Houston, Texas-native Donovan Brown didn’t intend on becoming a prominent speaker in the world of tech. But with the countless hours he’s invested into his passion of programming, it’s no surprise Brown has honed his craft and found greater confidence on stage. Brown credits many of his career highs and overall opportunities to Microsoft. “My entire career has been on Microsoft software,” says Brown, who’s been writing software for over 20 years. “Microsoft is literally why I have everything that I own. Even when I was a consultant, it was all Microsoft. When I joined Notion Solutions, it was Team Foundation Server [a Microsoft product]. To work for a company that’s literally given me everything, professionally, I take that extremely seriously. I’m extremely proud to work for Microsoft.” His first big stage debut began with a cold email. A technical sales rep at Microsoft at the time, Brown was preparing for a customer visit and pushing Release Management, a product that automates...