Mr. Kirkpatrick is a 40-year veteran of the commercial software business, having designed or developed dozens of successful commercial software products. He is well known as the founder of the popular Directory Experts Conference, the only international conference focused on Microsoft Identity and Access technologies. Mr. Kirkpatrick is the author of the highly-regarded book Active Directory Programming, and has been a frequent contributor to Windows IT Pro and TechNet magazines. In his current role as Chief Architect at Semperis, Gil designs products to prevent, detect, and respond to cyberattacks on enterprise networks and their connect cloud identity systems. He also hosts the Hybrid Identity Protection Conference (HIPConf), and speaks about identity-centric cybersecurity at conferences around the world. Mr. Kirkpatrick has received the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional award for his work in the technology community each year since 2005.