Principals

Chris Shiflett is a principal of OmniTI, where he leads the web application security practice.

Shiflett is a leader in the PHP community – a popular speaker at industry conferences worldwide, the founder of the PHP Security Consortium, a contributor to the Zend Framework, and an author of the Zend PHP Certification.

A prolific writer, Shiflett is the author of the critically-acclaimed Essential PHP Security (O’Reilly) and HTTP Developer’s Handbook (Sams). His writing has also appeared in numerous articles for php|architect and PHP Magazine, as well as a number of other popular books including Programming PHP (O’Reilly) and PHP Cookbook (O’Reilly).

Ammar Ibrahim is a pioneer in PHP development with over five years of experience. Ammar currently serves as a senior consultant for many leading companies, including Al-Bawaba, the largest portal in the Middle East. He most recently developed several enterprise solutions for the American telecommunications firm IPFloat, a leading VoIP provider. Prior to consulting, he worked for four years as part of Syntax Digital, the largest design and development firm in Jordan.

Ammar lives in Amman, Jordan.

Since 1997, Andi has been working on PHP when, along with Zeev Suraski, he created PHP 3 and later PHP 4. Andi continues to play a leadership role in the PHP community and is a member of both the PHP Group and the Apache Software Foundation. Recently, Andi spearheaded the Zend Engine II’s object-oriented improvements for the newly released PHP 5. Additionally, he brings a rich background in enterprise software development including real-time avionics simulation software and n-tier J2EE applications.

Andi holds a BA in Computer Science from the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology.

Ben Ramsey is a Software Architect at Schematic, where, with over ten years of Web development experience, he is a leader in the Open Source Platforms Group, designing and developing quality software, setting and enforcing best practices, and training and mentoring software developers.

Ben is also a leader in the PHP community. He founded and organizes the Atlanta PHP user group, is the founder of the PHP Groups user group network, is a founding principal of the PHP Security Consortium, and is an original member of the PHPCommunity.org project, which lives on today as the #phpc IRC channel. Ben also speaks at industry conferences around the world.

Putting his B.A. in English to good use, Ben has written numerous articles for php|architect and International PHP Magazine and has lent his writing talents to several books, including php|architect’s Zend PHP 5 Certification Study Guide (php|architect) and PHP 5 Unleashed (Sams).

Christian Wenz is an author, trainer, and consultant with a focus on web development. He is an author or co-author of over four dozen books, regularly writes for renowned IT magazines, and speaks at developer conferences around the globe. He maintains or co-maintains several PEAR packages and one CPAN package. His current main areas of work are security and web services. Christian holds a “Diplom” (the German eqiuvalent of a Masters Degree) in Computer Science from the Technical University of Munich. He blogs at http://www.hauser-wenz.de/blog/.

Daniel Convissor is a web and database programmer, consulting in the field since 1995. He began using PHP in 1999 upon founding his firm, The Analysis and Solutions Company.

Dan is the lead developer of PEAR’s DB and XML_RPC packages. He authors articles for international magazines and popular tutorials on the web as well as speaks at developer conferences.

He lives in New York City, where he enjoys cycling, politics, food, cooperatives, and the intersections thereof.

Prior to Syneron, Daniel was a Senior Software Engineer at DynamicLogic, responsible for developing integrated research recruitment solutions used in name-brand web sites including Yahoo!, AOL, and Lycos.

Previously, he was a PHP freelancer, developing front and backend web applications, including e-commerce integration, member services and personalization, auction management, email delivery systems, and online file manipulation services for companies such as MTV, Arista, Viacom Outdoor, Accuweather, and Dell Computer Corporation. While freelancing, Daniel was also a PHP training instructor, where he worked with developers from highly acclaimed universities, such as Harvard and Columbia, and companies like Google, The New York Times, and the American Museum of Natural History.

Daniel holds a BS in Computer Science from the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, Israel.

David Sklar is an independent consultant specializing in technical training, software development, and strategic planning. He is the author of Learning PHP 5 (O’Reilly), Essential PHP Tools (Apress), and PHP Cookbook (O’Reilly).

After discovering PHP as a solution to his web programming needs in 1996, he created the PX (http://px.sklar.com/), which enables PHP users to exchange programs. Since then, he has continued to rely on PHP for personal and professional projects.

David is an instructor at the New School University and has spoken at many conferences, including the O’Reilly Open Source Conference, the EGovOS Open Source/Open Standards Conference, and the International PHP Conference.

When away from the computer, David eats mini-donuts, plays records, and likes to cook. He lives in New York City and has a degree in Computer Science from Yale University.

Marcus Whitney is the Chief Architect of Emma, an email marketing application that powers the email marketing efforts of thousands of organizations around the world, with offices in New York City (where he’s from) and Nashville (where he lives). Prior to his position at Emma, Marcus served as the Internet Systems Architect for Anode, creating the second version of their flagship product FireSign, a dynamic signage server. He has been creating professional web applications for over seven years and began using PHP in 2002.

Marcus is very enthusiastic about the direction that PHP and Zend are taking toward enterprise applications, and when he isn’t working on Emma, he works as an evangelist and educator of professional PHP development. He is a member of the PHP Security Consortium, organizer of the Nashville PHP User Group, and author of the forthcoming Pro PHP 5 (Apress). As a contributor to the open source community, he is the co-author of a framework for PHP application development called CEP: Core Enterprise PHP, which is currently being ported to PHP5. Marcus became a Zend Certified Engineer at php|works in September 2004, where he gave his first presentation on Growing Your Enterprise with OSS.

Marcus is also a really happy dad and husband, and he looks forward to being more involved in his community, both as a volunteer and politically.

Paul Reinheimer has been an active PHP developer for four years. By day, Paul is writing Professional Web APIs with PHP while pondering the launch of his own startup, Share The Beat. By night, he is pursuing his Bachelors in Business Administration and Computer Science from the University of Windsor.

Paul’s interest in PHP security was piqued by reading Chris’s PHP Security Workbook, and he is currently researching security as it relates to APIs and feeds. Paul is also a Zend Certified Engineer.