Conference Speakers

Bob Aiello is a consultant and author with more than twenty-five years of prior experience as a technical manager at leading financial services firms, with company-wide responsibility for CM, ALM and DevOps. He often provides hands-on technical support for enterprise source code management tools, SOX/Cobit compliance, build engineering, continuous integration,...Read more

Jason Arbon is the CEO of Appdiff, which is redefining how enterprises develop, test, and ship mobile apps with zero code and zero setup required. He was formerly the director of engineering and product at Applause.com/uTest.com, where he led product strategy to deliver crowdsourced testing via more...Read more

Sanjiv Augustine is the president of LitheSpeed, an agile consulting, training, and product development company. With 25+ years in the industry, Sanjiv has managed agile projects from five to more than 100 people, trained thousands of agile practitioners through workshops and conference presentations, and coached numerous project teams.  As a...Read more

Arlen Bankston is an established leader in the application and evolution of Agile software development processes such as Scrum, Kanban and Extreme Programming, as well as process management methodologies such as Lean and Six Sigma. He is a Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt, Certified ScrumMaster® Trainer and Certified Scrum Product...Read more

Since his first testing job in 1994 where he tested software that generated automated stock tickers, Bernie Berger has held various positions across Wall Street and is a proponent of skilled-based testing in financial services firms. Bernie is the founder, advocate, and volunteer manager for the Software Testing in Financial...Read more

Whole Foods Market executive director Tracy Briscoe is responsible for guiding teams that develop and support business intelligence and enterprise data warehouse, financial systems, and team member systems. Tracy is an advocate for agile practices across the technology team. She works to evangelize the senior leaders in the technology and...Read more

Jeff Byron has been in the digital space for ten years with Thomson Reuters, Digital River, Target, and Symantec (now Veritas). Jeff took the leap from the eCommerce industry to lead a large-scale mindset and process transformation. His focus is on how to scale across more than fifty Scrum teams...Read more

As a senior solutions consultant, business analyst, and project manager, Jamie Lynn Cooke has delivered successful solutions for many organizations across twenty-six industry sectors in Australia, Canada, and the United States. She has worked with every type of user you can imagine—and some that you would not believe—to turn their...Read more

LeadingAgile CEO and founder Mike Cottmeyer is passionate about solving the challenges associated with agile in larger, more complex enterprises. To that end, he and his team are dedicated to providing large-scale agile transformation services to help pragmatically, incrementally, and safely introduce agile methods. Mike spends most of his time...Read more

A principal consultant at ThoughtWorks, Carlyle Davis has several years of experience in various business domains with a focus on applying agile principles and practices to deliver business solutions at enterprise scale. As a technical principal, his responsibilities include providing technical leadership, advising various members of the IT community, and...Read more

Michael Faulise is the founder and managing partner at tap|QA, LLC, a global company that specializes in quality solutions for businesses. Mike focuses on sales and delivery where he consults with clients in the areas of leading development, quality assurance and testing, technology and process training, and process improvement. He...Read more

An agile methodologist, practitioner, and coach, Bob Galen ([email protected]) helps guide companies in their adoption of Scrum and other agile methodologies and practices. Bob is a principal agile evangelist at Velocity Partners; president of RGCG; and frequent speaker on software development, project management, software testing, and team leadership....Read more

Gavin Gray is vice president of engineering at Oomf, Inc., a Boston-based startup that provides portable mobile device power as a service. Gavin joined Oomf after spending several years in enterprise software, including an eight-year tenure at VMware where he held a variety of development, test,...Read more

Dawn Haynes is CEO, testing coach, and consultant for PerfTestPlus, Inc. A highly regarded trainer of software testers, Dawn blends experience with a real-world view to provide testers with tools and techniques to help them generate new approaches to common and complex software testing problems. Passionate about improving the state...Read more

Mimi Hoang is the Senior Director, Emerging Products at Autodesk where she oversees global development and product management of products covering the architecture, manufacturing, and construction industries. With more than twenty years of experience in software, technology, and product, Mimi has held senior management positions at Symantec, JP Morgan, Ernst...Read more

Working with companies of all sizes worldwide, David Hussman teaches and coaches the adoption of agile methods as powerful delivery tools. Sometimes he pairs with developers and testers; other times he helps plan and create product roadmaps. David often works with leadership groups to pragmatically use agile methods to foster...Read more

With more than twenty years of software testing experience, Tomi Kaleva is an expert in agile development and testing processes. He is working in Television Company Channel 4 as a production manager, responsible for the quality assurance process of Ruutu.fi live streaming services. With knowledge in manufacturing, media, and public...Read more

Nikhil Kaul is product manager, testing products at SmartBear Software, the leader in software quality tools for the connected world. Nikhil was previously at Digité, an application lifecycle management solutions provider, where he gained insight into the software development and testing market. Nikhil is very involved in discussions taking place...Read more

Development manager Oksana Kubushyna leads the entire delivery of League of Legends, the most played video game in the world. Oksana’s career started as an engineer at Petroglyph Games. Her enthusiasm for architecting and implementing gameplay systems eventually led her to a technical director role, and along her journey she...Read more

After working in various management and technical positions in software development and product management, Philip Lew leads XBOSoft’s direction and strategy as CEO. A speaker at numerous trade and academic conferences, Phil has worked with hundreds of organizations to assess the quality of their software, examine software quality processes, and...Read more

Catherine Louis is an independent agile coach and a Certified Scrum Trainer™. With more than twenty years of experience in complex product development in both software and hardware, Catherine has led agile transition efforts at top telecommunications firms and worked with North Carolina State University to conduct research on agile...Read more

John Martinez is the Principal Solutions Architect for Evident.io. John has in-depth experience guiding development teams to AWS and other cloud platforms. He assists in streamlining creation of cloud applications, optimizing AWS resources, and ensures that their AWS infrastructures are properly protected. John specializes in DevOps, automation and continuous solutions....Read more

ScrumMaster Certified Susan McNamara has more than thirty years of software development experience, including twelve years of agile development. Susan has led agile teams in several different sectors, including GIS, healthcare supply chain, and pharmaceutical manufacturing operations intelligence. She started as a member of technical staff at Bell Laboratories beginning...Read more

As a hurricane scientist in the 1980s, Robert Merrill knew estimation was about forecasting and response. (Control never crossed his mind.) As a scientific applications programmer in the 1990s, Robert honed his estimation skills in self-defense against project management. In 2003, asked to create a failure-proof application contracting and delivery...Read more

An agile coach and Professional Scrum Trainer, Pradeepa Narayanaswamy is a self-proclaimed “Agile Passionista” who strongly believes in agile values and principles. In her current role, Pradeepa works as a trainer, agile coach, and mentor to several teams and helps them succeed in delighting customers. She works with leadership teams...Read more

Jeff Patton started in software development in the early ’90s as a project leader for a small, software product company where he learned that well-written code and fast delivery are not the secrets to success. What makes the difference is understanding your customer and creating a great product. In 2000...Read more

Jeffery Payne is CEO and founder of Coveros, Inc., a software company that builds secure software applications using agile methods. Since its inception in 2008, Coveros has become a market leader in secure agile principles and recognized by Inc. magazine as one of the fastest growing private companies in the...Read more

A fellow consultant with Net Objectives, Ken Pugh helps companies transform into lean-agile organizations through training and coaching. His special interests are in communication (particularly effectively communicating requirements), delivering business value, and using lean principles to deliver high quality quickly. Ken trains, mentors, and testifies on technology topics from object-oriented...Read more

As a CSM and CSPO, Perry Reinert brought new agile techniques and approaches to Infusionsoft development teams, and more recently to other non-development departments. A frequent speaker on agile topics both internationally and at local events, Perry co-founded, and still runs, the Phoenix Scrum User’s Group. Prior to working with...Read more

Linda Rising is an internationally-known presenter on topics of agile development, patterns, retrospectives, the change process, and the connection between the latest neuroscience and software development. An independent consultant from Tennessee, Linda (lindarising.org) has...Read more

Rob Sabourin, P. Eng., has more than thirty-three years of management experience leading teams of software development professionals. A highly-respected member of the software engineering community, Rob has managed, trained, mentored, and coached hundreds of top professionals in the field. He frequently speaks at conferences and writes on software engineering,...Read more

A senior business system analyst at The Jackson Laboratory, Cathy Sargent leverages her background in software quality assurance to approach functional and business requirements with a Murphy's Law attitude. The challenging and innovative science behind the unique technology needs of the Laboratory necessitate that business and functional requirements are fully...Read more

Anshul Sharma is the lead QA automation engineer at Emmi, whose goal is to educate patients about their health through interactive multimedia programs. During her more than nine-year software testing and development career, Anshul has worn multiple hats in technology as a developer, business analyst, tester, and team lead. She...Read more

The founder of Agile Learning Labs, Chris Sims is a Certified Scrum Trainer, agile coach, and recovering C++ developer who helps organizations improve their productivity and happiness. Chris coauthored two best-selling scrum books—The Elements of Scrum and Scrum: A Breathtakingly Brief and Agile Introduction—and has published more than fifty articles...Read more

TechWell’s IT director Mike Sowers has more than twenty-five years of practical experience as a global quality and test leader of internationally distributed test teams across multiple industries. Mike is a senior consultant, skilled in working with both large and small organizations to improve their software development, testing, and delivery...Read more

Jon Stahl is CEO and co-founder of LeanDog, a company that focuses on agile consulting as well as software design and delivery. Jon has been practicing and upholding the values of the Agile Manifesto and lean for more than twelve years, coaching companies at all levels across IT and business....Read more

Tom Stiehm is a 20 year veteran of the Information Technology industry. He has spent the past 10 years managing, designing and implementing software products and applications using agile software development methods. Prior to Coveros, Tom held a variety of CTO and architect positions at software development companies. Tom is...Read more

For the past thirty years, Raul Suarez has worked in almost every area related to computer systems, with a special passion for hands-on software development and practices. Currently at a large financial corporation, Raul has contributed as lead designer, technical lead, development consultant, and more recently as a solutions architect...Read more

Vice president Adrian Thibodeau has led the QA & Metrics team at Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services since 2011 and held numerous other roles since 2005. For the past four years, Adrian has led the Ratings QA department in a number of transformational initiatives: adoption of the TMMi Operational Maturity...Read more

Jim Trentadue has more than sixteen years of experience as a coordinator/manager in the software testing field. In his various career roles in testing, Jim has focused on test execution, automation, management, environment management, standards deployment, and test tool implementation. In the area of offshore testing, Jim has worked with...Read more

As a test architect at Ultimate Software, Robert Vanderwall provides guidance, training, and techniques to engineers performing testing activities. Prior to joining Ultimate Software, Robert was a hardware engineer, a software programmer, a software test engineer, and an educator. He has worked on projects ranging from tiny embedded systems to...Read more

Chief technology officer of Electric Cloud Anders Wallgren has more than twenty-five years of in-depth experience designing and building commercial software. He is a frequent speaker at leading IT industry conferences and a contributor to IT publications including InformationWeek, SD Times, and WIRED. Previously, Anders held executive positions at Aceva,...Read more

A Certified Scrum Trainer and agile coach, Adam Weisbart is passionate about helping organizations use Scrum to improve transparency, innovation, predictability, and happiness. Adam has created several training modules including Build Your Own Scrum, used by trainers worldwide to teach Scrum without a boring lecture. He's the creator of the...Read more

President and chief strategist at GuerrillaQA, Steven Winter, loves building teams that break big things! With a key focus on mobile, test automation, and startups, Steven has managed quality for America’s leading financial technology services providers including innovative power behind the Starbucks Card Mobile, the Nation's first successful mobile payments solution. With twenty-one years of...Read more

With more than thirty-one years of experience as a business leader, program manager, and information technology practitioner, Robie Wood now specializes in information technology program strategy and delivery with emphasis on building and leading strong agile teams and organizations. Robie has served as a ScrumMaster, release train engineer, agile transformation...Read more