You may have seen him around Town, and if you mix in the social media circles, you have probably seen him in the twittersphere.

Shelburne resident Victor Castro, or @vcastro on Twitter, is the vice president of product development for Commerce Generation, a leading software development company in Burlington.

Commerce Generation is a software development and consulting firm dedicated to web-enabled, e-commerce business solutions. The business assists clients in maximizing business potential through the appropriate use of advanced information technologies, including e-commerce, customized software, and integration services. Castro transferred to Champlain College in 2001 from Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru in Lima, Peru, and captained the now defunct varsity soccer program in its final year. He graduated magna cum laude with a BS in software engineering in 2004, and was offered a position at MAX'IT, now known as Commerce Generation.

Originally hailing from Lima, Peru, Castro fell in love with Vermont during a family vacation to visit relatives in Shelburne. He actually loved it so much that he transferred colleges and hasn't left since.

"Shelburne is where I stayed when visiting relatives, so I got to experience a lot of the great benefits of living here," said Castro. "The village is great, and it has everything you would ever need, without having to always go to Burlington. I also like that I'm not more than 5-10 minutes from both Lake Champlain and the mountains. I used to go snowboarding all of the time, but I haven't been going much over the past couple of years. I try to sneak in a little night riding at Bolton, though I also hope to hike Camel's Hump soon - I've heard it's beautiful up there, I just haven't had a chance to do it yet."

Soccer is one of Castro's favorite hobbies and it even was a deciding factor when he made the decision to transfer to an American college.

"Vermont has a very tight-knit soccer community, and word got around that I was thinking about transferring schools. A couple of coaches from area schools offered me tryouts, and Champlain ended up being the best fit for me," said Castro.

Commerce Generation is located on Church Street in the heart of Burlington and is the firm responsible for the backend work behind Web sites such as PetFoodDirect.com, April Cornell, Ron Jon Surf Shop, and NationalPetPharmacy.com.

As the vice president of product development, Castro is responsible for making sure clients' visions are delivered as expected and within a reasonable timeline and budget.

The company was founded in 1995 as a division of MAX'IT, Inc. In addition to its Burlington, headquarters, Commerce Generation has an office and a secure and redundant data warehousing facility in Austin, Tex.