I've been hinting around about this for the past few days on Twitter, but I'm finally able to make it public. As of July 11th I'll be joining Adobe as an Evangelist. My primary focus will be on Flex, AIR and Flash Builder but I'll also continue to talk about jQuery Mobile as well. Obviously I've got some interest in ColdFusion so you can expect to still see me speaking/blogging ColdFusion topics as well. (And this is one evangelist who will never use PHP for his demos thank you very much.) This is the most excited I've been in the past decade. I've made my support for Adobe and their tools very clear here and to anyone who would ask. I love what they are doing and how they are doing it. I love sharing that with others most of all. There's something absolutely magical about showing people technology and I now I get to do that as a full time job. I feel like I've been given a dream job. I know it's going to be a lot of hard work - and I still have a lot to learn myself.
I've had a great place of employment over the last year and a half. FirstComp is a wonderful organization with some incredibly smart folks (and crazy ... in a good way... mostly ;) I'll miss them and wish them the best of luck.
Archived Comments
Welcome Ray!!
Want to be the first to comment, so ...
Welcome aboard, excited to finally have you on the team!
--- Ben
Congrats Ray.
My first comment is from my new boss. :)
Grrrrrrr, Greg beat me to it! :-(
Congrats, my friend!
Congrats Ray!
Hope someday I'm good enough to join your ranks. Congratulations, Ray! Laissez les bon temps rouler!
Congrats Ray!
Huge congratulations Ray. A good fit indeed.
Congratulations, what a perfect match!
Congratulations!
Congrats. Will you still be blogging about CF (it is an Adobe product).
There goes the neighborhood! :o)
'Grats on the new job!
{makes happy wookiee sound}
Congrats Ray - well deserved!
Holy cow! Welcome to awesome town :) That's wicked cool!
Outstanding news Ray! The development community and Adobe will the better for it!
I am so thrilled to finally have you on Team Adobe, Ray! :) Welcome!
Richard: I'll stop talking about ColdFusion the day I stop talking completley. ;) Seriously though - I'm still running the ColdFusion Unconference at MAX, and I get to sneak out some info on the next version as an official MAX session.
That is so awesome! Congrats!!
Huge congrats, man. I can only imagine how psyched you are. Very happy for you.
That's super cool! Congrats and best wishes!
Woohoo! How is the mothership? :)
Congratulations Ray! Well deserved.
Congrats! I am sure this is personally exciting for you and will be a boon for Adobe as well.
But am I being selfish when I say I am disappointed that you are not coming on as a ColdFusion Evangelist? I know you will always love ColdFusion, but your focus is going to shift. Much the way Ben Forta's focus has shifted. Every once in a while, you seen Ben discuss ColdFusion. You talk about it publicly everyday, currently.
As a person who has shared many a beer with you, I am so pleased for the personal challenges ahead of you. As an executive at a company that employs a lot of CF Devs, I feel a bit poorer after this announcement. Maybe someday someone can fill the role that you currently fill as the "Chairman of the Board" of our CF Community, as you become more engrossed in the Flex/Air world, just hard to imagine who that would be.
-- Tim
PS: boyzoid this is not FUD, just my gut emotional reaction. I may well feel differently in a week, so no grenades right?
Congratulations! This sounds like an awesome opportunity and I think you will be perfect in this role!
Awesome!!!
Adobe has *the best* evangelism team.
Only by wooing and courting someone of your caliber do they continue to keep it that way!
For my fellow CF'ers who worry about Adobe's commitment to ColdFusion, now I can just say your name as a statement of Adobe's commitment.
Congratulations Ray!
Best regards,
g
P.S. When will your profile be up on: http://adobeEvangelists.com/
Tim, I can promise you, I'm not going to talk any less about ColdFusion. Nor will I stop being involved - especially with what is going on now that I can't talk about here.
Congratulations Ray! I'm excited there will a ColdFusion champion on board those teams. Good times.
Ray, I hope so man. You really are the "Chairman of the Board" regarding all things CFs.
@Greg Hamer: My boss, also a Greg (1st comment above) runs that. Bugging him now. ;)
Nice! The force is strong with you.
WOW! Congrats! You are an awesome guy and this is well-deserved!
About time! Congratulations, Ray! :)
Well done and well deserved.
If there is anything I can do to help you in your transition, please let me know.
DW
WOOHOO! I know you're stoked which makes me stoked. Congratulations!
Congratulations! That is wonderful news!
Well deserved!
Congratulations to you sir.
Tim, you'll be pleased to know that the first tasks we have lined up for Ray are all CF tasks. Bottom line, we want Ray on the team in large part because of his CF expertise and passion, not to squelch that. Promise!
--- Ben
Ben,
Thanks for the reassurance. After some more reflection, perhaps Ray can convince the rest of the Adobe world (that has yet to drink the koolaid) of the value of ColdFusion. He can be our trojan horse.
Congratulations Ray! You've done so much to help the community (and I've certainly learned a lot from you). About time you get paid for promoting CF and related products!!! 8)
Congratulations Ray! Hopefully this means we might see you Down Under one day.
Congratulations Ray! Sounds exciting.
Congrats Ray!
They couldn't have picked a more deserving person :)
Congrats Ray ...
Congratulations, Ray! This is great news, not only because you'll get your dream job, but because it builds confidence in those of us who love CF that it's going to be everywhere Adobe goes! Best of luck, and looking forward to MAX
/ejt
Tim, I had the same concerns when Ray announced his move, but it sounds like there is support for ColdFusion by the evangelist team. We wait for further announcements from Adobe on the product manager front. I get a little nauseous every time I see an Adobe advertisement including the letters PHP.
The big thing here is the great opportunity for Ray and his career. Congratulations to a well earned opportunity!
Congrats, Ray! An excellent match for both sides, and well-deserved.
Rad! Welcome to the family :)
Congrats, Ray! When I heard you were joining Adobe (before knowing for what; I hadn't read the blog post yet), I thought, "Cool! Ray's going to be the next Product Manager for CF!" I was a little disappointed when I heard that you weren't... but I think you were always meant to be an evangelist at Adobe, so this is great! Seriously, congrats!!!
Well done Ray, I'm expecting great things. :-D
Ray,
From all the folks at FirstComp, we will miss you. I can definitely understand the appeal of Adobe. :) Congratulations!
Jason
P.S. If anyone is interested in Ray's old job drop me a line. ;)
Congratulations Ray! Long life to the Coldfusion!
Hugs from Brazil!
Sorry so late to the official announcement. Congrats, and welcome to the team.
Congrats Ray! Does this mean you can get me a free ipad2 also? :)
Nice, Ray! Way to go, and I hope you love it as much as Adobe will love having you around.
Congratulations Ray! Obviously well deserved, and it will be great for the CF community to have another one of us on the inside.
Congrats Ray! You're already an excellent voice for the community, and I can't wait to see what happens when being so is your full-time job.
Congratulations Ray!
Thanks for all you have done and will now continue to do in an official capacity at Adobe. You are a class act and Ben's team is better for it. All the best buddy!
(lol, as I'm typing this, I'm hearing the Blackberry ad on TV with the "Flash.... ahhhaaaaaa!" on the background!)
I'm happy to be the....60th person...to congratulate you Ray. I'm really, really thrilled that you're getting this opportunity. I know it's a dream come true for you.
Wowwie-zing. Congrats, dude (and to Adobe, and to the CF community, and given your new role, much of the Adobe community!)
Congrats!
Congratulations! Hoping to see some more great speaking/writing/docs!
Congrats!
WOW, Raymond
I knew this will be come true sooner o later, you deserve it congratulations and thank you for all of this years to support the ColdFusion Community and than you for your patient with our odd questions sometimes.
Incredible enterprise need incredible people and your incredible, again congratulations my friend!
Good Luck in this new phase of your life
Congratulations! :) Looking forward to see you around.
As all have said before me: Congratulations on making the team!
Congratulations :)
Many many congratulations Ray!
WoW! Congratulations!
Congrats Ray! I knew that it would happen one day or another... :-)
Congrats! Surprised you didn't get this job before, but you have been doing it on a unofficial basis for year. Well done!!
Congratulations! Truly a dream job. From a selfish perspective this is awesome because I can now learn more about Flex (with a CF back end).
Well, finally... Congrats and all the best as an Adobe team member. :)
To the poor souls who commented here and checked "Subscribe", I'm sorry. ;)
To everyone - thank you. The show of support has me smiling ear to ear.
Are you still going to be bugging companies to fix their bugs on their CF-run sites?
Heh - yes. Especially since - for whatever reason - the companies I reach out to lately actually respond. Maybe security issues are finally getting important to people.
Congratulations Ray! I can think of no one better suited to the tasks ahead than yourself. May your future be bright, the path clear, and your stride lengthened with joy, happiness, and prosperity.
I always thought you were basically an Adobe employee anyway, now they actually will be paying you for all you do :)
Congrats!!!
Congratulations Ray
Ray, will you please fight for a Flash Builder/ColdFusion Builder for linux? :)
Well done Ray! :-) I hope Adobe use your enthusiasm, experience, and your skills of being able to explain technical things clearly to PROMOTE COLDFUSION! As someone else said, for selfish reasons I love your blog for everything it teaches people (from newbies to veterans) about CF.
Best of luck and don't stop blogging!
All the best, Ray.
Sweet Ray! Well deserved. The product will be in good hands.
Congrats Ray! Nice to see you up on the Evangelist Super Blog!
Great! I have already created a rule in my Outlook inbox that redirects all complaints to you.
Congrats Ray. The evangelism team is lucky to have you.
Congrats Ray!.
A natural, and welcome progression. I am actually surprised it took this long. Much like when @Ben made this move back in the day, you too are the right kind of community leader to be handed the "evangelist" hat for the Adobe team.
This blog has been important to so many out there, and part of why you the above statements are so true. Please keep spreading the word of the power of CF, etc. online in some way/shape/form. Hopefully this position will allow you to do even more of what you have done so well in your spare time.
DUDE!!! Congrats, Man! When I grow up I wanna be a Jedi too!!! :-)
Congratulations! Good luck in your new position.
Congrats Ray! They could not have picked a better person!
Congratulations!!! I'm sure this blog and all your efforts will only get better!
Congratulations, Ray!
Congrats!
Congratulations Ray. I do however trust that even though you are in more of an official role your demo's will still not lack in references to the greatest duo of movie trilogies of all times? :)
@Jason: I'm already checking to see if I can get the jedimaster@adobe.com alias. :)
CONGRATS! Kewl job!
Congrats.
Now about that copy of the Master Collection your were going to send me...
I saw your tweet on Sunday and this was my first thought, although the FB thing threw me of course. Just another sign of some pending large news around CF. What could it be!
congrats.
Well, I was going to offer my congrats, but instead I'll just say that your pic is freaking me out John Allen.
Congrats jedi master.
*Well* deserved. Congrats Ray!
Congrats! Well deserved and really great for the whole CF community. Don't slow down on the blogging ;)
Congrats Ray! Will this mean a relocation for you? Perhaps to the Boston area?
No. Heck no. Love Boston.... but not to live there. Too darn cold. In fact, if I could move south into Mexico I wouldn't mind.
The Adobe building in Waltham is amazing. Was hoping we might catch up at a Boston CFUG meeting... Selfish of me, I know.
When I travel, I try to check in with the local UG to see if there is a meeting around that time. If I hit Boston, I'll definitely check in.
Dammit. No more freebies. Crap. Crapola.
I mean: Yay! Congratulations!
Congrats, Ray! I won't be seeing you in the office, but I am happy to know you are there.
Congrats...
Congratulations.
Congrats even from far away Europe. This is great for Adobe! Harry & the whole CONTENS team.
More congrats, Ray. Not just anyone can say "I work for Adobe". And, like everyone else who's said it before, I'm glad we'll have another CF proponent there. Please don't lose your passion for CF!
Congratulations from me and the rest of the FusionReactor guys too!
Congrats Ray! You are now official (and no longer the unofficial adobe evangelist)!
But seriously, hope you do continue to blog and experiment with Coldfusion.
Love to say Congrats to you. Hope you can perform well in new world. I know you will be very popular in Adobe world. Keep it up!