Conference Speakers

Sarah Bailey is an energetic leader and architect in DevOps with a passion for automation and success in all phases of continuous delivery. This includes design, proof of concept, software development, and execution for Big Data and DevOps. She has a strong record of success engineering robust high availability architecture...Read more

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

Jenny Bramble came up through support and DevOps, cutting her teeth on that interesting role that acts as the 'translator' between customer requests from support and the development team before diving headlong into her career as a tester. Her love of support and the human side of problems lets her...Read more

Jan Jaap Cannegieter has 25 years of experience in ICT, he did assignments in requirements, testing, quality assurance, process improvement, Agile and digitalization. Jan Jaap is Principal Consultant at Squerist, a consultancy company of 100 employees specialized in process management and testing. Within Squerist Jan Jaap is responsible for coaching, knowledge management and product development. Jan Jaap is...Read more

For 20 years Erika Chestnut has been immersed in the world of Technology and Quality. She started her career as a developer and gained a deep understanding of business processes, SDLC, and the role quality played in achieving business goals. She is an empathetic servant leader who derives deep satisfaction...Read more

Ahmed Datoo is the Co-Founder and COO of Mesmer. His experience in the technology industry spans software engineering, product management, marketing, and strategy. Prior to Mesmer, Ahmed was co-founder of Zenprise and was the SVP of Product and Marketing. At Zenprise he grew revenues from $0 to $250 million, built...Read more

Mark Gharibian has worked in the IT Industry for over 20 years. He's currently the IT Innovation Manager for E&J Gallo Winery and an adjunct faculty member at California State University, Stanislaus for the Computer Information Systems department. His undergraduate degree is in Computer Science and postgraduate degree is an...Read more

Anand Gopalakrishnan is a goal-oriented, innovative Senior Software Engineer at Airline Tariff Publishing Company with more than 10 years of experience in software development working across multiple industries: Energy, Healthcare and Aviation. He has a proven ability to design effective automation frameworks to assist in regression testing and an ability to design effective...Read more

Valentin Guerlesquin is the director of test automation, test data management and performance testing at National Bank. He has been a software testing professional for more than 10 years. Valentin has worked in several roles, including test environment management, manual functional testing, mobile, and testing process improvement. He is an...Read more

Paul Herzog is a Principal Consultant at West Monroe Partners in Chicago. He has over 20 years of experience in testing technology leadership, software quality assurance, systems engineering, and Agile planning as a Scrum Master. His engineering career has taken him through projects in a wide variety of industries, from...Read more

Dr. Jess Ingrassellino is the engineering manager for Influx Data. She is a frequent speaker at international conferences and focuses on community, collaboration, and improvisational practices for enriching professional life. In her spare time, Jess teaches software testing and Python, writes, and plays violin and viola.Read more

Ria Joseph started her career as a mobile application developer but found her true calling in Quality Assurance and Engineering where she was enamored by the wonders of software testing. So much so, she became a certified tester through the International Software Testing Qualifications Body (ISTQB). Working as a Senior...Read more

Byron Katz has been in love with computers since his father bought the family a Commodore 64. A degreed architect, he found his way back to software development in 2010, and his career has included roles as a quality assurance lead, a full-stack developer, consultant, and sales engineer. Byron has...Read more

Mark Lambert is responsible for ensuring that Parasoft’s portfolio of test automation products deliver real value to the organizations adopting them. Working with a broad cross-section of Global 2000 customers, the Parasoft team helps DevOps teams optimize their software development processes by assessing their specific development needs,...Read more

Sylvia Lobo is a Project Manager with Seera Group and an inclusivity advocate. She has experience in cyber security project management, especially in Intrusion Attacks and ensuring security online with Seera with in-depth knowledge of simulating phishing attacks, social engineering management to manage deliverable cyber security products and in...Read more

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

Matthew Malec has been a member of the KeyBank team for the past 13 years and has been fortunate to hold many positions from support and project delivery to his current role leading Enterprise Quality Solutions, part of the enterprise Quality Assurance organization. He is responsible for the strategic direction...Read more

Aprajita Mathur is a mom, inventor, mentor and international speaker with an engineering background in Bioinformatics. She has more than 15+ years of software testing experience. She has worked on a wide range of products like instrument software, LIMS, integrated solutions and data analysis pipelines which are used in the...Read more

Richard Mills has more than 25 years of experience in software engineering with a concentration on pragmatic software process and tools. Rich has a specific focus in Agile development methods and is passionate about DevOps, Continuous Integration, and Continuous Delivery. As the Solution Lead for DevOps at Coveros, Rich is...Read more

Ben Oconis comes from a customer support background where he spent 15 years managing customers, dealing with angry people, and helping make their day to day experience better. As a new tester—and the first within his organization—he takes that background and previous experience and tries to apply it to find...Read more

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 is the co-founder and CEO of API Fortress, an API testing automation platform that was built from the ground up for continuous API testing and unlimited functional uptime monitoring. Prior to API Fortress, Patrick worked as the API evangelist at Getty Images. Before that, he ran the retail...Read more

Laveena Ramchandani is a Senior test consultant working at Deloitte. She has been testing for over 6 and half years. Laveena finds the world of testing very interesting and enjoys exploring and learning new skills within it. She would like to share her knowledge and help those who attend the...Read more

Adam Sandman was a programmer from the age of 10 and has been working in the IT industry for the past 20 years in areas such as architecture, agile development, testing and project management. Currently Adam is a Director of Technology at Inflectra Corporation, where he is interested in technology,...Read more

Dona Sarkar is convinced that working in an organization doesn't mean you need to turn into a corporate drone, obey your village elders, track your work in that tool, and risk dying of boredom. Instead, she believes that it's absolutely possible to win in the corporate world while still being...Read more

Owner and founder of The Improv Effect, Jessie Shternshus helps individuals and businesses reach their full potential through interpersonal-communication skills improvement, leadership training, and agile/executive coaching. Jessie has been a key player in internal culture transformations for global companies. Her clients include executives from Netflix, Crayola, Groupon, Skype, Adecco, Capital...Read more

Clinton Sprauve is the Enterprise Strategist for Tricentis. He was previous an Enterprise Solutions Architect at Gitlab and also served as their Sr. PMM for Competitive Intelligence. Prior to GitLab, Clinton was the Product Marketing Director for Mobile at Sauce Labs. Clinton also served as the senior product marketing manager...Read more

Allyson Stuart is an executive global IT manager with 34 years' experience leading transformational strategies in quality assurance, service delivery, risk management, and production support. She has served as a CIO, CISO, and Global Head of Technology Risk, but is best known as a chief quality officer who has built...Read more

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 currently serves as the Program Chair for EPIC Experience, STAREAST, and STARWEST. She plays a...Read more

Kirk Walton 20 years’ experience in the IT Services industry (starting as a Lotus Notes consultant in 1999!) He has over 15 years’ experience in recruiting and has successfully recruited and hired well over 500 IT professionals during that time. Kirk established the recruiting practice at tap|QA, a national consulting firm exclusively...Read more

Tal Weiss is the CTO and co-founder of OverOps, where he is responsible for overseeing the company’s product and engineering strategy. He has been designing scalable, real-time Java and C++ applications for the past 15 years. Previously, he was co-founder and CEO at VisualTao which was acquired by Autodesk. Following the...Read more