Michael Rys is principal program manager lead in the SQL Server team owning the Beyond Relational scenario. He has worked on SQL Server since SQL Server 2000 and has worked on the XML support and spatial indexing among other things. He also represents Microsoft Corp. in the W3C XML Query working group and the ANSI SQL standardization effort. He joined Microsoft in 1998 after performing research in the areas of object-oriented and semi-structured databases, multi-level transaction management, and distributed heterogeneous information integration at Stanford University and at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich where he earned his PhD. Michael is a senior member of ACM and IEEE and has given many presentations and contributed to several books on XML and databases.