The Airlift for Java development team represents more than 45 years of experience in the field of information technology, and more than 17 years of experience with Java.

As a core design and implementation team, Mark Soileau, Milan Zimmermann, and Eric Vickery bring to the Airlift Group a rich skillset and a wealth of knowledge and experience in the development tools industry.

The team (click on titles for complete Bios):

Mark began developing software in 1978 as a middle school student. Before leaving high school, he had developed an extensive Student Information Management (SIM) system which could run on several different microcomputer platforms. As he completed a B.S. in Computer Engineering at Auburn University, Mark expanded his SIM business, developed the Unix-based school administration product Adminix, and supported more than 30 different public and private school clients.

Since that time, Mark has provided software architectural design, implementation, deployment, consulting, training, and mentoring services within the IT industry. He has served a broad array of clients including Computer Sciences Corporation, BellSouth, Southern Company, Blue Cross and Blue Shield, and worked to "bootstrap" the technology base for several small and startup companies including Actek, Inc. and Animotion Graphics.

Mark's primary focus has long been the development of reusable toolkits which make mainstream developers more productive. Since 1996 he has been working in the area of Java frameworks, with Airlift for Java the culmination of those years of work.

Milan has 15 years of software development and design experience. His earliest projects involved modelling and optimization software, scientific computing and optimization software for warehouse supply management. He also helped migrate procedural software to Object Oriented multi-tier architectures, developed advanced Scheduling and Manpower Balancing Systems, and has designed and developed interactive graphical tools such as a network visualizer for integration with the Scheduling Systems.

More recently, he has served the IT community as a consultant by providing architectural design, implementation and testing, and developer training, mentoring and support. Over the past several years, he has made valuable contributions in the design and implementation of in-house developerment frameworks using various Enterprise Java technologies.

Milan completed an Engineering degree in Applied Mathematics at the Technical University in Prague and a Masters in Mathematics at the University in Toronto.

Eric began his software development career in the late 1980's, and from the outset exhibited the characteristics of a self-motivated software designer. Building his own visual development tools during his spare time, he quickly became a proficient Windows developer and an experienced "object thinker". Eric served as Director of Development at Animotion Graphics Corp. during the early 1990's where he oversaw the design, implementation, and tech support of Animotion's various consumer oriented multimedia products.

Since that time, Eric has proven his abilities as a software architect, developer and team leader, many times over and at several different companies, including TapScan,Inc., Revere,Inc., and Group 8760,LLC. He has served with great success in all areas of product development including Software Engineer, Architect, and Director of Development.