Scott Hanselman

VP / Member of Technical Staff, Microsoft CoreAI and GitHub. Hands-on technologist, programmer, teacher, speaker, podcaster, and developer-community leader.

scott@hanselman.com hanselman.com github.com/shanselman linkedin.com/in/shanselman Portland, Oregon

Summary

Technical executive and hands-on software engineer with 30+ years of experience building software, hardware, communities, and developer platforms. Current work focuses on Windows-native agentic developer experiences, AI-assisted software engineering, GitHub Copilot, OpenClaw for Windows, WSL, Windows Terminal, .NET, Azure, open source, and human-centered developer experience.

AI-assisted software engineering
GitHub Copilot
Agentic development workflows
OpenClaw for Windows
Nightscout, Loop, and OpenAPS
.NET
Azure
Open source
Developer community
Secure agent execution architecture

Qualification Highlights

Presented cumulatively to nearly two million developers in person worldwide; videos of talks and demos have been viewed hundreds of millions of times.
Bridges engineering, product, research, open source, marketing, communications, and developer audiences to turn complex platform work into practical developer experiences.
Advocates for engineering rigor in AI-enabled development: testing, validation, architecture, security, code review, mentorship, and human judgment.
Specialist in human-computer interaction, hardware/software interfaces, cloud scale, internationalization, developer tools, and community feedback systems.

Developed software with ASM, C, C++, C#, VB.NET, ASP.NET, Delphi, JavaScript, Arduino, and .NET from 1.0 through current releases.
Maintainer, contributor, or creator across 255 public GitHub repositories, including OpenClaw for Windows, Nightscout-related tooling, Loop and OpenAPS/open-source artificial pancreas projects, DasBlog, BabySmash, usbip-win, and many others.
Former Microsoft MVP, MSDN Regional Director of the Year, adjunct professor, conference board member, angel investor, corporate board member, and expert technical witness in software patent litigation.
Volunteer and mentor with organizations focused on access, inclusion, entrepreneurship, and early-career technical talent.

Experience

VP / Member of Technical Staff, Microsoft CoreAI and GitHub Jan 2026-Present

Windows agentic developer platforms, AI-assisted software engineering, open source, secure execution architecture, and developer tooling.

Lead the OpenClaw for Windows team, bringing open-source AI agent runtimes and agent-based development workflows into native Windows developer experiences.
Provide technical leadership to Windows engineering on developer platform projects including WSL, Windows Terminal, containers, package management, Dev Drive, GitHub Copilot, and AI-assisted coding environments.
Drive architecture for secure Windows agent execution, including containment, sandboxing, approval-based execution, identity boundaries, tool invocation, lifecycle management, and policy-driven governance.
Guide engineering execution through architecture reviews, design reviews, issue triage, pull-request reviews, release planning, onboarding improvements, and roadmap prioritization.
Bridge Windows, WSL, containers, GitHub, and cloud-native development workflows to reduce friction for developers building hybrid Windows/Linux and AI-powered tooling.
Partner across operating system, security, developer tools, product, research, and open-source teams to turn early agentic-AI concepts into concrete platform capabilities and shipping developer experiences.
Communicate deeply technical platform work through keynotes, live coding, podcasts, workshops, and global community programs without losing the engineering fundamentals.

Vice President, Developer Community, Microsoft Developer Division Sept 2007-Jan 2026, selected earlier roles

Led and managed Microsoft Developer Community, the Open Source Programs Office, Visual Studio Subscriptions, and the Developer Division digital portfolio.
Worked on the team that open sourced .NET and helped establish open source as a successful operating model across Microsoft.
Program managed developer experiences across ASP.NET, .NET, Azure Web Tools, and Visual Studio.
Collaborated with Windows teams to help Windows Terminal and Windows Subsystem for Linux succeed with developers.
Transformed streaming and online community delivery processes to engage more deeply with developer communities.
Delivered keynotes and technical presentations across Microsoft events including Surface, Windows, Visual Studio, .NET, Build, Ignite, Connect, and the Microsoft AI Tour.
Recipient of the Developer Division Compass Award.

Chief Architect, Corillian Corporation 2001-2007

Portland, Oregon. Corillian was a leading provider of online retail banking software.

Developed the .NET technology roadmap across platform and product lines.
Architected Corillian's Voyager eFinance Application Server SDK from inception through version 2.3.
Architected Corillian's first 100% .NET application, an ASP.NET-based Personalization Manager.
Led architecture for a Campaign Management product revision that increased scalability tenfold.
Consulted with top financial institutions in the United States, Asia, and England, including sales engineering on deals in the $10M+ range.
Coordinated company-wide .NET training and managed the technical relationship with Microsoft.

Adjunct Professor, Oregon Institute of Technology 2003-Present

Taught C# and the Windows .NET Framework and helped develop Web Services Theory curriculum at the Portland campus.
Instructor for Practical XML and other professional development courses at Oregon Graduate Institute.

Principal Consultant, STEP Technology 1995-2001

Designed and implemented software for clients including Microsoft, Intel, Nike, Oregon Public Broadcasting, 800.com, Gear.com, NetLibrary, and others.
Consulted with Microsoft's Prescriptive Architecture Group on the MSDN Reference Architecture for E-Commerce.
Architected large-scale e-commerce, mobile, wireless, training, localization, and enterprise application systems.
Led hardware driver and Windows application development using x86 assembler, Delphi, C, Visual C++/MFC, Visual Basic, ASP, SQL Server, Java, and DHTML.

Founder / Lead Engineer, Tweak Computer Support 1989-Present

Created GlucoPilot, a PalmOS diabetes management application localized to French, Spanish, and German and used internationally before acquisition.
Built BrickFinder Kiosk and web services for Pioneer Courthouse Square, supporting search and personalized map display across 88,000+ sponsored bricks.
Provided technical consulting, business development, and on-site training.

Speaking Highlights

Speaker at nearly 1,000 technical conferences and major events, to audiences from small private workshops to arenas of 25,000+ attendees.

TEDx: Tech Promised Everything. Did it deliver?
Microsoft Build, Microsoft Ignite, Microsoft Connect, Microsoft AI Tour, Microsoft WebCamps, and Microsoft Company Meeting.
OSCON, Webstock New Zealand, Oredev, MIX, FOCUS 100, NexTech Africa Nairobi, KeepingItRealTime PDX, and many others.
Invited speaker at organizations including Twitter, IBM, The New York Times, and global technology companies.
Topics include AI developer tools, developer experience, .NET, Azure, GitHub, open source, cloud systems, JavaScript, hardware, productivity, impostor syndrome, mentorship, sponsorship, inclusion, and sustainable careers.

Writing, Publications, Podcasts, and Video

Author of the syndicated blog hanselman.com/blog, covering software, hardware, culture, productivity, inclusion, and the open web.
Host of Hanselminutes, a weekly technology podcast with 1,000+ episodes and tens of millions of downloads.
Host of Azure Friday, a video series demystifying cloud, IoT, developer tools, and Azure platform engineering.
Host of Computer Stuff They Didn't Teach You in School and other YouTube technical education series.
Co-host of Scott and Mark Learn To with Microsoft Azure CTO Mark Russinovich.
Co-host of the archived podcasts This Developer's Life with Rob Conery and Ratchet and The Geek with Luvvie Ajayi.
Co-author of Professional ASP.NET MVC and Professional ASP.NET from Wrox/Wiley; contributor to ASP.NET MVP Hacks.
Technical reviewer, foreword writer, and contributor to books from Wrox, O'Reilly, Sybex, and others.
Named inventor on US20160381118A1, Microsoft Band hardware, "Extracting and formatting content from web-resources."

Open Source and Developer Projects

Lead maintainer on OpenClaw for Windows, connecting agentic development workflows with Windows-native developer tooling.
Contributor to Nightscout, Loop, and the OpenAPS/open-source artificial pancreas ecosystem, integrating diabetes hardware, software, data, and cloud services.
Maintainer, contributor, or creator across 255 public GitHub repositories including PeekDesktop, TinyToolTown, BabySmash, PowerPointToOBSSceneSwitcher, usbip-win, and many others.
Co-owner of DasBlog, an ASP.NET blogging engine hosted on GitHub and released under the BSD license.
Creator of BabySmash, a WPF application for children.
Creator of WatirMaker, a WATIR recording application for web application testing in Ruby.
Creator of a virtual operating system in C# abstracting hardware from software.
Creator of an OBS scene switcher integrating Stream Deck hardware, PowerPoint, and Open Broadcaster Software.

Expert Witness and Patent Litigation

Served as NAPCO's retained expert technical witness in litigation involving Landmark Technology's '508 patent and e-commerce software claims.
Provided technical analysis grounded in early web, e-commerce, distributed systems, and software architecture experience; the court denied Landmark's motion to strike the testimony and declared claim 1 of the '508 patent invalid for indefiniteness in NAPCO, Inc. v. Landmark Technology A, LLC.

Professional Memberships and Associations

Microsoft MVP for ten years across ASP.NET, .NET, C#, and Solutions Architecture.
MSDN Regional Director and Regional Director of the Year for Developer Community.
Former board member, O'Reilly OSCON open-source conference.
Former member, .NET Developer's Journal Editorial Board.
Former member, Software Association of Oregon Developer SIG Steering Committee and INETA Speaker's Bureau.
Former advisory council member, Portland Community College Software Engineering Department.
Former vendor committee chairman, Open Financial Exchange XML standard consortium.
Former member, Web Services Interoperability Organization Basic Profile 1.0 working group.

Education and Certifications

Bachelor of Science in Software Engineering, Oregon Institute of Technology, Portland, Oregon.
Oregon Institute of Technology Professional Achievement Award.
Microsoft Certified Professional, Microsoft Certified Trainer, and Microsoft Certified Solution Developer.

Board, Advisory, Volunteer, and Mentorship Work

Board member, ACM Association for Computing Machinery - member of the Practitioners Board and bytecast steering committee.
Advisory board member, Prairie View A&M University - Dean's Advisory Board, College of Business.
Computer Science Advisory Board member, Virginia Commonwealth University.
Board member, Raygun - technical and strategic guidance.
Mentor, The Hidden Genius Project - regular mentorship, classes, and workshops supporting Black male youth in technology creation and entrepreneurship.
Technology mentor, digitalundivided - technology mentorship and sponsorship for startup cohorts supporting Black and Latinx women founders.
Technical advisor, Reskill Americans - economic empowerment and workforce development.
Technical advisor, CodePath - expanding access to software engineering education and early-career pathways.
Technical advisor, technology mentor, and seed investor for mission-aligned health, developer tools, and hardware/software startups including Adele Health, Enabled Play, Wilderness Labs, and Pieces for Developers.
Women Who Code - open source, mentorship, sponsorship, and developer access programs.

Interests

Travel across Europe, Asia, and Africa.
Amateur linguistics, including Spanish, Amharic, Ndebele, and Zulu.
First Dan Black Belt in Taekwondo.
STEM advocacy, diversity and inclusion in technology, standup comedy, musical theater, blogging, and podcasting.