Alexis Leon is a software consultant, researcher, author, and reviewer. He has more than 18 years of experience in the areas of software engineering, database management systems, knowledge discovery, enterprise resource planning, workflow automation, groupware, product design, process improvement, project management, configuration management, quality assurance, work measurement, productivity improvement, and employee and end-user training. He earned his master's degree (M. Tech) in industrial engineering from Kerala University, India in 1991, and his bachelor's degree (B. Tech) in industrial engineering in 1989 from the same university.
Before becoming a software professional, he was a practicing industrial engineer at Pond's India Ltd. There, he was in charge of the IE department and was responsible to setting time standards, developing and establishing predetermined motion time standards (PMTS), designing plant layouts and material handling systems, production planning, method study, work simplification, productivity improvement, wage and incentive planning, and employee training. At Pond's India Ltd, he had the opportunity to work on cutting-edge production technologies like the Toyota production system, small group and small lot production, JIT and Kanban, and zero-defect manufacturing.
After two years of practicing industrial engineering, he switched professions to a career in software development. He joined Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), one of the world's leading information technology companies. At TCS, he mainly worked on IBM mainframes and many diverse projects. While working at TCS, in 1993, Alexis was involved in a road traffic accident that resulted in a spinal cord injury and paralysis from the chest down. After treatment and physical rehabilitation, he rejoined TCS and worked there for a couple of years more.
After about six years, he left TCS and co-founded Cybernet Software SystemsPvt. Ltd., a company that specialized in groupware and workflow automation.In 1997, he left Cybernet to start his own company along with his brother. He is the managing director of L and L Consultancy Services Pvt. Ltd., which specializes in software and industrial engineering consultancy.
Alexis has written more than 40 books on computing, IT, and management topics. Two of his books have been translated to Mandarin. He reviews books and productivity improvement tools (hardware and software) on his online book club at http://www.pegasusbookclub.com/. He is a member of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the IEEE-Computer Society, the Institute of Industrial Engineers (IIE), the Modern Language Association (MLA), the Computer Assisted Language Instruction Consortium (CALICO), the Indian Institution of Industrial Engineers (IIIE), and the Computer Society of India (CSI).
He lives in the beautiful tropical state of Kerala, India. His hobbies include reading, blogging, listening to music, and watching movies. More information about Alexis and his activities can be found at his personal Web site: http://www.alexisleon.com/.