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. NeXT was bought by Apple, so he left in June of 1997 to create ClassMAX.com, the search engine for classes and seminars.

After leaving ClassMAX during the late 90s, Aaron went on to become one of the best WebObjects programmers on the planet; he was especially known for his skill deploying WebObjects applications. 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.

In 2007, MacTech named 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 also gave the keynote at the "Voices That Matter" iPhone Developers Conference in 2009.

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 in the industry. It is now in its third edition and has been translated into French, German, Korean, Japanese and Chinese. He is also the co-author of "Core Mac OS X Programming," which was later renamed "Advanced Mac OS Programming. 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.

Director of Operations Jaye Boyer 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.

Jason Russell is the Director of Marketing 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 vanilla ice cream.

Finance and Human Resources Manager Jami Sieder was delighted to join Big Nerd Ranch in 2009. After graduating from DePauw University with a double major in Communications and Literature, Jami spent several years working for a Fortune 100 Company where she served as the Creative Services Manager. Soon, her abiding interests in literature and education led her to her Masters in English Education. After establishing her career as a high school English teacher, Jami took a leave to raise her two young children. She now adores working with the team at the ranch and is excited to help build the best company for which she has ever worked. When not juggling small children, human resource duties, and financial spreadsheets, Jami can usually be found whipping up a gourmet meal, reading a book from the massive stack next to her bed, singing, and loving every moment with her husband and daughters.