2010's Judges

Meet the panel


Brad McGehee	Josef Richberg	Steve Jones	Rodney Landrum

Brad McGehee

"Why be an ordinary DBA when you can be an exceptional DBA?"

"As I researched my How to Become an Exceptional DBA book, I noticed that there are a lot of exceptional DBAs who never receive the recognition they deserve. The Exceptional DBA Awards is one way for unrecognized DBAs to become recognized."

Brad is a frequent speaker at SQL PASS, European PASS, SQL Connections, SQLTeach, devLINK, SQLBits, SQL Saturdays, TechFests, Code Camps, SQL Server user groups, and other industry seminars, where he shares his 15 years’ cumulative knowledge.

In 2009, Brad made 33 public presentations to a total of 1,853 attendees, in six different countries.

A well-respected and trusted name in SQL Server literature, Brad is the author or co-author of more than 15 technical books and over 250 published articles. His most recent books include How to Become an Exceptional DBA (2nd Edition), Brad's Sure Guide to SQL Server 2008: The Top Ten New Features for DBAs, Mastering SQL Server Profiler, and Brad’s Sure Guide to SQL Server Maintenance Plans. These books are available free in PDF format at: http://www.sqlservercentral.com/Books/.

Josef Richberg

"There is no higher honor than being recognized by your peers as being exceptional."

"Winning Red Gate's Exceptional DBA Award in 2009 has opened up many new doors for me in both the community and beyond. Red Gate has been incredibly supportive and offered me the opportunity to write my first professional article for Simple-Talk. Having been selected as the winner by the community, I have gained further credibility and have seen many community doors open. For example, I have been given the chance to present at many of the PASS virtual conferences and write for others."

"In my opinion, being a DBA is like any other highly specialized profession. If we do our job correctly, the database performs without issue and seems to maintain itself. If there are issues we correct them, using techniques and knowledge that those outside our profession generally fail to understand, so our need within a business is often misunderstood. The Exceptional DBA Awards help to promote the importance of the DBA role and create a better understanding of the challenges we are facing."

Josef Richberg currently works at HarperCollins Publishers, one of the largest publishing companies in the world. He is responsible for identifying and implementing key architectural components (new SQL Server features, SSIS, SSSB), training, and improving the performance of over 130 applications that the DBA group is responsible for.

Steve Jones

"These awards allow us to recognize the people who do the jobs we take for granted."

"We often just expect the database to be there, performing well, much as we expect light when we flip a switch or water when opening a faucet. But there is a lot that goes into ensuring that those services are available, and that is a key part of the DBA role. Too often this is taken for granted."

Steve Jones is the editor of SQLServerCentral, 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 and is a Microsoft SQL Server MVP.

Rodney Landrum

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

"I was a judge for the Exceptional DBA Awards in 2008 and 2009, and it was a very rewarding experience in many ways. It gave me the chance to review submissions from DBAs all over the world and to witness some of the challenges that DBAs face on a daily basis, most of which, as a daily DBA myself, I could immediately relate to. To be exceptional, in my opinion, the DBA must offer solutions across the board that are fundamentally sound and financially rewarding for the company or client. If a DBA can save thousands of dollars by tweaking even one small aspect of a business process that would otherwise have gone unnoticed, to me, then that DBA is exceptional. That goes as well for time savings by showing how to make a query run in seconds where it was taking minutes prior. DBAs are in their respective companies to do a job, but often they are the ones responsible for defining their own role, helping formulate standards based on their experience."

Rodney Landrum has been working with SQL Server technologies for longer than he can remember (he turned 40 in May of 2009 so his memory is going). He writes regularly about many SQL Server technologies, including Integration Services, Analysis Services, and Reporting Services. He has authored the SQL Server Tacklebox and three books on Reporting Services. He is a regular contributor to SQL Server Magazine, SQLServerCentral and Simple-Talk, the latter of which he sporadically blogs on about SQL and his plethora of geek tattoos. 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 a large SQL Server infrastructure in Pensacola, Florida. He swears he owns the expression "Working with Databases on a Day to Day Basis" and anyone who disagrees is itching to lose at an arm wrestling match.