Jeff Baker:  

Life I attended Lucerne Elementary in Lucerne, CA from 1973-79. Spending my formative years living on Clear Lake, swimming, skiing and sailing nearly 10 months of the year. What more could a kid ask for? I then moved to Ashland, OR to attend high school. Ashland was an excellent experience, despite having only 3yrs to get to know my classmates. After leaving Ashland I attended the University of Oregon, graduating with a B.S. in Molecular Biology followed by an MBA in Marketing. During college I spent two great summers in Alaska working the salmon season. My wife Gigi is a fellow Duck, and after graduating in 1990 we moved to Seattle. I’ve spent most of my professional life working at Microsoft, and have loved just about every minute of it. I’m a Market Research Manager; I conduct studies with thousands of customers around the world, to understand the needs and experiences of “real people” as they use PCs and other computing/entertainment devices. I bring those insights back into the company in order to impact Product Development, with the goal of creating products that are more useful and more empowering for customers. I love my work, and my biggest challenge is not putting in too much time at the office. Gigi also worked at Microsoft for several years when we first came to Seattle. In 1995, we were blessed with twin boys who are now eight years old. Thanks mostly to Gigi, they’re great kids. She continues to stay at home to make sure they stay that way, but has enough time to manage her hobby-turned-small-business of making jewelry. We live in an older, pre-cul-de-sac house in the suburbs, ~5 minutes from Microsoft [If I had to drive Seattle freeways every day my head would explode]. We often congregate by the small creek in our backyard, which provides summer fun for the boys and quiet tranquility for Gigi and I. The twins ...Expand for more