Brian Willess

Background

About Brian Willess

I’ve had a 20+ year career in technology. I started out as an assembly language Firmware Engineer working in the Telecommunications Industry. There I grew my firmware skills and became interested in managing technology projects and teams. I transitioned from a developer into a Technical Lead position, then a Technical Manager. As a people manager, I’ve led multiple Software/Firmware teams across multiple industries and have been successful in each of these roles. I have a passion for process and enjoy identifying low impact ways to implement process that benefits all stakeholders. I have experience developing Engineers and helping them be successful and productive. A couple of unique personal skills that helped me excel as a Technical Leader are my ability to manage projects where I’m not a technical expert on the technology and an ability to work with difficult people. In 2016 I had the opportunity to take a long sabbatical. I was able to spend time to reconnect with family, travel and have some great adventures including racing my 20’ beach catamaran sailboat 300 miles up the Texas coast (twice). When I returned to the workforce, I found an opportunity to get back into an individual contributor role. The role would allow me to refresh my technical skills, learn a new industry (IoT) and train engineers and engineering teams on an exciting new product from Microsoft called Azure Sphere. Azure Sphere is a secure, connected MCU designed for secure IoT products. I like to call Azure Sphere “The Easy Button for Secure IoT.” In my current role, I’m the Azure Sphere Technical Specialist at Avnet. I’m responsible for training teams embarking on Azure Sphere projects and supporting Azure Sphere developers around the world. I’m responsible for many of the Azure Sphere activities at Avnet including. • Delivering Azure Sphere workshops to Engineering teams • Creating new Azure Sphere training content • Creating Azure Sphere blogs on Element14.com • Designing and implementing Azure Sphere demos for trade shows and sales teams • Working on customer Azure Sphere proof of concept projects I’m really enjoying my work. I get to learn new technologies, meet interesting teams and people and teach them about the Azure Sphere solution.