HPE DEV community members hail from a variety of backgrounds. In this edition of our Meet the HPE DEV Team blog, I’m going to introduce you to Blaine Southam and Michael Mattsson.
Blaine Southam – Distinguished Technologist by day / ham radio operator by night
As a Distinguished Technologist, Blaine is often pulled into numerous projects. Folks rely on him to gather the right people, current processes, and correct technologies required to ensure the success of a new project. He’s worked as the Composable API Ecosystem principle architect, as the designer for multiple HPE OneView plugins, and was also responsible for the HPE OneView Global Dashboard and the HPE HC380 hyperconverged offering. Blaine also led the HPE Synergy / VMware Cloud Foundation integration project, which was recently added as an HPE GreenLake service. As the current HPE Cloud Ecosystem Architect, Blaine is now involved in helping internal and external partners offer their content as-a-Service through the HPE portal.
Blaine is the type of person who’s often involved in many projects while at work, and with his four kids, he’s kept pretty busy at home as well. When he’s not spending time with his family, Blaine volunteers with the youth group at his church, planning activities and summer camps. Yet, even with all this going on, he’s somehow found the time to get his Amateur Radio License (aka Ham radio). Recently, Blaine was excited to receive a message from a gentleman in Germany who congratulated him on getting his license. If you’d like to connect with Blaine, you can reach him on Twitter @bsoutham. Or, better yet, use his call sign, KE0YAN, and give him a shout out over the radio.
Michael Mattsson – Master Technologist and avid gamer
As a systems engineer and developer, Michael has had the opportunity to work for a number of different companies on very interesting projects over the years. Starting off in an R&D group at Volvo, Michael built a lot of custom automation and system management software that garnered the attention of Volvo partner, Proact. Proact offered him a consulting role for their top accounts where his ability to visualize the broader picture and talent in automation led to key open storage projects. This set him up for his next career move, one that literally moved him from Europe to the U.S., with a new employer located in Redwood City, California.
Although Michael’s seen a lot of change in his career, one thing’s remained constant – his focus on data and storage. An HPE Master Technologist, Michael is currently working as a technical marketing engineer for the HPE storage marketing group. An HPE Nimble Storage expert, he concentrates on container ecosystems and how they relate to storage. I got a chuckle when Michael told me “If I had a cent for every time I spelled Kubernetes, today I would be a millionaire.” Michael attributes the fact that he became a developer due to his early exposure to video games, starting with Pong when he was only four years old. A life-long gamer who’s been through just about every home game console there is, Michael even has his own arcade at home to which he devotes a great deal of time for care and maintenance. You can catch up with Michael on Twitter @datamattsson.
Take a look at Blaine and Michael’s video to learn a little more about them. And, if you ever have questions on HPE OneView, cloud ecosystems, containers, or HPE Nimble Storage, don’t be afraid to reach out to Blaine or Michael on Slack. Blaine can be reached at bsoutham and you can address Michael at michaelm.