Mark Jordan

A self-avowed technophile, Mark Jordan grew up in northeast Brazil as the son of Baptist missionaries. He served 20 years as a US Navy submariner, pursuing his passion for programming as a hobby. Upon retiring from the Navy, he turned his hobby into a dream job, working as a SAS programmer for 9 years in manufacturing and financial services before settling in to work for SAS Institute in 2003. Mark teaches a broad spectrum of Foundation SAS programming classes, and has authored and co-authored the several SAS training courses and SAS User Group papers.

When he isn't teaching, Mark sporadically posts "Jedi SAS Tricks" on the SAS Learning Post blog, enjoys playing with his grandchildren and great-grandchildren or hanging out at the beach and reading science fiction novels. His secret obsession is flying toys – kites, rockets, drones – though he tries (unsuccessfully) to convince his wife they are for the grandkids. Mark currently lives in Toano, VA with his wife, Lori, and their cat, the amazing Tiger Man. You can read his blog at http://go.sas.com/jedi and follow him on Twitter @SASJedi.