Hello, my name is Chris Uriarte. For those of you that are the least bit curious, the short version of my story goes like this: I am a technology researcher, architect and entrepreneur who, these days, is mainly consumed by my career. Any other energy I have goes to snowboarding, teaching and speaking, music, travel, taking pictures, reading and writing and good food (not necessarily in that order).
I am a thirty-something professional who lives in the shadows of New York City. Even though I call Hoboken, NJ home, I have traveled over 100 days a year over the last seven years for, both, business and pleasure. Professionally, I am based in Hazlet, NJ, but spend a significant amount of time working out of London, New York City and Providence, RI.
In the winter months, I am primarily focused on the great sport of snowboarding. I often get to snowboard over 40 days each year and spend a lot of time writing about the sport and connecting with fellow snowboarders throughout the world. I have contributed a number of snowboard-related articles to various print and online publications, and spent a number of years on Snowboard.com, where I oversaw the Equipment, General and East Coast sections of the site. I'm also the co-author of "Definitive Guide for Purchasing a Snowboard", which was published by myself and a few friends back in 2005. OK, yes, I'm obsessed.
Throughout the year, I enjoy traveling with friends on both snowboard and non-snowboard related adventures. I've traveled extensively throughout the world. Some of my favorite cities in the worked include New York, Montreal, London (where I lived for most of 2003), Sydney, Toronto and, of course, Paris. Closer to home, I'm particularly fond of the beauty and variety that Canada has to offer, and some of my Canadian friends have deemed me an adopted Canadian citizen (I made 9 trips north of the border this past year alone). In the coming years, I'd like to explore more of Australia, Chile, Argentina and Thailand.
Music is another big part of my life. I own over 700 CDs and spent a good portion of my earlier years traveling the country watching bands. From 1996 until 2000, I held various positions working within the music industry in and around New York City, particularly focusing on the college market for a good portion of those years. I own four iPods and have 40 gigs of digital music (all legal, believe it or not).
I was schooled at Rutgers University, where I also spent 3 years teaching as an adjunct. I was trained as a computer engineer, but really haven't spent many days in my life working as one.
Some of my other interests include good food, beer and wine (love great beers), reading, movies (particularly indie films), cars (BMWs and Jeeps), baseball (Yankees partial season ticket holder), NFL and college football (Giants, Michigan, Rutgers), trashy pop culture, and pretty much all of those cartoons that were made for adults (Simpsons, Family Guy, etc.).
I'm a snowboarder, amateur photographer, entrepreneur and technologist. My business is the business of creating stuff and I try to use technology to actually do things useful (Google Maps: Useful. Dog skateboarding on YouTube: Not Useful). In 2007, I was named one of the top 25 technology executives in the country. Not that you care.
