About Marcus Biel

Marcus Biel (@MarcusBiel) is a well known figure in the Java community. He serves as an executive member of the Java community process (JCP) and was named Developer Champion (Groundbreaker Ambassador) by Oracle.

Marcus is a regular speaker at Java conferences all over the world, such as Oracle Code One San Francisco, JavaZone Oslow and JBCN Conf Barcelona. In 2019, he was listed as an “Ubiquitous Gold Speaker” by Heinz Kabutz.

Besides this, he works as a technical reviewer for renowned Java books such as Effective Java, Core Java SE 9 for the Impatient or Java by Comparison.

In 2015, Marcus started a Java blog and YouTube channel that makes Java accessible to passionate developers. There are many advanced tutorials that you can find online, but tutorials with a solid background like this one are rare. Today, the course is also available at freecodecamp.org and received a total of over 3.5 Million views so far. His free ebook “Java for Passionate Developers” was downloaded almost 20.000 times so far.

A leading voice in the Java community, Marcus boasts 75,000 followers across various social media platforms. In 2017, he was ranked #13 on the jaxenter.com list of the world’s top Java influencers. He also served as co-lead of the Java User Group Munich and is active in the German craftsmanship community.

Marcus has worked on various Java-related projects since 2001, mainly in the financial and telecommunications industries. In 2007 he graduated with a degree in computer science from the Augsburg University of Applied Sciences in Germany. In 2008, Marcus successfully completed his Sun Certified Java Programmer certification (SCJP 6.0), of which he is still very proud today.

Programming for Marcus is not just a job; it is a significant, creative craft that he engages in daily with enthusiasm and commitment. He values the quality of his work highly, adhering to the belief that while quick and dirty code may seem like a time and cost saver, investing time to do things right pays off with reliable, sustainable, and economical software.

In 2021, Marcus expanded his professional repertoire by launching Maildroppa, an innovative email marketing and automation SaaS, reflecting his entrepreneurial spirit and dedication to improving communication technologies.

When not immersed in Java or developing Maildroppa, Marcus enjoys hiking in the Alps and backpacking. He is also fond of dancing, appreciating a good beer or wine, and experiencing all that Munich has to offer. He lives with his wife and two sons, aged 3 and 5, in the district of Munich, and he proudly owns a pair of Lederhosen.