A Norfolk IT expert has been nominated for a prestigious international award for his work within the software development community.
Chris Sainty, Lead Software Engineer with Flagship Group, has been put forward for the exclusive ‘Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) award’ run by the software giant.
The award is given by Microsoft to ‘technology experts who passionately share their knowledge with the community.’ The scheme has been around for 20 years and is extremely exclusive – there are only around 3,233 MVPs worldwide with just 165 in the UK. This is out of a technical community of around 100 million.
Chris’s nomination is due to his work on a Microsoft product called Blazor. He has been blogging about the product for the last 18 months and he has even written about it for a number of high-profile technical publications.
He also offers support and expertise online to fellow software engineers, and more recently, he was invited to take part in a podcast and present at a software development event in Cambridge.
Should Chris be successful, he will have the opportunity to spend time at Microsoft’s HQ. Chris said:
“From a personal perspective, the MVP award is a recognition that I’ve helped people. And that is the most important thing for me. I’ve always been passionate about what I do, about learning and sharing knowledge with fellow developers.
“One really exciting benefit of being an MVP is the opportunity to work closely with the teams at Microsoft. All MVPs are invited to the annual MVP Summit at Microsoft’s HQ in Redmond, a special, multi-day conference featuring lots of in-depth technical sessions and feedback groups. Having the opportunity to give feedback and help shape the products you love is pretty cool.”
Matt Brazier, Director of IT & S with Flagship said: “Myself and the whole team are thrilled to see Chris getting this recognition. He is committed to developing his knowledge and technical expertise to meet the needs of our colleagues and customers. Being considered for this award by Microsoft is a huge endorsement for a him, and we are very proud of all that he has achieved.”
MVP status is awarded for 1 year after which MVPs must re-submit for the next year.
*You can read Chris’ personal website here: https://chrissainty.com/