Nicola Salmoria
From MAMEDEV Wiki
Nicola Salmoria is the original developer of MAME. He was also the project coordinator until May 15, 2003, when David Haywood took over the leading role. Nicola handed over his duties for a short period of time in 1997, when Mirko Buffoni coordinated the project.
Nicola's MAME blog is located at http://mamelife.blogspot.com/.
Nicola also keeps a non-MAME-related puzzle video game enthusiast blog at http://nontrivialgames.blogspot.com/.