Pedro Celis

Pedro Celis (b. in Monterrey, Nuevo León, México) is a Distinguished Engineer at Microsoft Corporation.

He has served at the U.S. President's Information Technology Advisory Committee (PITAC) from 2003 to 2005. PITAC advises the president on policies and investments that the federal government should pursue to enhance and maintain the preeminence of the U.S. in information technology.

In 2009 the Hispanic Business Magazine named him one of the 100 most influential Hispanics in the United States.

Education and career
Celis graduated in 1979 with a bachelor's degree in Computer Engineering from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Studies (ITESM) and received both a master's degree in Mathematics (1982) and a doctorate in Computer Science (1986) from the University of Waterloo.

He worked as an Assistant Professor at the Computer Science Department of Indiana University. He later worked as a software designer at Britton Lee, Inc.. He worked at Tandem Computers from 1989 to 1998 where he became Technical Director of the NonStop SQL team.

At Microsoft since 1998, Celis held several positions in the SQL Server group, including leading the WinFS team at its creation and CTO for SQL Server. He joined the Bing organization in 2009 and is considered a senior technical leader in the company.

The Hispanic IT Executive Council named Celis as one of the most influential Hispanics in the IT industry in 2009 and 2010.

Other activities
Celis is an organizer, founder and member of the board of directors of Plaza Bank, a Latino business focused bank that opened in 2006  in Seattle, Washington.

He is a board member of Stronger Families and the Washington News Council. He has climbed Mt. Rainier to benefit the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center's ''Climb to Fight Breast Cancer.

He is the founder of the Washington State chapter of the Republican National Hispanic Assembly and served as its first chairman from 2001 to 2005. From 2005 to 2007 he served as National Chairman of the RNHA.

In the 2008 presidential primary campaign, Celis served as Co-Chair of the Mitt Romney for President Washington Steering Committee.