Fernando Ellis was born and raised in New York City, and attended Hunter College High School. After studying computer science, mathematics, German, and free and open source software at the Rochester Institute of Technology, he has worked for 9 years at Red Hat as a software consultant. Over that time his clients have included major banks, retail, public sector, healthcare, consulting firms, and startup organizations throughout central and eastern North America. Outside of work he enjoys reading books, watching movies, attending board game conventions, traveling, speaking other languages, bicycling, and cooking.