Introducing the Highgroove team
We're web professionals who enjoy solving complex problems with simple solutions. We're passionate about making web applications easier to use and making technology easier to understand.
Ruby on Rails is our technical tool of choice. Whether we are building large-scale applications from scratch or launching your venture-funded killer startup, we love using Rails. Our team has been using Rails and training others on its use since Rails' first public release.
Derek Haynes
From technology startups to Fortune 100 companies, Derek Haynes brings a unique perspective on web development and business needs to Highgroove clients. The founder of Highgroove Studios, Derek has been working almost exclusively with Ruby on Rails since 2004. He's led the development of several award-winning Rails applications, including a DEMOGod award-winner and the "Most Useful" RailsDay application.
Derek plays the role of editor when working with clients—helping them decide what to include, what to cut, and how it should be implemented in an application. He regularly speaks and contributes articles on Ruby on Rails. In his free time, he anchors the defense on his hockey team and is always up for a bike ride (preferring the Marin Headlines loop).
Derek graduated with High Honor from Georgia Tech with a B.S in Industrial and Systems Engineering.
Charles Brian Quinn
Charles Brian Quinn is Highgroove's virtual encyclopedia of technology knowledge. He is a former road-warrior consultant to Fortune 500 companies and government agencies around the world, with real-world knowledge and experience in building web applications and software architectures.
He has worked with organizations such as Deloitte & Touche, Accenture, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, the Municipality of Durban in South Africa, and several government agencies in the Southeast. Charles is also the lead instructor of the Ruby on Rails Bootcamp class at the Big Nerd Ranch, a premiere technology training facility.
Charles is a graduate of Georgia Tech (B.S. in Computer Science, High Honor).
Andre Lewis
Andre Lewis is a former Accenture consultant turned Ruby on Rails expert. He is also a mapping and geo-location guru, and the author of Google Maps Applications with Rails and Ajax, published by Apress. Andre likes thinking about problems holistically, from business processes through usability considerations to database schemas. He has architected web applications supporting millions of pageviews per day.
Andre enjoys teaching Ruby as much as he enjoys programming it. He has done Ruby on Rails training sessions for organizations like Sun Microsystems, IDEO, and Stanford University.
Andre contributes to the community through open source projects and talks. He has spoken at RailsConf and SD Forum, and he frequents Bay Area technology and entrepreneurial groups.
James Edward Gray II
One of the select developers with commit access to Ruby itself, the author of Best of Ruby Quiz and TextMate: Power Editing for the Mac (a popular editor used for Ruby), and a contributing author to the Ruby Cookbook, James Edward Gray II is Highgroove's resident code ninja. He spends work hours designing and implementing complex database layers and his free time engrossed in books about programming languages, because he has a warped sense of fun.
James has been very active in the online Ruby community in recent years writing open source libraries, running the popular Ruby Quiz contest, and writing books about the language. Recently James has been giving speeches at Ruby conferences, mostly about his favorite TV shows.
When James isn't speaking to machines in code, he prefers to be talking with his wonderful wife Dana and their two children (a Shih Tzu and her Siamese playmate) or playing a little chess.
Did You Know?
Highgroove Edition
- Andre has written JavaScript code adopted by Google as supporting Google Maps controls.
- HGTV featured Charles on an episode of "What You Get for the Money."
- James is one of the select maintainers for Ruby's standard library.
- As a youngster, Derek built a wiffleball field in his backyard—complete with lights, a scoreboard, and a lined field.
- Andre swam from Alcatraz Island (under his own will).
- Grandmaster Eduard Gufeld beat James by a single pawn in a chess match (admittedly, it was simul).
- Derek and Charles' entry in RailsDay (a 24-hour coding competition with 200+ developers world-wide) won most useful application.
- Charles has conducted Ruby on Rails training in three countries.
hello@highgroove.com 415.373.6687