About Brett Marl

I was born in the beautiful roman fortress of Chester in England, and moved to Seattle after University.
I worked at Microsoft for many years - and helped start two projects there. The first was Outlook Express - bringing email to the masses. The second was MSN Mobile - putting all of MSN’s properties on mobile phones and PDAs.

I left Microsoft in 2000 and co-founded a software startup in Seattle putting email on mobile phones - selling the company to Visto. In 2004 I joined Pure Networks as the CTO. Four years later we were aquired by Cisco, which is where I am today.

I have a huge (somewhat oxymoroninc) passion for both software and the outdoors. Although, I will do my best not to blog about software stuff here :)

I’ve been backpacking for almost 20 years, and started experimenting with Ultralight backpacking around 2003 after stumbling on Rays Book.

In the summer, backpacking has to compete for my attention along with climbing and mountain biking. In the winter, my gear gets tucked away in favour of snowboarding season.

I’m also somewhat of a DIY nut. Theresa (my wife) and I have an old house in Seattle and spend a lot of time remodeling or helping friends with remodeling projects. Everyone needs a welder and a plasma cutter, right?

Other hobbies? Of course… photography, helping Theresa with her Art School business and I suppose blogging.