Meet Our Training Experts

Our trainers build fun and engaging classroom experiences that demonstrate frameworks like Scrum and Kanban as fundamentally workable approaches for building and supporting great products, backed up by a wealth of hands-on experience using them in the real world. Even among the small community of Certified Scrum Trainers (a pool of less of 300 people in the world licensed to teach Scrum courses), our CSTs are widely recognized as three of the most effective Agile instructors in the field, as shown by our fiercely loyal customer base that return again and again.

Dr. Patrick (Mack) McConnell

Dr. Patrick (Mack) McConnell is the Vice President of Agile Services at NextUp Solutions and a Certified Scrum Trainer (CST) specializing in Agile transformation in the public sector and scaling agile frameworks. A criminologist by training, Mack transitioned from developing geospatial applications in Agile teams to coaching and training Agile methods and frameworks. He has served as an Agile coach and trainer for over 50 U.S. Government organizations, as well as the states of Alabama, Maryland, and New York.

Classes

Certified ScrumMaster (CSM), Advanced Certified ScrumMaster (A-CSM), Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO), Advanced Certified Scrum Product Owner (A-CSPO), and Agile and Scrum in a Day

Kert Peterson

Kert Peterson began his career as a software engineer in NASA’s space shuttle program. These roots afford him practical insights into the daily challenges faced by testers, engineers, and other creatives working alongside business stakeholders. Personally trained by the creator of Scrum, Kert is one of just two Accredited Kanban Trainers (AKTs) who concurrently hold an active Certified Scrum Trainer (CST) credential with the Scrum Alliance. Kert earned a Bachelor of Science in mathematics from the University of Texas at San Antonio. Now, he and his family live in the sunny eastern foothills of the Canadian Rockies in the city of Calgary, Alberta. When Kert is not teaching, he likes to spend time playing mandolin and teaching tai chi.

Classes

Certified ScrumMaster (CSM), Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO), Kanban System Design (KSD), Kanban Systems Improvement (KSI), Team Kanban Practitioner (TKP)

Richard Cheng

A graduate of Virginia Tech and renowned Agile expert, Richard Cheng has presented keynote speeches at conferences and events around the globe and authored publications on Agile and product management. Richard has extensive experience working with the federal government, large companies, small startups, non-profit organizations, and associations. In addition to being one of the few Certified Scrum Trainers (CST) accredited by the Scrum Alliance, Richard is also a Certified ScrumMaster (CSM), Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO), Certified Scrum Professional (CSP), Certified LeSS Practitioner, Project Management Professional (PMP), PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP), and SAFe Program Consultant (SPC).

Classes

Certified ScrumMaster (CSM), Advanced Certified ScrumMaster (A-CSM), Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO), Advanced Certified Scrum Product Owner (A-CSPO), and Agile and Scrum in a Day