James is a leader in the DevOps and InfoSec communities--most of his research and work is at the intersection of these two communities. He is a supporter of the Rugged Software movement and he coined the term Rugged DevOps. Seeing the gap in software testing, James founded an open source project, Gauntlt, to serve as a Rugged Testing Framework. He is the author of the Hands-on Gauntlt book.

He got his start in technology when he founded a Web startup as a student at University of Oklahoma and since then has worked in environments ranging from large, web-scale enterprises to small, rapid-growth startups. He is a dynamic speaker on topics in DevOps, InfoSec, cloud security, security testing and Rugged DevOps.

James is the creator and founder of the Lonestar Application Security Conference which is the largest annual security conference in Austin, TX. He is a chapter leader for the OWASP Austin chapter and he holds the following security certifications: CISSP, GWAPT, GCFW, GSEC and CCSK and he serves on the GIAC Advisory Board.

In his spare time he is trying to learn how to bake bread.