Our Judges

Meet the panel


Brad McGehee	Steve Jones	Nigel Rivett	Rodney Landrum

Brad McGehee

"These awards will bring awareness to the IT community at large."

"I recently spent a lot of time writing a new ebook, 'How to Become an Exceptional DBA.' It was based on my personal experience as a DBA, in addition to what I have learned from many exceptional DBAs I have met over the years.

Compared to many other IT careers, the career of the DBA has wrongly developed a somewhat negative image. I hope that these awards will bring awareness of the valuable contributions DBAs make to the IT community and the companies that employ them."

A Microsoft SQL Server MVP with over 10 years' SQL Server experience, Brad founded the popular community site SQL-Server-Performance.com and is also director of DBA education at Red Gate Software. Brad is a frequent speaker at SQL PASS, SQL Connections, SQL Server user groups, and other industry seminars, and he is the author or co-author of more than 12 technical books and over 100 published articles. He spends what time he has left with his family in Hawaii.

Steve Jones

"These awards provide a way to showcase the value that DBAs bring."

"DBAs are often not recognized for the important contributions that they make to ensuring a company’s most valuable asset, its data, is secure, protected, and always available. These awards provide a way for us to showcase the value that DBAs bring to their employers."

Steve Jones is the editor of SQL Server Central, the largest SQL Server community on the Internet. He has worked with SQL Server as a writer, DBA, and developer since 1991 in a variety of large and small companies.

Nigel Rivett

"Database administration is a little understood profession."

"I am keen to be a judge for these awards to help define, promote and recognize the characteristics, abilities and talent that are necessary in a successful DBA.

Why do I think it's valuable to recognize these achievements and to reward and promote dedication and talent? Quite simply, because database administration is a difficult and little understood profession."

Awarded Microsoft MVP (SQL Server) status from 2003-2008, Nigel is the owner and director of Elmcrest Programming Ltd, providing software services based upon SQL Server. In 1994, Nigel began working in VB and SQL Server. Since then, as the product has grown and become more complicated, Nigel has concentrated more on SQL Server and less on the application side. Becoming increasingly involved with reporting and BI solutions, Nigel tries to concentrate on the database engine, aiming to implement well designed, flexible, maintainable and efficient systems. Nigel now spends more time writing technical articles and extending his website.

Rodney Landrum

"Acknowledging the merits of an exceptional DBA demonstrates to the SQL DBA community that there is a quality standard to strive for."

"DBAs are a unique lot. They often find themselves in the void between IT infrastructure and SQL developers. They are administrators who often have as firm a grasp on networking as they do on clustered indexes and query optimization. And they can write and/or analyze code. But to be exceptional, they must make sound planning decisions every day and communicate those decisions effectively with business and IT managers that have only a fundamental knowledge of data services. I feel that acknowledging the merits of the exceptional DBA with an award demonstrates to the SQL DBA community that there is a quality standard to strive for and appreciation for achieving it. I am happy to have been selected as a judge."

Rodney Landrum has been architecting solutions for SQL Server for over 10 years. He has worked with and written about many SQL Server technologies, including DTS, Integration Services, Analysis Services, and Reporting Services. He has authored two books on Reporting Services and is working on the third edition focusing on SQL Server 2008. He is a regular contributor to SQL Server Magazine, SQL Server Central and Simple-Talk. Rodney also speaks regularly on SQL topics at such events as SQL Saturday in Florida, his home state. His day job finds him overseeing the health and well being of over 100 SQL Servers as manager of database administration in Pensacola, Florida.