I'm currently an independent consultant after 15 years at Nortel Networks where I worked as a change agent introducing technologies and practices into organizations (including the SEI where I spent a year collaborating on FODA [Feature-oriented Domain Analysis] and team techniques).
My passion is to bring together people and facilitate discussions, debate, etc - which is probably why I've had at least one panel on average at every OOPSLA since 1994.
Speaking of OOPSLA Panels - I was OOPSLA Panels Chair in 2003 at Anahiem and I've collaborated in the organization of OOPSLA workshops regularly since 1992.
I thought that OOPSLA would fade away by the end of the 20th century - maybe it has and it's morphing as we speak! I always thought the name "OOPSLA" was catchy ... but "Object-Oriented Programming, Systems, Languages, and Applications" doesn't really seem to reflect all that goes on at the conference.