Kirk has been working in high performance and distributed computing for nearly 20 years. His focus has primarily been on performance, working on architecting, developing, and tuning applications running on Cray and other high performance computing platforms.

Kirk now specialises in Java, where he works in all aspects of performance and tuning in each phase of a project life cycle. Author, speaker, consultant, Kirk was recognised as a Java Champion in 2006 in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the Java community.

Kirk holds a BSc in Biochemistry from Algonquin College and a BA in Math from Carleton University.