Jim McCarthy is blessed with a proven ability to see the future, to create value around what he sees and to thereby bring the future closer. While at Microsoft and Bell Laboratories, he saw there was a better way to build products by focusing on the team around him. He used this observation to create one of the greatest Microsoft teams, the Visual C++ team.

Michele McCarthy graduated from Harvey Mudd College with a Master's in Engineering. Beginning in 1990, Michele worked at Microsoft as a program manager on five projects, establishing a reputation for shipping on time. Jim McCarthy met Michele and encouraged her to move to the Visual C++ group where she began innovating in the area of team dynamics.