Aaron Hillegass is the CEO of Big Nerd Ranch, which he founded in 2001. He started programming at the age of 10 in the basement of the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. At 19, Aaron took his first professional programming job with the Mitre Corporation in their Advanced Signal Processing Lab. He wrote the data structures library for Tower Eiffel, before leaving to work on Wall Street to help create mortgage-backed securities, a device that would, fifteen years later, bring our entire economy to its knees. Aaron was also a developer trainer at NeXT in 1995 - 1997. Shortly after NeXT was bought by Apple, Aaron left to start his own company.

In 2000 Aaron was asked to teach Apple engineers how to write apps for this new Operating System: Mac OS X. After spending the summer of 2000 volunteering at the Omega Institute in Rhineback, NY, he decided to apply the monastic idea of retreat to technical training; Big Nerd Ranch was born. BNR taught its first course in March of 2001. He crafted the class structures practiced at the Ranch and is currently working on design plans for the new Ranch, located in Atlanta, GA.

MacTech consistently names Aaron one of the top 25 most influential people in the Mac community. An accomplished speaker, Aaron has lectured at Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC), ApacheCon, and C4. He has given the keynote at all the "Voices That Matter" iPhone Developers Conferences. He also gave the keynote at BZMedia's iPhone/iPad DevCon.

Aaron is also a best selling author. "Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X" was published in December of 2001. "Cocoa Programming" is widely considered the Bible of Mac development. It is now in its fourth edition and has been translated into French, German, Korean, Japanese and Chinese. He is also the co-author of "Advanced Mac OS X Programming" and "iPhone Programming: the Big Nerd Ranch Guide". He was one of two developers who wrote topsXtreme, a orthodontic practice management system based on Cocoa and PostgreSQL. He has also written applications for UPS, Z-Systems, and Apple, among others. In 2009, Aaron wrote the popular campground mobile application Campwhere.

Aaron is often seen wearing a ten-gallon cowboy hat in public. He lives with his wife and two sons in Decatur, Georgia.

Emily Herman, Director of Software Products, started her professional life by creating a San Francisco-based office for a British intellectual property company. After five years of total immersion in the land of dotcom madness, she and Aaron started Big Nerd Ranch in 2001. Emily spent 7 years as president and co-owner of Big Nerd Ranch, learning how to run a company by, well, running a company. In 2009, with Big Nerd Ranch firmly established, she left to pursue her love of start-up.

In August 2011, she was lured back to Big Nerd Ranch with the promise of new and exciting opportunities to create and sell BNR mobile apps to the world. While she figures out how to do that, she happily tortures the talented BNR developers by asking her favorite question, "What would happen if…?"

When she's not working, she runs all over East Atlanta with her dog, wishes that she had an organic garden overflowing with tomatoes, and tries to eat at every good restaurant in Atlanta at least once.

Vice President, Operations Jaye Liptak has been herding the nerds since 2005. Jaye has worked in several different fields keeping people and businesses organized and running smoothly. From a film crew in Washington, D.C. to a civil rights law firm and an immigration law firm in Atlanta. She also ran her own successful cake business before she was lured into the Big Nerd Ranch, by some people she admires very much. She intends to never leave the nerding biz, as now she is completely enamored with this company and the hundreds of interesting students she gets to meet every year. She graduated from The George Washington University with a degree in Radio and Television Broadcasting. She also lends her voice to various local and national radio and television commercials, bakes a mean cake, and gardens her downtown yard like a true urban farmer.

Stacy Moore is a CPA who recently joined BNR as the Director of Finance. Prior to this, Stacy worked as an auditor for Arthur Andersen (pre-Enron days), a controller for a photography company, a teacher for a private school in Florida and most recently as an accountant for a local CPA firm. When not crunching numbers, Stacy enjoys coaching, playing and umpiring girls’ lacrosse and riding her horse Lark. She has been married for over 20 years to Trent and they have 3 children who keep them very busy. She loves working for a company where it is cool to be a nerd.

Jason Russell Vice President of Business Development for Big Nerd Ranch. He has an extensive marketing and advertising executive background, coupled with small business ownership. During his career, Jason has worked at advertising heavyweights McCann-Erickson, Ogilvy & Mather and BBDO, among others. In 2003 he launched his own poker chip company, All-In Chips, capitalizing on the immense popularity of the sport on television. After selling All-In Chips in early 2006, he travelled all over the world with his importing business, focusing primarily on goods from the Far East. His love for all things Asian migrated into owning furniture businesses, until one fateful day when Big Nerd Ranch came calling. Jason now oversees all things related to the BNR brand. He has called Atlanta home for most of his life, living with his wife Sarah, and Italian Spinone, Gunner. When not kicking a soccer ball around town, Jason loves to eat hot apple pie with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Director of Corporate Training, Jami Sieder was delighted to join Big Nerd Ranch in 2009. After graduating from DePauw University, Jami spent several years working for a Fortune 100 Company where she served as the Director of Creative Services. Next, her abiding interests in literature and education led her to her to pursue a Masters degree in English Education. After making her mark as a high school English teacher, Jami took a leave to raise her two young children. She now finds daily inspiration in helping to build the best company with which she's been affiliated. While not at the Ranch, Jami can be found trying to whip up a gourmet meal with the "help" of her daughters, reading a book from the massive stack next to her bed, belting out show tunes, and laughing at her husband's jokes.