STAREAST 2019 - Conference Speakers | TechWell

Conference archive

Conference Speakers

Shamim_Ahmed
CA Technologies, A Broadcom Company

Shamim Ahmed is a thought leader in DevOps, Continuous Delivery, Continuous Testing and Application Life-cycle Management (ALM). He has more than 15 years of experience in large-scale application design and development, software product development and R&D, application quality assurance and testing, organizational quality management, IT consulting, and practice management. He...Read more

Jason_Arbon
CEO
test.ai

Jason Arbon is the CEO at test.ai where his mission is to test all the worlds apps. Google’s AI investment arm lead test.ai’s latest funding round. Jason previously worked on several large-scale products: web search at Google and Bing, the web browsers Chrome and Internet Explorer,...Read more

Adam_Auerbach
Vice President of Quality Engineering
EPAM Systems

Adam Auerbach is the Vice President of Quality Engineering at EPAM Systems, a leading global provider of digital platform engineering and software development services. Before joining Epam, Adam served as the VP of Quality and DevOps Engineering at Lincoln Financial Group where Adam was responsible introducing and leading the DevOps...Read more

Andrew_Bardallis
Target

As a Senior Engineer in Test for Mobile Apps at Target, Andrew Bardallis leads the QA and test automation development efforts for all Target guest-facing mobile applications. He has built numerous test automation projects – mostly in Ruby using tools such as Cucumber, Calabash, Appium, Net::HTTP, and Charles – to...Read more

Dan_Belcher
mabl

Concurrent Sessions

Dan Belcher is a co-founder at mabl, a venture-backed startup that is using AI to make end-to-end testing easier. Prior to mabl, Dan was the Lead Product Manager for monitoring and logging at Google, which he joined through its acquisition of Stackdriver, a company which he also-co-founded. He spent his...Read more

William_Bell
Vocera Communication

William Bell has ten years experience working in test engineering for the Department of Defense where I worked in a double helix customer interaction model that allowed agile like development in a waterfall industry. He moved from being a test engineer to building and leading teams of test engineers within...Read more

Richard Bender
BenderRBT

Richard Bender has more than forty-five years experience in software with a primary focus on quality assurance and testing. He has consulted internationally to large and small corporations, government agencies, and the military. Richard’s work has included a wide variety of application classes and technology bases from embedded systems to...Read more

Melissa_Benua
mParticle

From the largest companies to the very smallest, Melissa Benua has worked in nearly every software development role—dev, test, DevOps, and program management—in her career. She cut her teeth while building running high-availability, high-quality services while working on Microsoft’s Bing and Cortana, and honed her skills for rapid iteration and...Read more

Michael_Bolton
DevelopSense

Michael Bolton is a consulting software tester and testing teacher who helps people solve testing problems that they didn’t realize they could solve. He is the co-author (with senior author James Bach) of Rapid Software Testing, a methodology and mindset for testing software expertly and credibly in uncertain conditions and...Read more

Jennifer Bonine
VP of Global Solutions
tap|QA

Jennifer Bonine is an experienced speaker in the US and abroad. You can see her keynote at agile, testing, and Google conferences. She is a VP of global solutions for tap|QA, a company that specializes in strategic solutions for businesses. Jennifer is also the CEO of Style Baby Inc., a...Read more

Glenn_Buckholz
Technical Manager
Coveros

Glenn Buckholz leads CI and deployment automation efforts at Coveros. Using his more than fifteen years of industry experience, Glenn brings success to his customers. Beginning his career as a consultant implementing automated test frameworks, he introduced the concept of change management to many, many projects. After moving on from...Read more

Hans_Buwalda
LogiGear

Hans Buwalda has been working with information technology since his high school years. In his career, Hans has gained experience as a developer, manager, and principal consultant for companies and organizations worldwide. He was a pioneer of the keyword approach to testing and automation, now widely used throughout the industry....Read more

Katrina_Clokie
Bank of New Zealand

Katrina Clokie leads a team of around a hundred testers as a test practice manager in Wellington, New Zealand. Katrina is an active contributor to the international testing community as the author of A Practical Guide to Testing in DevOps, an international keynote speaker, a cofounder...Read more

Amy_Jo_Esser
Director Quality
ProAssurance

Amy Jo Esser is an enthusiastic self-confessed conference and learning addict. She feels like a kid in a candy store at conferences. She has enjoyed learning at conferences from the beginning of her career through today, and she considers herself a learning leader. Amy Jo believes the time is now...Read more

Isabel Evans
Independent Consultant

Independent quality and testing consultant Isabel Evans has more than thirty years of IT experience in the financial, communications, and software sectors. Her work focuses on quality management, software testing, and user experience (UX). Isabel authored Achieving Software Quality through Teamwork and chapters in Agile Testing: How to Succeed in...Read more

Rick_Faulise
tap|QA

Rick Faulise is a multi-dimensional, technology executive and immensely passionate IT professional who holds extensive experience of working in the Software industry. Equipped with a formidable blend of knowledge and understanding of pioneering new automation technologies, he excels in the niches of methodologies and new platforms such as AI, mobile...Read more

Bob Galen
Principal Agile Coach
Vaco

Bob Galen is an agile practitioner, trainer & coach based in Cary, NC. In this role, he helps guide companies and teams in their pragmatic adoption and organizational shift towards Scrum and other agile methodologies and practices. He is a Principal Agile Coach at Vaco Agile, a leading business agility...Read more

Seretta Gamba
Test automation consultant
Freelancer

Seretta Gamba has forty years’ experience in development and fifteen in test automation. After going through all the usual developer roles, in 2001 she was put in charge of test automation for her current company. She developed a framework that enabled her company to quickly get excellent results. After having...Read more

Julie_Gardiner
Consultant
Independent Consultant

Julie has more than twenty years' experience in the IT industry, including time spent as a developer, database analyst, project and program manager, test analyst, test team leader, test consultant, and test manager. She is now director of consulting at Hitachi Consulting, providing consultancy and training in all aspects of...Read more

Noha_Gomaa
Senior QA Manager
Aldo Group

Noha currently serves as senior manager of software quality assurance for the ALDO Group. She runs a cross-functional QA department for different testing teams and various initiatives, including SAP ERP implementations, digital transformations, and e-commerce projects spanning multiple channels and solutions platforms, all of which are powered by Hybris technology....Read more

Gene Gotimer
Principal Consultant
Coveros

Gene Gotimer is a proven senior software architect with many years of experience in web-based enterprise application design, most recently using Java. He is skilled in agile software development as well as legacy development methodologies and designing and developing secure, high-quality software. He has extensive experience establishing and using development...Read more

Dorothy Graham
Software Test Consultant

In software testing for more than forty years, Dorothy Graham is coauthor of four books—Software Inspection, Software Test Automation, Foundations of Software Testing, and Experiences of Test Automation—and is currently working with Seretta Gamba on a test automation patterns wiki. A popular and entertaining speaker at conferences and seminars worldwide,...Read more

Matthew Grasberger
Associate Consultant
Coveros

Matthew Grasberger is an Associate Consultant at Coveros with a specialty in Test Automation, DevOps Engineering, and Security Automation. Matt has worked with clients to build and develop robust test automation suites that are integrated into DevOps pipelines based on industry leading practices. In addition, Matt has leveraged open source...Read more

Paul_Grizzaffi
Principal Automation Architect
Magenic

As a Principal Automation Architect at Magenic, Paul Grizzaffi is following his passion of providing technology solutions to testing and QA organizations, including automation assessments, implementations, and through activities benefiting the broader testing community. An accomplished keynote speaker and writer, Paul has spoken at both local and national conferences and...Read more

Graeme_Harvey
PlanGrid

Graeme Harvey has spent 10 years working in software testing and is a recognized speaker, invited to present at conferences globally on the topics of context-driven testing and automation. Besides being QA Tech Lead at PlanGrid, Graeme is heavily involved in the Waterloo (Canada) tech community, previously working at some...Read more

Thomas_Haver
Huntington National Bank

Thomas Haver is presently serving as a Senior Application Architect for Huntington National Bank. He is responsible for the conversion from manual testing to Ruby/Cucumber automation for the entire enterprise. Originally accountable for the development and maintenance of automation frameworks for Digital Channels, he now leads the automation effort for...Read more

Dawn Haynes
PerfTestPlus, Inc.

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

Nikki_Henry
Founder & CEO
Ladies Leading Ladies

Nikki Henry is a leader in her community recognized for her effective leadership and supportive managerial style. Nikki has helped teams grow from just a few people to over fifty full-time staff, with budgets from a couple hundred thousand to the multimillions, and has always brought her teams to success,...Read more

Brian_Hicks
Coveros

Brian Hicks is a software engineer, development manager, and technical architect with over 15 years of hands-on experience designing and developing software using core Java, web services, and related technologies in both the commercial and public sectors. He is also a Certified ScrumMaster® and has experience implementing agile processes, leading...Read more

Michael_Hobbs
Dell EMC

Michael Hobbs is a 15-year computer industry veteran who has had the opportunity to work on all facets of the computer. From CPU Validation to Enterprise Server Test, Michael has spent years gathering best practices from various cultures and companies. Through this diverse background, a unique perspective has been developed....Read more

Lightning_Keynotes
Lightning Keynotes

Lightning keynote speakers coming to STAREAST! Prominent speakers will include Seretta Gamba, Bob Galen, Angie Jones, Jason Arbon, Isabel Evans, Dorothy Graham, Tariq King, Adam Auerbach, and Lloyd Roden—all hosted by program chair Mike Sowers!Read more

Angie Jones
Senior Developer Advocate
Applitools

Angie Jones is a Senior Developer Advocate who specializes in test automation strategies and techniques. She shares her wealth of knowledge by speaking and teaching at software conferences all over the world, as well as writing tutorials and blogs on angiejones.tech. As a Master Inventor, Angie is known for her...Read more

Chad_Jung
Lead Software Test Engineer
Renaissance Electronic Services

Chad Jung is a Lead Software Test Engineer for Renaissance Electronic Services with over ten years of software testing experience. Currently he builds relationships between Development, Testing, and Operations teams to ensure highly successful and quality products.Read more

Tania_Katan
CEO of Creative Trespassing
Creative Trespassing

Tania Katan, CEO of Creative Trespassing, is an award-winning author, creative consultant and keynote speaker who believes in storytelling at all costs! She has been a featured speaker at Business of Software, Social Innovation Summit, Etsy, S.H.E. Summit, NPR, Comedy Central Stage, TEDx, and more. Her work has been written...Read more

Tariq_King
Head of Quality
Ultimate Software

Tariq King is the Head of Quality at Ultimate Software. With over fifteen years' experience in software testing research and practice, Tariq leads a team of directors, architects, and engineers responsible for guidance, strategy, innovation and outreach in software quality and performance engineering. His areas of research interest include software...Read more

Eran_Kinsbruner
Chief Evangelist, Author
perfecto

Eran Kinsbruner is the chief evangelist and author at Perfecto, a Perforce company. He authored two books, The Digital Quality Handbook and Continuous Testing for DevOps Professionals. Eran is also a monthly columnist at InfoWorld.com and The Enterprisers Project. Eran is a software engineering professional with nearly twenty years of...Read more

Jim_LeBaron
MasterControl

Jim LeBaron is an Agile Manager working for MasterControl, a company that provides QMS solutions for FDA regulated companies. Jim has worked over 18 years in the industry, and over 11 years in a regulated environment. Jim has experience authoring, executing, automating and reviewing validation documents, hosting audits and streamlining...Read more

Chris_Loder
InGenius Software

An Automation Architect at InGenius Software, Chris Loder is an automation enthusiast to the core. His passion and experience help companies reduce regression time and improve overall software quality. With over two decades of automation experience, he designs and implements automation frameworks with his team of automation developers. Chris is...Read more

Janna_Loeffler
Sr Manager Experience Quality Standards
Carnival Corp & plc

Janna Loeffler has more than fifteen years of software quality experience. She holds a bachelor's degree in computer engineering and a master's degree in business administration. Working in a variety of software engineering roles, including development, testing, quality assurance, and DevOps, has provided her with a holistic view of software...Read more

Claire Lohr
Lohr Systems

Claire Lohr has been an active professional in the computer field for thirty years, with the last twenty years emphasizing software process improvement and testing. Claire provides training—design, authoring, and instruction—and consulting services for a wide variety of both government and commercial clients. She is a Lloyd’s Register trained ISO...Read more

Sumeet_Mandloi
Dow Jones

Sumeet Mandloi is an experienced professional with a career spanning nearly 20 years in quality assurance, test automation, and product and release management with leading companies like UBS, Citibank, and TD Ameritrade. Sumeet currently serves as engineering director at Dow Jones, where he supports faster releases, improves quality, and creates...Read more

Wilson Mar
JetBloom

Wilson Mar has been building and bringing enterprise applications to market on major platforms—from mobile to server clouds—as an architect, developer, performance tester, and manager. His website provides concise, in-depth advice on leading technologies. For the past three years, Wilson has been refining his training techniques on Git...Read more

John_McConda
Moser Consulting

John McConda is an experienced Software Quality Control/Assurance tester, technician, and manager. Experienced in multiple methods of software testing from rigorous validated system testing, to session-based exploratory testing, test automation, and performance. Teacher and speaker for software testing classes and conferences.

Read more

Geoff_Meyer
Test Architect
DellEMC

Geoff Meyer is a test architect in the Dell EMC Infrastructure Solutions Group and has thirty-five years of industry experience as a software developer, manager, program manager, and director. He drives the test strategy and architecture for over four hundred software and hardware testers across India, Taiwan, and the United...Read more

Talia_Nassi
Software Engineer in Test
WeWork

Concurrent Sessions

Talia Nassi is a quality-driven Test Engineer at WeWork with a passion for breaking and rebuilding software to be the highest possible quality. She started interning in QA when she was studying at UC San Diego and immediately knew that she had found her calling. From UCSD she was recruited...Read more

Klaus_Neuhold
CA BlazeMeter

Klaus Neuhold is a Product Manager at BlazeMeter. Klaus has 10+ years of experience in startup and enterprise environments in leadership roles as an entrepreneur, Product Manager, consultant, and software engineer. Klaus has spoken at conferences and meetups across Europe and the United States on DevOps Adoption for Enterprise, Open...Read more

Kristoffer Nordström
Northern Test Consulting AB

Training Class

Kristoffer Nordström is a test developer who has worked with telecommunications systems, distributed compilers, cloud technology, smartphone OS development, embedded systems, and much more. As a testing devotee and a member of the context-driven test community, with his own company Kristoffer consults and teaches the course Python for Testers because...Read more

Joseph_Ours
Centric Consulting

Joseph Ours has spent over two decades leading, coaching, speaking, and living the IT industry. Using his real-life, in-the-trenches experience, his view is radically different than most, a view focused on value individuals bring to an organization. He is the author of popular articles, such as, “Why You Need Women...Read more

Gerie_Owen
Testing Strategist and Evangelist
Technology Strategy Research

Gerie Owen is Testing Strategist and Evangelist at Technology Strategy Research. She is a Certified Scrum Master, Conference Presenter and Author on technology and testing topics. She enjoys mentoring new QA Leads and brings a cohesive team approach to testing. Gerie is the author of many articles on technology including Agile...Read more

Director, AutonomIQ

Rick is a former commissioned in the US Army Signal Corps, with 20 plus years experience as an entrepreneur and hi-tech executive. In addition to being a co-founder of VirtuOps, Rick was an early contributor at Mercury Interactive, and WorkSoft and he currently runs Revenue Operations at AutonomIQ.Read more

Tauhida Parveen

Tauhida Parveen is a consultant and trainer specializing in software testing and cloud computing. She holds a PhD in Computer Science from the Florida Institute of Technology. She has over 10 years of experience working in Quality Assurance with organizations such as The WikiMedia Foundation, Millennium Engineering & Integration, Yahoo!,...Read more

Jeff Payne
CEO and Founder
Coveros

Jeffery Payne is CEO and founder of Coveros, Inc., a consulting company that helps organizations accelerate delivery using agile methods. Since its inception in 2008, Coveros has become a market leader in agile and DevOps engineering while being recognized by Inc. Magazine as one of the fastest growing private companies...Read more

Patrick_Poulin
API Fortress

Patrick Poulin has been working in NYC tech for 12 years. His career started as a project manager, but soon he was managing the retail vertical for a company building the first mobile websites for over 75 major brands such as Tesco, Target, Macys, and MAC Cosmetics. After a (thankfully)...Read more

Alireza_Razavi
TD Bank

Alireza Razavi has more than 20 years experience as a QA director, Senior Advisor, and Practice Lead in organizations like; TD BANK, BNP PARIBAS BANK, National Bank of Canada, Montreal exchange. He has managed, defined, established norms, standard, best practices and governance strategy for different testing teams both on and...Read more

Jeanne_Riley
Microsoft

Jeanne Blasi Riley is a strategic senior leader with extensive product/program management experience. She spent most of her career with Accenture and local consulting firms followed by several years at Amazon before joining Microsoft 3 years ago. Her passions are developing exceptional customer experiences and driving business process efficiency through...Read more

Kat_Rocha
Lead Test Engineer
ACT/NRCCUA

Kat Rocha has over twenty years of experience in Test Engineering and is currently the Lead Test Engineer for the Austin Engineering group of Imperva, Inc., a leading cyber-security company. Kat has managed and lead test teams working at The Advisory Board Co., Dell, HP and Compaq, working on computer...Read more

Lloyd_Roden
Lloyd Roden Consultancy

With more than twenty-eight years in the software industry, Lloyd Roden has worked as a developer, test analyst, and test manager for many different organizations. Lloyd was a consultant/partner with Grove Consultants for twelve years. In 2011 he created Lloyd Roden Consultancy, an independent UK-based training and consultancy company specializing...Read more

Jeremias_Rößler
retest

Dr. Jeremias Rößler (@roesslerj) is the founder of retest, bringing AI to testing. He routinely speaks at international conferences, and is a blogger, developer & computer scientist. He is concerned with AI in testing and how to solve the “automation bottleneck”. He loves to...Read more

Rob_Sabourin
Principle Consultant
AmiBug.Com, Inc.

Rob Sabourin has more than thirty-five 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, SQA, testing,...Read more

Dionny Santiago
Principal Quality Architect
Ultimate Software

Dionny Santiago is a Principal Quality Architect at Ultimate Software, a leading cloud provider of human capital management solutions. Dionny provides expertise and leadership in software testing and contributes in various capacities including hands-on testing, technical problem solving, training, and internal tools development. Test automation being one of his primary...Read more

Max_Saperstone
Director of Test and Automation
Coveros
Max Saperstone has been working as a software and test engineer for over a decade, with a focus on test automation within the CI/CD process. He specializes in open source tools, including the Selenium tool suite, JMeter, AutoIT, Cucumber, and Chef. Max has led several test automation efforts, including developing...Read more
Adam_Satterfield
Director of Testing and Quality
Anthem

Adam Satterfield, Director of Testing and Quality at Anthem, has been in the software testing industry for nearly 20 years. He has a wide background in industries such as military, SaaS, telecom and healthcare. Adam enjoys leading and mentoring quality assurance teams as well as teaching testers how to find...Read more

Curtis_Severance
Software Engineer
Renaissance Electronic Services

Curtis Severance is a Software Engineer with over seven years of software development experience for Renaissance Electronic Services. He is passionate about leading small development teams to assist software test engineers and tirelessly works to bridge the gap between engineers and testers.Read more

Mike_Sowers
Coveros

Coveros' Executive Vice President of Training Mike Sowers has more than twenty-five years of practical experience as a global leader of internationally distributed test teams across multiple industries. Mike is a senior leader, skilled in working with both large and small organizations to improve their software development, testing, and delivery approaches....Read more

Sanjay_Srinivas
Texas Capital Bank

Sanjay Srinivas is an experienced IT Leader in a constant learning mode with core expertise in Software Testing/QA. Sanjay has been building and retaining high performing testing teams at Fortune 1000 companies for over ten years and has been consistently selected by executive management to handle challenging issues such as...Read more

Mary_Thorn
Vaco

Chief storyteller of the book The Three Pillars of Agile Testing and Quality, Mary Thorn is owner of Mary Thorn Consulting in Raleigh, NC. During her more than twenty years of experience with healthcare, financial, and HR SaaS-based products, Mary has held director, manager- and contributor-level positions in software development...Read more

Melissa Tondi
Senior QA Strategist
Rainforest QA

Melissa Tondi has spent most of her career working within software testing teams. She is the founder of Denver Mobile and Quality (DMAQ), past president and board member of Software Quality Association of Denver (SQuAD), and Consultant Manager at Rainforest QA, where she assists companies to continuously improve the pursuit...Read more

Jolene_Trzebiatowski
Delta Dental of Wisconsin

Concurrent Sessions

Jolene Trzebiatowski is the Quality Assurance Analyst in Software Test Automation at Delta Dental of Wisconsin, a leading provider of dental insurance in the state of Wisconsin. Her current primary focus is leading a test automation initiative involving multiple departments throughout the company. In a short matter of time, she...Read more

Head – Quality Engineering & DevOps Practice, Marlabs

Siva has over a decade and half of progressive experience in the software testing/quality engineering. He has architected and developed automation testing frameworks integrated with Agile and DevOps. Siva has rich experience in conducting QA/QE assessments and in helping organizations with business / technology transformations. Siva holds several professional degrees...Read more

Peter_Varhol
Managing Director
Technology Strategy Research

Peter Varhol is a software strategist and evangelist who closely observes the testing industry and uses his knowledge and experience to identify new technologies and help companies respond to those trends. His diverse technical background enables him to seamlessly integrate new technologies into his practices and provides him with a...Read more

Dmitry Vinnik
Salesforce

Dmitry Vinnik is a Lead Software Engineer at Salesforce and has been passionate about Software Quality since the very beginning of his career. He started out as a Quality Engineer, and was able to bring test expertise into his current Software Engineering role to ensure delivery of a high quality...Read more

Alison Wade
President
TechWell Corp.

Women Who Test Sessions

Alison Wade is the President of TechWell and an accomplished executive dedicated to the business of software. For the past fifteen years, she has worked with industry leaders developing programs for software development and testing professionals. She has been the Program Chair for the Mobile Dev + Test and IoT...Read more

Hilary Weaver-Robb
Quicken Loans

Hilary Weaver-Robb is a software quality architect at Detroit-based Quicken Loans. She is a mentor to her fellow QA team members, makes friends with developers, and helps teams level-up their quality processes, tools, and techniques. Hilary has always been passionate about improving the relationships between developers and testers, and evangelizes...Read more

Kaleb_Weddle
Software Engineer
Renaissance Electronic Services

Kaleb Weddle is the newest Software Engineer in Test at Renaissance Electronic Services. He has taken automation tactics from a large-scale company to a smaller business while maintaining the same level of automation coverage. In conjunction, Kaleb works with development to strengthen CI build pipelines to speed up deployment cycles...Read more

Jason Wick
Engineering Manager
MakeMusic

Jason Wick has more than a decade of experience as an engineering manager, QA manager, team lead, automation engineer, audio tester, and manual tester. After working in a variety of fields from video games to music software, Jason has dramatically shifted his perspective on the role of testing and QA...Read more

Yesenia_Yser
Ultimate Software

Yesenia Yser has over eight years in Information Technology and Software Security. She holds a bachelor's degree in computer science and a master's degree in digital forensics. Her professional background is composed of security software development and incident response, with emphasis on customer support, communication, training, security, and leadership awareness....Read more