Bios on JavaBlackBelt Founders
NICOLAS BRASSEUR (right in photo)
The early years
Nicolas was only a "BINARY NUMBER" - 10 - when he got his first computer, an ATARI 800XL.
Nicolas lead the life of an 80's kid balancing recreational choices. He discovered the exhilaration of hiking through various terrain. With access to a variety of new and better technology, his creative-computing ideas became plausible through writing basic, procedural programs.
At 16, he followed an OO course organized for teenagers at the local University. This is where he met John Rizzo. (And when they discovered each had begun computing with the same machine - an ATARI 800XL.)
Life and learning
At 18, Nicolas went to University to study computer science and related subjects. Outside the classroom, he was outdoors, exploring nature spots to hike farther afield. He soon developed an interest in climbing.
IBM
At 22, equipped with the necessary knowledge to start his career, Nicolas joined IBM as a freelancer: first as a programmer then he became an instructor. (John Rizzo, then too, was working at IBM.)
Enterprising professors
The following year, Nicolas and John formed a Java-related training and recruitment company named the Loop Factory — now called JavaBlackBelt.
Nicolas learned Java quickly and proficiently. Soon after he began to enjoy teaching for a roster of top clients like Sun, IBM, and Siemens. For these companies he taught teams of programmers, trained in-house instructors and recruited developers.
In a short amount of time Nicolas had three titles: senior-level application architect, master instructor, and lead recruiter. All three amounted to one conclusion: he was a business savvy IT guy. This realization lead to good foresight. He followed a business management graduate course at the prestigious Solvay Business School.
Nicolas's career was on-track, which gave him time to enjoy his no-screen-required interests: hiking and climbing in exotic locations such as Nepal, Reunion Island, Corsica, Morocco, ...
He also went to conferences to network with other IT business innovators. Because Nicolas had been an instructor as well as a developer, he was sensitive to discussions about "certifications." Indeed, he also had them, but that didn't confirm his knowledge or more importantly, his skills. Specifically he had experienced this while training and recruiting. Developers who had become certified through their employers (or to add value to their CVs) did not necessarily have enough or proficient programming skills. Aside from certification courses, developers spent time self-learning in solitude with whatever books and Internet resources that were available.
JavaBlackBelt.com
This learning approach was problematic, ad hoc and hard to track progression. The developers community needed a dynamic way to continue self-learning. Plus it would be much better to have a platform on which to mass-author study guides based on real-world projects.
Nicolas began building an application with John Rizzo and one of their top students. JackBlackBelt was born.
JOHN RIZZO (left in photo)
The early years
Like the personal history of many IT guys, John got his first computer when he was young: age 12. With it he became a self-taught game developer, writing Basic on his Atari 800XL. (The same computer Nicolas Brasseur, his would-be business partner.) Although an impressive feat, there was a necessity behind his talents: he had the machine but no budget left to buy game cartridges.
As computing evolved, so did John long with it. He got an Amiga, then a PC with Turbo Pascal with which he learned his first event-driven (text) windowing system, "Turbo Vision." That's when another node of his brain developed: business savvy. Equipped with Turbo Vision, John made a variety of programs for shops and small companies operating in his town. His agile mind did not stop there, benevolence and leadership soon emerged. John taught programming to children in local youth camps (where there were usually some girl instructors as well.)
Life and learning
In his spare time he lived the life of any 1980s whiz kid: gaming, programming, and just being a guy dreaming about the future of technology (and girls). During those years, a major "aspect" of his destiny was presented. At a computing course offered to teens at the local university, John met Nicolas Brasseur.
At university John learned more languages like C/C++, Fortran and Cobol (which he forgot), girls (which he did not) and pushed algorithmics and beer drinking to a pioneering level. Those other brain clusters were not left to corrupt, John was the president of the IT Student Society (by the 90's girls were very keen on techies.) He wrote his thesis on image recognition and copywriting.
IBM
With a Masters in Computer Science he sent out his CV and waited for the opportunities to flood in as it was dawning of the age of IT; a time brimming with jobs for guys like John. To be exact, he'd sent 150 curriculum vitae and waited. And waited some more. Finally IBM took notice of John's accolades and potential. He started out helping AS/400 OS administrators with years of experience — 100% more than John had then, which was an interesting challenge to phrase it mildly.
Two years of supporting the AS/400 team in Belgium was also valuable to his career path. During this time he learned many IT/Business critical things he didn't acquire at university: practical system administration, practical networking and sort-of-practical - if you live in Belgium - Dutch. (John is a francophone.) Being a tech "dude" he already spoke English quite well (which impresses women when you're European.)
Then, John travelled to the US to co-author the redbook Client Access for Windows 95 (the PC-AS/400 communication product) which became a bestseller at that time.
Teaching
He spent his third at IBM's International Education Center in La Hulpe as lead instructor for AS/400 curriculum: 30 training courses. It was during this time that John recalled the satisfaction of instructing in the youth camps. He realized his second passion after IT developing — developing minds.
With this new self-discovery, John continued at IBM education as a freelance. In the evenings he wrote a program in Delphi for managing school curricula. The whiz kid was back: self-learning complex application requirements and the Windows API.
Enterprising professors
In 2000, John wanted to create a company — which became JavaBlackBelt — as did Nicolas Brasseur. They had a mission: they needed to learn Java — fast. When they were equipped with the knowledge they needed, they taught Java at IBM and at Sun Microsystems. They trained and recruited additional instructors, designed custom courseware and taught to an impressive — and long — list of companies.
To remain humble about their talents to program, teach, and build a solid business simultaneously, they followed a management course at the prestigious Belgian college, Solvay Business School.
With this company, John could leverage his science philosophies of development and pedagogy. He experimented with several teaching styles acquired from teaching young children to corporate employees with scatters of slides and unemployed developers with only books to hone their programming skills.
With this mass of materials through keen observation of how people learn in various ways, he designed complex yet intuitive education plans for Java teams — sometimes spread over two years. John touched everything related to Java competencies to help developers become Sun/IBM Certified "whichever" and guide IT directors and recruiters to conduct valuable skills-assessment interviews.
JavaBlackBelt.com
In 2004, during his flight home from The ServerSide Java Symposium, John realized there was a crucial component needed to evaluate developers (beginners and experts) competencies in a friendly and progressive way. He knew personally, that existing certifications can't follow a programmer's varied and individual learning path.
The idea was born: to create a certification community and mass-collaboration web application — JavaBlackBelt.