Get To Know Vasken Hauri

Vasken joined 10up in February of 2013 with over 10 years of experience working in technology in both the public and private sectors. Before becoming a WordPress developer in 2009, Vasken worked at Plymouth State University in several roles ranging from desktop support to systems administration, and occasionally, adjunct faculty member.

Vasken enjoys creating natural, consistent user experiences that enhance and promote interactivity through simplicity. As a developer, one of Vasken’s strengths is his ability to communicate highly technical concepts in a clear, non-technical way in order to build understanding between various project stakeholders. This, along with significant experience across several technology sectors, has allowed him to engineer successful projects within organizations ranging from small, independent businesses to public universities to online publications with millions of unique visitors each month.

A strong believer in open source technologies, Vasken has spoken and hosted panels at numerous WordCamp, NERCOMP, and EDUCAUSE events, on subjects ranging from Green Computing to WordPress-based centralized authentication systems. He currently holds a Bachelor of Arts in German Studies from Haverford College and a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from Plymouth State University.

We’re thrilled Vasken will be speaking at WordCamp Sacramento 2016 on Tips And Tricks For Debugging Like A Pro!

Speaker Q&A With Vasken

To help you learn even more about Vasken, we asked him to answer a few questions for us, some WordPress-related, and some others we think you’ll appreciate 🙂

What inspired you to give this talk at WordCamp?

I’ve always enjoyed attending and speaking at WordCamps, especially those in my local community. When I first entered the WordPress community in 2008, I remember being overwhelmed by the size and active nature of the community behind it. Since then, WordPress has only continued to grow, and as I’ve learned more about the open source software that I love, it makes sense to share that knowledge at WordCamp.

How did you discover WordPress?

I was introduced by a friend who ran a successful blog back in late 2007.

How has WordPress Or WordCamp impacted you?

WordPress is a huge part of my life–it’s not just software that I work with on a daily basis, it’s the foundation on which I’ve built a large part of my career and also what I use to write my own, completely inconsequential blog about gardening successes and failures (mostly the latter). I love sharing similar stories and brainstorming new ideas at WordCamps, where I can be exposed to others in the community with a whole range of experiences around WordPress.

How do you primarily work with WordPress?

I’m the Vice President of Engineering at 10up, so I spend a large portion of my day working directly with engineering and project teams creating new sites and experiences in WordPress.

What does the WordCamp theme Discovery mean to you?

In the context of my talk, I think Discovery has a somewhat interesting meaning. A lot of times, I run into engineers who have incredible ability to build new things, but they lack the debugging or troubleshooting skills and experience to help fix things that have gotten old or broken. I hope my talk can help to demonstrate how debugging, often considered one of the most frustrating parts of engineering, can actually be fun and rewarding, if you have the right tools. Simply put, nothing is more satisfying than when you discover that tricky bug in your code and finally get to squash it!

What is the latest book you read?

How to Survive a Horror Movie: All the Skills to Dodge the Kills by Seth Grahame-Smith.

What is your favorite restaurant? Favorite menu item?

Buffalo Wild Wings, fried pickles.

What TV series are you current binging on/into?

The Strain.

What do you do for fun?

I play in some relatively unorganized musical groups, tend to whatever plants in my garden I haven’t killed yet, and spend time with my awesome wife and our (usually) awesome four dogs and two cats up here on our farm in Mariposa, CA!