Martin Fowler
Born 1963 · Age 62
British software developer, author and speaker specialising in software architecture, refactoring, design patterns and agile methodologies. Long-time ThoughtWorks Chief Scientist and prolific author (martinfowler.com).
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Life & Career Timeline
Started secondary education (approx.) at Queen Mary's Grammar School
Attended Queen Mary's Grammar School in Walsall for his secondary education (approximate start year based on typical ages).
Finished secondary school (approx.)
Completed secondary education at Queen Mary's Grammar School (approximate year).
Enrolled at University College London
Began studies in Electronic/Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at University College London (UCL).
Graduated BSc (Eng) in Electronic Engineering & Computer Science
Graduated from University College London with a BSc (Eng) in Electronic Engineering and Computer Science.
Joined Coopers & Lybrand (first post‑university employer)
Started working in software development at Coopers & Lybrand in London after university.
Joined Ptech (small tech company in London)
Worked at the small tech company Ptech in London (timing between Coopers & Lybrand and independent consulting; exact years approximate).
Became an independent consultant
Left employment to work as an independent software consultant, taking on client engagements across companies.
Published book: Analysis Patterns: Reusable Object Models
First major book listed: Analysis Patterns (Addison-Wesley).
Published book: UML Distilled
Published UML Distilled: A Brief Guide to the Standard Object Modeling Language (Addison-Wesley).
Columnist for Distributed Computing (late 1990s)
Wrote a column for Distributed Computing magazine in the late 1990s.
Started working with ThoughtWorks (consulting)
Began working with ThoughtWorks in the spring of 1999 after finding their culture aligned with his views.
Published book: Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code
Co-authored Refactoring (Addison-Wesley, June 1999) which popularised the practice of code refactoring.
Editor: design column for IEEE Software (early 2000s)
Served as editor of the design column for IEEE Software for five years in the early 2000s (approx. 2000–2005).
Published book: Planning Extreme Programming (with Kent Beck)
Co-authored Planning Extreme Programming (Addison-Wesley), published 2000.
Joined ThoughtWorks as an employee
Officially joined ThoughtWorks as an employee (many profiles list 2000 as join year).
Closing keynote speaker at XP2000
Gave the closing keynote speech at the XP conference in 2000 (part of a run of closing keynotes 2000–2003).
Closing keynote speaker at XP2001
Gave closing keynotes at XP conferences (2000–2003 inclusive).
Co‑author & signatory: Agile Manifesto (Snowbird)
Participated in the Snowbird meeting and was one of the 17 signatories of the Manifesto for Agile Software Development.
Conference chair: Agile Universe 2001
Served as conference chair for Agile Universe in 2001.
Published book: Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture
Published Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture (Addison-Wesley, with collaborators).
Launched the 'bliki' on martinfowler.com
Started his bliki (a hybrid blog/wiki) in 2003 to support more informal writing and engagement.
Closing keynote speaker at XP2002 and XP2003
Continued to give closing keynotes at XP2002 and XP2003.
Introduced Presentation Model (PM) pattern
Published and introduced the Presentation Model (PM) architectural pattern in 2004.
Published 'Inversion of Control containers and Dependency Injection' article
Authored an influential article (2004) that popularised Dependency Injection as a pattern.
Became a U.S. citizen (retained UK citizenship)
Naturalized as an American citizen while retaining UK citizenship.
Conference chair: XP2005
Served as conference chair for XP2005.
Published book: Domain-Specific Languages
Published Domain-Specific Languages (Addison-Wesley, with Rebecca Parsons).
Published book: NoSQL Distilled
Published NoSQL Distilled: A Brief Guide to the Emerging World of Polyglot Persistence (with Pramod Sadalage).
Published book: Refactoring: Ruby Edition
Co-authored Refactoring: Ruby Edition (Addison-Wesley).
Profile photo by Manuel Gomez Dardenne
Photo credit (used on his site) to Manuel Gomez Dardenne in 2016.
Served on ThoughtWorks primary global leadership team
Joined the primary global leadership team at ThoughtWorks (serving in a guiding, non-operational role).
Published book: Refactoring, Second Edition
Co-authored Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code, Second Edition (Addison-Wesley, with Kent Beck).
Retired from conference speaking
Announced retirement from speaking in 2021, citing it was never something he really enjoyed.
Continued stewardship of martinfowler.com and editorial vetting
Ongoing: edits and curates submissions on martinfowler.com, vets and developmentally edits articles from others.
Public commentary on AI and software engineering
Published and commented on generative AI impacts in software development through ThoughtWorks and martinfowler.com posts (ongoing series of essays and curated content).
Active ThoughtWorks profile and continued content publishing
Listed as Chief Scientist at ThoughtWorks; continues to publish articles on martinfowler.com and ThoughtWorks insights; remains influential in software architecture and agile practices.
Popular recognition & estimated net worth reported
Third-party sites list estimated net worth in the low millions (e.g., $3–5M); these are rough market estimates from book royalties, ThoughtWorks equity, speaking and consulting income.
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