Dancing Cloud Services, LLC was founded in 2004 by its president, Simon Roberts. Prior to that point, Simon spent nine years with Sun Microsystems, Inc. as a senior instructor and course developer. Simon spearheaded the introduction of Java training by Sun Microsystems in the U.K. in 1995, and built Sun's first five-day Java programming class. He also developed Sun's original Java certification exams in 1998.
Before joining Sun in 1995, Simon worked as both a software engineer, specializing in industrial control systems, and a teacher, as a part-time member of a local University's staff in his then-home-town of Cambridge, England.
Since leaving Sun, Simon has developed and delivered training for clients around the world. He loves traveling and enjoys discovering new cultures, and learning how to teach effectively within them. He has taught in such diverse locations as Canada, Bulgaria, Poland, Israel, Jordan, and China. He speaks basic French, along with some German and Mandarin Chinese.
Simon believes that training should have an immediate purpose and application, and that the most effective training is usually "on the job" mentoring, helping to remove the immediate roadblocks to productivity that so often plague workers in fast moving environments.
Simon has experience creating training materials for both classroom and computer-based learning. He has published several well-received books, and is currently working on video training projects.
Simon is an F.A.A. certificated flight instructor and commercial pilot with about 2200 hours flight time, more than half of which is flight instruction time, mostly with primary students. He also is a passionate photographer, and former member of the Professional Photographers of America. In 2012, on the first attempt, he earned the designation "Certified Professional Photographer" from that organization.