Alexander Falk

Infobox_person
name=Alexander Falk


caption = Alexander Falk
birth_date=birth date and age|1967|08|13
birth_place=Vienna, Austria
death_date =
death_place =
occupation=CEO of Altova
spouse=Nora Falk
parents = Rotraud Falk, Heinz Falk
children=Calvin Falk, Swanee Falk

Alexander Falk (born August 13, 1967) is the co-founder and CEO of Altova GmbH and co-creator of the popular Altova XMLSpy XML editor and development environment. Also a member of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) XML Schema working group that defined the XML Schema 1.0 specification, as well as the Object Management Group (OMG), Falk is a recognized authority [cite news|url=http://visualstudiomagazine.com/blogs/weblog.aspx?blog=1842|title=Visual Studio Magazine|last=Desmond|first=Michael|date=2008-01-01] on XML, UML, and other software development and data management technologies.

Falk’s technological insights have appeared in numerous software and technology publications, including "Redmond Developer News" [cite news|url=http://reddevnews.com/news/devnews/article.aspx?editorialsid=869|title=Redmond Developer News|last=Desmond|first=Michael|date=2007-11-15] and "EContent Magazine" [cite news|url=http://www.econtentmag.com/Articles/ArticleReader.aspx?ArticleID=39593|title=EContent Magazine|last=Boeri|first=Robert|date=2007-10-09] . A technology, social media, and gadget enthusiast, Falk shares his ideas, discoveries, and knowledge on his blog, [http://www.xmlaficionado.com XML Aficionado] . In addition, he shares restaurant reviews on his gourmet travel blog, [http://www.pheasantglass.com Pheasant Glass] .

Background and Personal Life

Falk was born in Vienna, Austria, moved to Linz, Austria in 1978,Profil Nr. 23, June 2, 2008: Die Spitzenkräfte - Sechs Beispiele von Absolventen österreichischer Unis, die in aller Welt beeindruckende Karrieren gemacht haben (The Top Performers - Six examples of alumni from Austrian universities who made impressive careers all over the world)] and attended high school at [http://www.auhof.asn-linz.ac.at/ Europagymnasium Auhof] , where he graduated with the class of 1985. He received a Diplom-Ingenieur degree (the German equivalent of a Master of Science) in semiconductor physics from [http://www.jku.at/ Johannes Kepler Universitat] in Linz, Austria, in 1992. [cite website|url=http://www.linkedin.com/in/afalk|title=LinkedIn - Alexander Falk profile]

Falk continued to live in Austria until 2001, when he relocated to the United States. He is married to Nora Falk, a textile artist, and has 2 children: Calvin and Swanee.

Career

1988-91: Apple Inc.
Falk began his career at Apple, Inc. where he was a software engineer in the development systems group and worked on ResEdit 2.0 and 2.1.

1992-present: Altova
In 1992 Falk founded Altova in Vienna, Austria, and expanded to the US with the inclusion of the Altova, Inc. subsidiary in 2001. In its early days Altova specialized on information retrieval applications for CD-ROM products, especially telephone directory products. Since 1999, Altova GmbH has been a leader in XML technologies, with the best-selling XML Editor, XMLSpy. The company has since added to its product line with a full line of award-winning database management, data integration, UML, and data management tools. Altova has 3 million clients worldwide, including 91 percent of the Fortune 500 [cite website|url=http://www.altova.com/company_overview.html|title=Altova - Company Overview] .

Falk was initially directly involved in the software development at Altova when he co-created XMLSpy 1999-2002. From 2000-2003 he participated actively in the creation of the XML Schema 1.0 specification at the W3C and has continued to be involved with various standards efforts since then.

Non-profit work

2004-present: [http://www.usps.org/localusps/marblehead/ Marblehead Sail & Power Squadron]
An avid boating enthusiasts, Falk is active with the Marblehead Sail & Power Squadron, a boating education and safety organization dedicated to making boating safer and more enjoyable by teaching classes in seamanship, navigation and related subjects, and a unit of the United States Power Squadrons. He has served as Commander and is presently a Coast Guard-certified Vessel Examiner under the joint Vessel Safety Check program between United States Power Squadrons ( [http://www.usps.org USPS] ) and the United States Coast Guard Auxiliary ( [http://www.cgaux.org USCGAUX] ).

2005-present: [http://m-l-t.org Marblehead Little Theatre]
Falk has served as Secretary on the Board of Trustees of the Marblehead Little Theatre, one of the oldest continuously running theatre groups in New England, for close to three years.

2006-07: Marblehead Charter SchoolFalk has also served as treasurer and chairman of the Financial Committee of the [http://marbleheadcharter.org Marblehead Community Charter Public School] .

ee also

* Altova
* XMLSpy
* W3C
* OMG
* XML
* XML Schema
* UML

External links

* [http://www.altova.com Altova Web site]
* [http://www.xmlaficionado.com XML Aficionado]
* [http://www.pheasantglass.com Pheasant Glass]

Notes

Persondata
NAME=Alexander Falk
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION=CEO of Altova
DATE OF BIRTH=08/13/1967
PLACE OF BIRTH=Vienna, Austria
DATE OF DEATH=
PLACE OF DEATH=