Pedro Celis (born in

Monterrey Monterrey ( , ) is the capital and largest city of the northeastern state of Nuevo León, Mexico, and the third largest city in Mexico behind Guadalajara and Mexico City. Located at the foothills of the Sierra Madre Oriental, the city is anchor ...

Nuevo León Nuevo León () is a state in the northeast region of Mexico. The state was named after the New Kingdom of León, an administrative territory from the Viceroyalty of New Spain, itself was named after the historic Spanish Kingdom of León. With a ...

México Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

) is a retired Distinguished Engineer from

Microsoft Corporation Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation, multinational technology company, technology corporation producing Software, computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at th ...

. He served at the

U.S. President The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States ...

's Information Technology Advisory Committee (PITAC) from 2003 to 2005. PITAC advises the president on policies and investments that the federal government should pursue to enhance and maintain the preeminence of the U.S. in information technology. He holds over 15 US patents. In 2009 the ''Hispanic Business Magazine'' named him one of the 100 most influential Hispanics in the United States. In February 2014, he announced a bid for U.S. Congress in Washington state's 1st Congressional District to challenge incumbent U.S. Rep.

Suzan DelBene Suzan Kay DelBene (née Oliver; ; born February 17, 1962) is an American politician and businesswoman who has been the United States House of Representatives, United States representative from Washington's 1st congressional district since 2012. ...

. In August 2014, Celis narrowly advanced through the primary election before falling to DelBene in the November general.

Education and career

Celis graduated in 1979 with a bachelor's degree in Computer Engineering from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Studies (ITESM) and received both a master's degree in Mathematics (1982) and a doctorate in Computer Science (1986) from the

University of Waterloo The University of Waterloo (UWaterloo, UW, or Waterloo) is a public research university with a main campus in Waterloo, Ontario Waterloo is a city in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is one of three cities in the Regional Municipality ...

. He worked as an assistant professor at the Computer Science Department of

Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. Campuses Indiana University has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration of IUPUI. *Indiana Universit ...

. He later worked as a software designer at

Britton Lee, Inc. Britton Lee Inc. was a pioneering relational database company. Renamed ShareBase, it was acquired by Teradata in June, 1990. History Britton Lee was founded in 1979 by David L. Britton, Geoffrey M. Lee and a group of hardware engineers along with ...

He worked at

Tandem Computers Tandem Computers, Inc. was the dominant manufacturer of fault-tolerant computer systems for Automated teller machine, ATM networks, banks, stock exchanges, telephone switching centers, and other similar commercial transaction processing applicati ...

from 1989 to 1998 where he became Technical Director of the

NonStop SQL NonStop SQL is a commercial relational database management system that is designed for fault tolerance and scalability, currently offered by Hewlett Packard Enterprise. The latest version is SQL/MX 3.4. The product was originally developed by Tan ...

team. At Microsoft from 1998 to 2012, Celis held several positions in the SQL Server group, including leading the

WinFS WinFS (short for Windows Future Storage) was the code name for a canceled data storage and management system project based on relational databases, developed by Microsoft and first demonstrated in 2003 as an advanced storage subsystem for the Micro ...

team at its creation and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for SQL Server. He worked in the

Bing Bing most often refers to: * Bing Crosby (1903–1977), American singer * Microsoft Bing, a web search engine Bing may also refer to: Food and drink * Bing (bread), a Chinese flatbread * Bing (soft drink), a UK brand * Bing cherry, a varie ...

organization from 2009 to 2011. He was considered a senior technical leader in the company. The Hispanic IT Executive Council named Celis as one of the most influential Hispanics in the IT industry in 2009 and 2010.

Other activities

Celis is an organizer, founder and member of the board of directors of Plaza Bank, a Latino business focused bank that opened in 2006 in Seattle, Washington. He is a board member of Stronger Families and the Washington News Council. He has climbed

Mount Rainier Mount Rainier (), indigenously known as Tahoma, Tacoma, Tacobet, or təqʷubəʔ, is a large active stratovolcano in the Cascade Range of the Pacific Northwest, located in Mount Rainier National Park about south-southeast of Seattle. With a s ...

to benefit the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center's ''Climb to Fight

Breast Cancer Breast cancer is cancer that develops from breast tissue. Signs of breast cancer may include a lump in the breast, a change in breast shape, dimpling of the skin, milk rejection, fluid coming from the nipple, a newly inverted nipple, or a re ...

. He is the founder of the Washington State chapter of the

Republican National Hispanic Assembly The Republican National Hispanic Assembly is an American political organization founded in 1967 which seeks to promote Hispanic-American issues and interests within the Republican Party, and the Party's interests and candidates within the Hispan ...

and served as its first chairman from 2001 to 2005. From 2005 to 2007 he served as National Chairman of the RNHA. In the 2008 presidential primary campaign, Celis served as Co-Chair of the

Mitt Romney Willard Mitt Romney (born March 12, 1947) is an American politician, businessman, and lawyer serving as the junior United States senator from Utah since January 2019, succeeding Orrin Hatch. He served as the 70th governor of Massachusetts f ...

for President Washington Steering Committee.

References

External links

Official campaign website of Pedro Celis for CongressMicrosoft PressPass page on Pedro CelisCommercial racial profiling: Mexican truckers singled out, Seattle Times, Aug. 27, 2004Es Mexicano la base de SQL en Microsoft, El Norte, Sept. 13, 2004 (in Spanish)
* ttps://www.washingtonpolicy.org/publications/opinion/social-security-tale-two-problems Social Security: A Tale of Two Problems

Washington Policy Center The Washington Policy Center (WPC) is a think tank based in the state of Washington. The organization's mission statement is "to promote sound public policy based on free-market solutions." It has a statewide staff of 25 and offices in Seattle, Ol ...

, 2005 {{DEFAULTSORT:Celis, Pedro Living people 21st-century American engineers Mexican engineers Microsoft employees Database researchers Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education alumni University of Waterloo alumni Indiana University faculty Mexican emigrants to the United States Washington (state) Republicans Politicians from Monterrey Year of birth missing (living people)