Elena Rakhimov has more than 20 years of experience in software architecture and development in a wide spectrum of enterprise and business environments ranging from nonprofit organizations to Wall Street to her current position with a prominent consulting company. Her determination to stay "hands-on" notwithstanding, Elena managed to excel in the academic arena, having taught relational database programming at Columbia University's highly esteemed Computer Technology and Applications program. She was educated in database analysis and design at Columbia University and in applied mathematics at Baku State University in Azerbaijan.