Chief Open Source Evangelist, Oracle Corporation

Omar Tazi is currently chief open source evangelist with Oracle where he is responsible for open source strategy and evangelism focusing on the areas of Middleware and Tools. Prior to joining Oracle, Tazi was the CEO of Orbeon where he implemented a successful business model based on services using open source software donated by Orbeon to the community.

Before stepping into the entrepreneurial world, Tazi held several senior management positions in high tech companies located in Silicon Valley including Symantec, Oracle, and WebGain. In 2001, he was an active member of the Java Community Process (JCP) Executive Committee. He is also a regular speaker at IT events such as JavaOne, Gartner Summit, BEA eWorld, EclipseWorld, OSCON and ApacheCon.

Before crossing the Atlantic, Tazi held several research and teaching positions at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, specializing in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Object-Oriented Programming (OOP). He holds an M.S. in computer science and electrical engineering. See Tazi's blog at: tazi.blogspot.com