I have been involved in some way or another with computers and IT since the early 1980’s, when I received my first computer at age 8. It was a Texas Instruments TI-99/4A!
Over the years, I closely followed — and benefitted from — the evolution of personal computing and business-use of IT systems through to the present day: incl. the TI-99, Atari, C64/C128, Apple II, Commodore Amiga 500, Atari-ST, PC-AT with Windows 3.1, various PC systems with Win95, WinNT, WinXP(pro), some Apple Macs along the way with OS 8.0 and later, and as of 2005, I abandoned the “Bill Gates / Microsoft empire” and moved over to the modern Apple Macs with OS “X” and later…all the way through to present-day systems, including various Linux ‘distros’ (Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, etc.) As you can see, computers have always been part of my life since those early 80’s days.
Having spent the first 20 formative years of my life in Germany, I am a native-speaker of German and beneficiary of the German education system, having earned my “Abitur” in mid-1994.
I am a 1998 graduate from the University of South Florida cum laude with a B.A. in Political Science and Int’l Affairs. Starting in 1998, when I began attending law school at Stetson University College of Law, the primary focus of my professional career had shifted to the practice of U.S. Immigration Law, having successfully served many hundreds of clients worldwide for 20 years now. I run a busy immigration practice and also an IT-consulting practice, which is located in St. Petersburg, Florida, in the greater Tampa Bay metropolitan area.
Juggling IT and practicing law, I have helped many lawyers and law firms with solving day-to-day practice management issues involving technology solutions. Over the years, I’ve also advised and consulted for many clients, colleagues and business connections on many matters of IT concerns, including systems configuration and implementation, information security, cybersecurity, and related issues.
Although I’ve been active in IT for over 8 years, in some form or another, fairly recently, in 2019, I decided to really start formalising my active interests and work in the areas of IT and Cybersecurity (and Information Security) by obtaining formal validations of my accumulated background knowledge in these areas by earning recognised non-vendor-specific, industry-standard certifications.
To date, I have earned:
- a specialization Certificate in Cybersecurity from the St. Petersburg College (2019),
- the Certified Ethical Hacker (C|EH) designation from EC-COUNCIL (2020),
- the Security+ CE certification from CompTIA (2020, recently renewed to 2026), and
- most recently, the coveted CISSP certification by (isc)2 (Spring 2022).
I currently have a strong interest in cutting-edge issues surrounding Blockchain, Cloud computing and virtualization, Digital Signatures, as well as a host of other areas and topics.
When I am not “at work”, I spend my spare time as a Backyard-Beekeeper, have engaged in Fencing and Krav Maga, enjoy global travel and great food, I love to read and play classic board games, among various other interests and other pursuits.
Over the years, I have also authored many articles in addition to several books on Amazon, including two books on U.S. immigration law, a book on Cryptocurrency investing, one on Mentor-less Beekeeping, and one on investing in physical precious metals.
