Hello, World

Screen Shot 2015-08-31 at 10.13.14 PM

Hi, I’m Brad Sams and I will be your new host, or more specifically, the Executive Editor of Petri.com. If you have been around the Microsoft community for any length of time, you likely have read something I have published even if my name is not familiar. Up until today, I had been running Neowin.net, a Microsoft community I helped to grow into a formidable site that is consistently on the leading edge of Microsoft news, but now it’s time for a new challenge.

So what am I doing here? Frankly, It’s Paul’s fault. Paul Thurrott and I have been working closely together over the last couple of years helping to explain and explore the world of Microsoft and when Blue Whale Web asked if I would like to join the team and not only broaden my horizon, but also take up the challenge of driving strategy for their two properties, it was an offer I couldn’t refuse.

The Petri IT Knowledgebase and Thurrott.com have established themselves as credible and authoritative voices in the industry with Petri being known for its strong enterprise knowledgebase and Thurrott having decades of credibility to his name for years of insight and insider information. I will be writing for both sites as well; if you liked the scoops I brought to Neowin, you will now find them here and of course my podcast, The Redmond Report, will be coming too.

So who am I for those of you who don’t know? I was born in Cincinnati, have an undergraduate degree in accounting and also an M.B.A from the Lindner School of Business. I wrote at Neowin for a total of nine years with about four of them as the head of the news team. Aside from writing, I have started a few companies, with the most recent being Tracour, and I am constantly tinkering with novel ways of doing the tasks of yesterday more efficiently.

When I met with Blue Whale Web for the first time, they asked for my honest opinion about the sites, and I told them I love the content, but there is a lot of work to be done. Surprisingly, they kept asking “what else” needs to change, and from there, the conversation turned from helping out to seeing if I wanted to be the one to drive Petri and Thurrott forward.

I took this position because I believe being comfortable is a place only for retirement, if you sit around to long the world will pass you by. Petri and Thurrott offer up an exciting opportunity for me to grow my own skills but to also help others achieve new heights.

But for now, everything is about making sure, you, the reader, enjoy your time at Petri and Thurrott. Together, we can turn the voices of this site and its readers into the best resource for IT professionals and continue to deliver the best insight fans of Microsoft enjoy.

I like to pride myself on being accessible to everyone, you can find me on Twitter @bdsams where I am highly active or send me an email at [email protected]. Don’t be afraid to reach out, as I do try to answer nearly every email and tweet from readers as this site is as much yours as it is mine.

A new chapter for Blue Whale Web and myself begins today.

 

Thanks!

Brad Sams