a Business Analyst at ING US Financial and DigiTerra Broadband. Just prior to joining Scrum.org Rob worked in Product Management and Product Marketing for IBM’s Data and Analytics solutions. Rob lives and works in Westminster, Colorado where he takes every opportunity to enjoy skiing and the great outdoors with his family.

Sabrina is the Product Owner of Courseware and oversees the creation, evolution, and maintenance of Scrum.org courseware products. She and her team are focused on providing exceptional and practical learning experiences for students to enable them to affect positive change in their complex environments. Sabrina has a bachelor's degree in Graphic Design and special interest in architecture, particularly mid-century modern forms, and uses that background to blend design principles into Product Ownership. Whether in design or product management, Sabrina believes that form follows function, and the customer impact and outcomes are pivotal to realizing value. 

Leslie Morse is a Product Owner at Scrum.org. Her primary focus is the set of products and services we bring to market when serving our Professional Scrum Community. This work allows her to maximize her passion for creating environments where amazingly talented people thrive and leverage her skills in Organization and Relationship Systems Coaching (ORSC). She also spends time leading initiatives that support our broad landscape of learning products and solutions. Prior to joining Scrum.org, Leslie enjoyed a career that included co-founding a digital marketing start-up and working on the Lowe’s Home Improvement e-commerce platform. Her agile journey formally started in 2010 and included 9 years in agile coaching and training as well as business leadership for agile consulting organizations such as Davisbase and SolutionsIQ. She lives on the coast of South Carolina and loves live music, cooking and traveling. In addition to her responsibilities at Scrum.org she serves on the board of Women in Agile Org and is the host of the Women in Agile Podcast.

Prior to joining Scrum.org to fulfill the Scrum Master accountability - Owen spent the past 16 years gaining experience in multiple roles on software development teams.  Starting in test automation, he grew to take on development, product ownership, scrum master, and people leadership responsibilities as the teams and companies he worked with needed help in those areas.  Owen has found specific joy in working through build-measure-learn cycles with startup organizations and helping teams adapt to shorten feedback loops.  Owen has a BS in Computer Engineering from the Milwaukee School of Engineering and enjoys diving into the depths of audio recording and music production in his free time.

Kurt Bittner has been delivering working products in short, feedback-driven cycles for nearly 40 years, and has helped many organizations do the same. He is particularly interested in helping people form strong, self-organizing, high-performance teams that deliver solutions that customers love. He is the author or editor of many books on agile product development, including Mastering Professional Scrum, The Nexus Framework for Scaling Scrum, The Professional Scrum Team, and Professional Agile Leadership. He lives in Boulder, Colorado.

Daphne Harris directs Scrum.org's Professional Scrum Trainer (PST) program. She is responsible for growing, developing, and strengthening the PST community of top-notch Scrum trainers. She particularly enjoys learning from Scrum.org's amazing trainers and creating opportunities for community-building within this network. Prior to joining Scrum.org, Daphne was part of a traditional SDLC shop. As a technical writer, she wrote detailed requirement specs for features that would later change, and end-user documentation that was rarely read. Her role in customer service taught her about security and usability challenges. And at a small non-profit she saw how traditional organizations (school districts) balked at change. She every day enjoys being part of the creative self-organized team at Scrum.org.

Tiffanie Newton is a member of the Scrum.org Community Development team. She supports PST Candidates and existing PSTs in order to ensure they have everything needed in order for them to help people and teams solve complex problems. Her favorite part of this work is getting to know new people and helping to create an environment where they can thrive. Tiffanie discovered Agile values and Scrum when she worked to support the training division of a large Agile consulting organization and prior to joining Scrum.org she served as a Scrum Master for several teams. North Carolina is the place she calls home where she enjoys serving her church community and spending time with family.

Joel is an experienced full-stack software developer with a diverse background in web, mobile, Windows, database, and cloud development. Previously he has worked with Telerik to create TeamPulse, an agile project management tool, with D2L to build their industry leading learning management system, and as a consultant with Imaginet to work on anything and everything. Joel has become known as a highly flexible developer who gets things done quickly and with high quality. He has a passion for the craft of software engineering and shown a strong commitment to delivering value to stakeholders. In addition, Joel holds a bachelors degree in Computer Science from the University of Manitoba and a number of Microsoft technology certifications.

Lindsay manages marketing communications at Scrum.org, including public relations and social media efforts. Lindsay has a passion for copywriting, media relations, and branding. She previously led marketing efforts at a packaging engineering firm, where she got their first marketing department up and running. Prior to that, she spent over 5 years running public relations and event planning efforts at a cloud hosting company. She has her Bachelor’s Degree in Public Relations from Penn State University. Lindsay is an animal lover and in her spare time enjoys snowboarding and kickboxing.

Rebecca is focused on bringing the Scrum.org content to life. She works with our Professional Scrum Trainer (PST) community on their blogs, videos and other writing along with the Scrum.org team to make content more easily and readily available to our followers. As part of her role, Rebecca will look for ways to provide the right content that individuals are looking for and need in the formats that viewers prefer.

Rebecca hails from Champaign-Urbana, Illinois and moved to Gainesville, Florida to get her Advertising degree from the University of Florida. She later received an MBA in Marketing from the Florida Institute of Technology and began her career in marketing management for a B2B publishing firm before catching the creative bug and moving into copywriting and content marketing positions. Rebecca most recently worked in the tech space with a B2B SaaS company focused on marketing automation.

Matt is responsible for partner relationships at Scrum.org, including managing and growing existing partner relationships and recruiting new partners. Matt has a passion for cultivation long-term relationships and helping clients achieve their goals. He has worked in the world of IT for more than 10 years in Sales Management, Account Management and Partner Relations. He has his Bachelor of Arts in Business Management from Moravian College. Outside of the office, Matt enjoys heading up/coaching AAU Basketball, CrossFit, Hiking, and spending time with his wife and dog.

Kristen is our Graphic Designer as well as our Office Manager at our Headquarters in Burlington, MA. She also helps manage the translations of many of our Guides in a vast variety of languages, as well as helps in Support as needed. She likes to help wherever she can and truly enjoys being a team player. She believes strongly in the Scrum Values and that by sticking to them, you can be successful at anything!

Heidi is responsible for providing customer service and support to Scrum.org students, assessment takers and trainers.  She leverages her background in business development, administration and customer service in software development and insurance organizations to better understand the needs of customers to delivery high quality results.  Heidi is a graduate of the University of Florida.

Robert is a result-driven developer, project leader, and coordinator. He has over 30 years in the industry and has worked with numerous enterprises of all sizes all over North America, developing in the technology of the time including Cobol, C, C++, Java, SilverStream, PowerBuilder, Vue.js and the ever evolving javascript and Microsoft stack of technologies.

While loving software development, he very much enjoys the people aspect of his profession. He was head of a support department where he hired and managed staff, has developed HR positive strategies and programs, and often had the team lead role on large, complex projects.

Robert has a bachelor's degree in Computer Science from the University of Manitoba and a number of Microsoft technology certifications. He also has a long history of volunteering for various organizations in his community and is proud to be fluent in both French and English.

Molly is a member of the Scrum Master Experience team and mostly works with customer feedback to improve our assessments. She earned her Journalism degree from the University of Maine - Orono in 2019 with a minor in English. During an internship at the Advanced Structures and Composites Center she wrote multiple articles on events and doctorate research projects hosted by the center. Molly has had a passion for writing since she was in elementary school and has carried it with her through high school and college.

In her free time Molly spends a lot of time playing games and watching movies with her friends. She’s a huge lover of animals and has no shortage of love for her own cat. Molly currently lives in Massachusetts where she has spent her whole life but aspires to one day travel the world.