Claude Bétrisey is originally from Switzerland. Born and raised in the heart of Valais, in the village known as Saint-Leonard, famous for it's underground lake, a popular tourist attraction.


He obtained his Bachelor's Degree in Computer Engineering in 1988, majoring in computer graphics, and digital typography at the
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne, Europe's most cosmopolitan technical university. Consistently ranked the top university in continental Europe, ETH Lausanne, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne, is a leading player in research and education in Switzerland and worldwide.

In 1993, he submitted his thesis in
"Automatic hint generation for typographic characters based on a topological model." receiving a Ph.D. in Computer Science.


Claude has an extensive experience in the area of management, having lead the Windows Text Team for 5 years (GDI, GDI+ and WPF). In addition, he is recognized as an expert in text rendering technologies, such as Open Type and True Type, and a major contributor to the quality of the text rendering in Microsoft products (Clear Type).
He drove fundamentals work in WPF, Silverlight and XALM, and was also the "go-to" person for build engineering issues.

He worked from 1988-1993 as a Research Assistant for the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne. During this time:

In 1993, the Microsoft Corporation welcomed Claude as a member of the software design engineering department, where he has served for the past 20+ years, and has acquired valuable experience as seen in the different projects he has served such as:

  • Principal Developer in Windows Engineering Team (October 2012-present)
  • Principal Developer in XALM Team (June 2010-October 2012)
  • Technical Lead in Silverlight Team (March 2007-June 2010)
  • Technical Lead in WPF Team (2004-March 2007)
  • Development Lead in Windows Text Team (1999-2004)
  • Software Design Engineer in Windows Text Team (1997-1999)
  • Software Design Engineer in Microsoft Typography Team (July 1993-1997)


Claude is fluent English, French, German and Spanish. While seeking to practice Spanish, he ended up meeting his wife, Gloria, a native of Puerto Rico. Together, they have raised one daughter, Paloma.