Robert Mertens is a professional software engineer and architect with more than 25 years experience. He has been involved in all aspects of the design, implementation and release of commercial applications.The past 10 years have been spent as a technical consultant and architect, specializing in the Java application stack. Projects have included J2EE commerce web applications, feasibility and performance studies, and prototypes using of state of the art technologies including web services, rules engines, messaging, and rich (JavaScript) clients. Previous roles have involved the design and development of PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) applications, call center integration, and data modeling, as well as project and group management.Robert is an effective communicator with good interpersonal skills, enthusiastic mentor, and will commit to delivering results that meet or exceed expectations, on time and within budget.In his early career, he spent 10 years applying his background in computing and biology to provide data analysis of crop and wildlife distribution in Eastern and Southern Africa for government and aid agencies.