Star Contributor of the Month – Markus Geiß

We’re recognizing Markus Geiß as our Star Contributor. He’s a one-of-a-kind volunteer that stepped right in and immediately became a tight-knit member of the community. In the brief 6 months he’s been here, he’s become a dedicated mentor, a sage architect, a proficient contributor, a respected committer, and most importantly a trusted friend. Join us in congratulating Markus who was also recently recognized by Social Coding 4 Good as their Featured Contributor (pictured in his now famous flower photo from back in the day). 

It’s rare to cross paths with a volunteer like Markus – not only is he a remarkable software developer, he’s such a personable and good-natured individual.  I’m astounded that it’s only been six months from the day that Markus joined the Mifos community with a friendly introduction via the mailing lists after discovering us on Social Coding 4 Good. In that short time, Markus has made a tremendous impact measurable not only by the contributions he’s made but by the positive energy he’s charged into the community. Whether it’s his in-depth personal mentorship of an intern, his jovial and friendly presence on a developer call or GSOC check-in, or simply a ping and an emoticon via Skype, Markus’ presence is strongly felt.

As with all of our Star Contributors, it’s hard to imagine how far we could have come as a community without their effort. Markus is no different. Purely on his own initiative, Markus stepped up to share his expertise and has become an integral part of the development team. His architectural insight has become a pillar of wisdom we’ve been able to count on time after time. Markus always  gives beyond 100% as evident in his role as a mentor overseeing Rishabh’s Batch API work for GSOC and Avik’s work on our WebHooks framework. He’s eager to take on critical projects like Teller Cash Management and PPI  and forward-looking parts of our vision like heading up an extensibility team and building out a Java-based SDK. If you’ve been lucky enough to watch a presentation of Markus’ during one of our calls – they’re a perfect reflection of his contributions – comprehensive yet concise and to the point, thorough yet approachable, and topped off with a dose of humor. It’s always a highlight of my day to receive one of Markus’ pings with a casual and friendly greeting. He has taught me to always greet someone with a “how are you doing?” To answer that from the community, “We’re doing awesome because you came our way – here’s to many more year’s of contributions!”

And I mustn’t forget the explanation  for  his skype status of  YAGNI likes a DRY KISS

Markus Geiß – Nickenich, Germany

Brief Bio (in the words of Markus): Throughout the last years I’ve worked on business and enterprise level software in companies of various sizes, from 15 to 400. I’ve held different roles from software engineer to architect to team lead. I enjoy creating business value through the use of technology and resolving complexity by simple means. It’s my goal to create efficiency for both the customer and the engineering team by focusing on the requirements, rely on well known standards, and utilizing existing technology to reduce cost and decrease time to market.

Relevant Skills & Experience:

•  Design and implementation in Java in all layers (UI to RDBMS)
• RESTful APIs for integration into various systems
• Effective algorithms to reach near real time processing
• Evaluating and selecting proper technology to focus on business value instead of maintaining home brewn infrastructure