Eileen Brown
I decided that moving into IT was a fairly cool way to combine my hobby with a career after spending 10 years as a navigating officer in the Merchant Navy on Supertankers. I came ashore and had a fantastic time teaching NT 3.51, NT4 and Back Office products to delegates as an IT Trainer and consultant. I joined Microsoft in 2001 and worked as a Systems Engineer in the Enterprise and Partner group, initially focusing on Mission Critical Windows and scale up systems, then moving to the Exchange team. I now manage the team of IT Professional Evangelists and I am also technically responsible for Messaging, Collaboration and Productivity technologies.
However, my life isn't spent entirely at my laptop. Away from work, to pass the time, I make jam and chutney in awesome quantities, tend my flock of chickens, and race around the countryside in my home built 6.6 litre engined cobra replica. Whenever I encounter warmer waters, I scuba dive as much as possible to get away from the phone.