Mike Villalobos is not your regular techie/manager/computer wizz. Sure, he’s a huge Star Wars fan, but his skills in leadership and technological know-how is what made him the Director of Engineering at Fair.com. Starting out as a software engineer, he worked his way up with the goal of doing for other engineers, what he had someone do for him – give opportunity to learn, express, and test ideas.

“As a tech leader, the hardest thing to learn is to know when to plant ideas, and when to accelerate – two very different concepts. The one is about direction, the other is about speed. Don’t mix them up.“

As an avid chess player, he’s capable of foreseeing possible outcomes which helps him structure his team in the right way and delegating responsibilities to the right people. As he would say ‘It’s all about knowing your teams and putting them together in a balanced way’ – ensuring quality for the client, but also bringing value to the teams by playing at their strengths.