PASS SQL Server Community Announces Election Results for New Board of Directors.

DENVER -- The Professional Association for SQL Server (PASS), the first independent, user-run global association of SQL Server and Business Intelligence professionals representing more than 25,000 users, announced today the results of the election of four new members to their Board of Directors. Rick Heiges of Scalability Experts, Paul Nielsen of SQL Server Bible.com, Greg Low of Readify, and Erin Welker who is an independent Consultant will join the PASS Board which consists of three executive members, eight directors at large & four members from founding partners, CA and Microsoft. Seven people ran for the four open positions and each new member will serve a two-year term.

"I welcome these new faces to our dynamic board. The energy and expertise these people bring will help us design new programs and that keeps PASS on the forefront of SQL Server and BI technologies," said Kevin Kline, PASS president, speaking from the PASS Community Summit conference held this week in Denver. "PASS board members are 100 percent volunteers and make a significant contribution to our community by helping set the strategic direction and annual plans that drive membership benefits."

As of December 31, 2007 president, Kevin Kline and vice president, Joe Webb will complete their turn in office. At that time, current vice president of marketing, Wayne Snyder will become the new president. Rushabh Mehta, currently board director for technology will take over as executive vice president, and Bill Graziano will become the new vice president of marketing. The four new directors will join this new executive team January 1, 2008.

PASS' Board of Directors carries the authority and responsibility for setting PASS policy and strategic direction and the day-to-day activities of the organization by overseeing the organization's management company. Directors are elected from the membership and represent a broad range of skills and expertise with SQL and Business Intelligence.

New Board Members

Rick Heiges

Rick is a Sr. Solutions Consultant with Scalability Experts. He educates users on SQL Server 2005 by speaking at events across the USA, Europe, and Africa. He holds an MBA, a M.S. in MIS and a B.S. in Computer Science. He has also attained MCTS SQL2005 and MCITP DBA certifications. Past roles have included professor, developer, trainer, database administrator, and project manager/leader. He has been involved with PASS since 2001, started an Official PASS SQL Server user group in North Carolina, and authored articles for the PASS SQL Server Standard Journal. Rick has served on the Board since January 2003.

Greg Low

Greg is an internationally recognized consultant and trainer. He holds a PhD from QUT and a host of Microsoft certifications. Greg is the SQL Server practice lead for Readify, a Microsoft Regional Director for Australia, a SQL Server MVP, the co-organizer of CodeCampOz and the organizer of SQL Down Under Code Camp (a PASS related event). Greg also hosts the highly popular SQL Down Under podcast.

Paul Nielsen

Paul Nielsen, SQL Server MVP, organizes the annual Colorado PASSCAMP and serves on the PASS Board of Directors. He's the author of the SQL Server Bible series (Wiley), and presenter of the Total Training SQL Server Development video. In 2007, Paul presented at SQL Open World (Denmark), SQL Teach (Montreal and Vancouver), and he leads his Smart Database Design Seminar. He offers free SQL Server screen casts at www.SQLServerBible.com. Besides just being interested in geeky matters, Paul is focused on fighting poverty in developing nations and he is currently developing a software solution designed to enable organizations to more effectively serve children in extreme poverty.

Erin Welker

Erin Welker is an independent consulting professional whose passion is SQL Server, having worked with the product since version 1.11. Erin's extensive experience includes serving as the Data Warehouse Architect or Lead DBA on several large-scale projects for globally recognized companies. Erin ran the North Texas SQL Server User Group for over a decade, before recently relinquishing the reigns after growing the active membership by a factor of 10. She speaks about SQL Server at various conferences and in webcasts, including PASS Community Summits since 2005. Erin was actively involved in Project REAL, and is the author or a contributing author of various whitepapers, articles and books.

About the Professional Association for SQL Server (PASS)

Co-founded by Microsoft Corporation and Computer Associates, Inc., the Professional Association for SQL Server (PASS) is the first independent, user-run global association of SQL Server technology users. PASS is the definitive global community for more than 25,000 SQL Server professionals. PASS' mission is to provide SQL Server technology users with the resources they need to meet their organization's strategic and tactical objectives using SQL Server while also enhancing both their personal and professional competitive advantages in the marketplace. PASS offers its members a variety of unique educational opportunities, including user conferences, distinctive Web offerings, unparalleled professional networking opportunities and direct advocacy to Microsoft. For additional information on PASS, please visit the PASS Web site at www.sqlpass.org.

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