Stephen Pierzchala is currently a Senior Consultant in the Professional Services Organization at Gomez, Inc, as well as the Chief Performance Evangelist and Primary Developer for the GrabPERF Performance Monitoring System. He has been actively been working with, supporting and analyzing data from Internet technologies since 1994.

Since 2004, he has maintained and authored Newest Industry and Crazy Canuck Chronicles, an amalgamated blog detailing his life in the US, the ongoing frustration with immigration, Web performance issues, and the evolving field of social media.

He also has a deep and unrequited desire to own an Apple laptop.

Born in Calgary, Alberta in 1968, Stephen has worked on computers since the days of the Apple II and Commodore PET. He has also had the perverse pleasure of connecting a KayPro Portable to the Internet over a dial-up connection.

After a ten-year detour through the liberal arts — BA in Canadian History from the University of Victoria and some Graduate Studies in History at the University of Alberta. He returned to his geek nature in 1995 when he took a tech support position at a local ISP.

Stephen also participated in the Applications and Management of Information Technology (AMIT) program at the University of Victoria, where he was exposed to many aspects of IT management and system administration.

As a Canadian ex-pat in the United States, Stephen has lived in San Mateo, CA (1999-2003), and presently lives in Marlborough, MA (2004-present) with his wife Samantha and their two sons Cameron and Kinnear.

Stephen is also the author of Bipolar Lives, a blog detailing his ongoing adventure with Bipolar I.