Ralph has always had a connection to products. In the late 80's he sold a floppy disc based subscription service for the Amiga. After graduating in Computer Science, he began his unstoppable journey of learning in different countries and industries in 1997. In his first 18 months in Germany, Ralph quickly realised that good technology is important, but software products can only be successful through proper management. He discovered eXtreme Programming and Scrum via the Unified Process, UML and Use Cases in early 2000. After his time in Germany, Ralph moved on to Oracle in England, where he worked on various products and promoted agility through Scrum and XP. In mid-2000, during the dot-com boom, he went to Manhattan for a short time to work for a bank. When the boom ended, he was made redundant, but quickly found a new challenge at Applied Biosystems, a life science company in Silicon Valley. Over the next 6 years, Ralph established Scrum, organised teams and developed an agile infrastructure (Build Pipelines). During his time there, Ralph worked on various products such as genetic sequencers and laboratory management systems. Initially on-site, he later pioneered distributed teams between California and India. In 2007, Ralph joined ThoughtWorks in San Francisco and worked as an agile consultant with clients such as LinkedIn, Roche Pharmaceuticals, The Gap and Google. Ralph founded his company effective agile in Bern in 2011 and now works as a trainer, coach and consultant in the management sector. He also enjoys giving guest lectures at universities.
Ralph has trained more than 10,000 people in over 700 training sessions. These trainings are enriched by his broad experience in various fields and regulated environments (FDA). Ralph is agile through and through and uses the agile mindset at home and in everyday life. Ralph lives in Bern with his wife and two student daughters. In his free time, Ralph enjoys sports, cooking and continuing his education.