As founder, CEO, and editor-in-chief of Techstrong Group, Alan manages a broad array of businesses and brands including Techstrong Media, Techstrong Live, Techstrong Research, Devops.com, Security Boulevard, Techstrong TV, and Techstrong Learning. To do so and succeed, Alan has to be attuned to the world of technology, particularly DevOps, cybersecurity, cloud-native and digital transformation.
With almost 30 years of entrepreneurial experience, Alan has been instrumental in the success of several organizations.
Shimel is an often-cited personality in the security and technology community and is a sought-after speaker at conferences and events. In addition to his writing, his DevOps Chat podcast, TechStrong TV and Digital Anarchist audio and video appearances are widely followed.
Alan attributes his success to the combination of a strong business background and a deep knowledge of technology. His legal background, long experience in the field and New York street smarts combine to form a unique personality.
Mr. Shimel is a graduate of St. John's University with a Bachelor of Arts in Government and Politics, and holds a JD degree from NY Law School.
Elizabeth Lawler is the co-founder and CEO of AppMap.io, an open source company that helps developers and their organizations keep their software performant and secure through software observability and interactive runtime code analysis. Previously, Elizabeth was VP of DevOps security at CyberArk (CYBR), where she launched the company’s open source go-to-market strategy for developer-focused tools and technologies. Prior to CyberArk, Elizabeth founded Conjur (acq. CyberArk), which delivered the first product to address privileged account security gaps for DevOps, cloud and container-native software. Before launching her first startup, Elizabeth served as chief data officer of Generation Health (acq. CVS Caremark). She holds a doctorate from Boston University.
Dr. Mark Peters works for BrainGu as the value stream director for Engineering Ops, responsible for Day 2 support and end-to-end integration of DevOps practices from the team to the customer. He worked on four different DevOps transitioning DoD programs and is the North America chapter chair for the DevOps Institute. During his US Air Force career, he integrated intelligence processes with operational delivery and retired as a LtCol who directed all global intelligence flying operations. As a double doctor in Strategic Security and a PhD in Information Technology, he authored, "Cashing in on Cyberpower" analyzing a decade of cyberattacks. As a cybersecurity expert, he holds certifications as a CISSP, PMP, CGSCL, and others. In his spare time, he reads, thinks, writes and then speaks. He enjoys his family, judo and drawing. He frequently consults and gives conference presentations. Dr. Peters is passionate about working with individuals on their unique DevSecOps implementations. A full-up DevOps junkie, he maintains unbound optimism about incorporating new technology into DevOps across multiple industries.
Siddhant has been recognized as a BrowserStack Champion and the Chapter Lead for Mumbai community.
Also, he is an active speaker at numerous tech conferences and events, has delivered an in-person keynote talk at WordCamp Kolkata 2022 and has actively contributed to WordPress while attending WordCamp Asia 2023 at Bangkok, WordCamp Kerala at Kochi and virtually as part of Yoast Contributor’s Day. In his spare time, he loves attending tech conferences and networking with like-minded individuals, writing technical articles and sharing his knowledge and experience with the community through podcasts and blogs. Siddhant is very fond of playing badminton, table-tennis and traveling the globe.
Mark R. Hinkle is a seasoned technology executive with over 25 years of experience, prominently recognized for his strategic leadership and advocacy for open source software. Presently, he concentrates on marrying AI with enterprise needs through his roles at Peripety Labs, an artificial intelligence consultancy, and his thought leadership in 'The Artificially Intelligent Enterprise' newsletter. Hinkle's deep expertise in driving AI innovation establishes him as a key influencer, empowering businesses to harness AI for a competitive edge.
Passionate Architect! Tracy (Trac) Bannon is a senior principal with MITRE Labs. She is an accomplished software architect, engineer, and DevSecOps advisor, having worked across commercial and government clients. She thrives on understanding complex problems and working to deliver value at speed.
She’s passionate about mentoring and training, and enjoys community and knowledge-building with teams, clients and the next generation. Trac guest lectures at universities, leads working groups, and shares experience stories.
Trac is a long-time advocate for diversity in technology, helping to narrow the gaps as a mentor, sponsor, volunteer and friend. Ms. Bannon is a featured industry speaker, blogger, author and accomplished podcaster - including 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗹 𝗧𝗲𝗰𝗵𝗻𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝗶𝘀𝘁𝘀 and 𝗜𝘁'𝘀 𝟱𝟬𝟱! 𝗗𝗮𝗶𝗹𝘆 𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 (part of Sourced Network Productions).
Dheeraj Nayal is the head of corporate development at DevOps Institute. As a chief evangelist and strategic partner, Dheeraj supports a global community of enterprises, channel partners, vendors and professionals in their digital transformation journey. Dheeraj holds distinguished credentials, including the title of MLE℠ – Member of Leaders Excellence and certifications as a Business Relationship Management Professional (BRMP®) and a certified DevOps Enterprise Coach™, DevOps Leader (DOL)®, SRE Practitioner℠, DevSecOps Practitioner℠ Certified Chaos Engineering Practitioner, SRE Foundation℠, AIOps Foundation℠, DevOps Foundation®, Observability Foundation℠ and Value Stream Management Foundation℠. He also possesses an MBA in Entrepreneurship & International Marketing and a Bachelor of Technology in Computer Science & Engineering. Dheeraj is a frequent speaker at local and international conferences and has built various sustainable strategic partnerships with Fortune 500 enterprises globally. He has built massive online, social global communities in the IT and emerging technologies domain while evangelizing and launching several successful global initiatives with thousands of members, Industry leaders, partners and practitioners.
As general manager of Agile and DevOps, Derek brings nearly 20 years of experience leading large enterprise and startup technology companies with a consistent focus on digital transformation. Derek joined Digital.ai after serving as president and COO of K4Connect, a venture-backed IoT software company focused on bringing digital solutions to empower older adults and individuals living with disabilities. Prior to K4Connect, Derek was a member of the founding executive team at Startup America Partnership, a public-private partnership with the White House focused on accelerating entrepreneurship and regional startup ecosystems. He began his career at IBM Rational where he served in various technical and business leadership roles across development, strategy, services and sales, with a core focus on helping Global 5000 companies drive business value and agility through agile digital transformation.
Anuj was previously president, corporate development and strategy at SAP after a stint at Cisco where he was chief strategy officer. In that role, he also led Cisco's partnerships with AWS, Google and Apple. Previously Anuj held various executive roles, including within product management in Cisco’s security group.
Anuj is a coffee and Seinfeld connoisseur. He has an engineering degree from the University of Waterloo and an MBA from the Wharton School. Anuj was raised in India, Kenya and Canada and lives in the San Francisco Bay area. He serves as an advisor to several technology startups in the U.S. and Israel and is on the President’s International Advisory Board of the University of Waterloo.
Ashley Kramer is the Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer at GitLab Inc. (NASDAQ: GTLB), where she draws on her experience in marketing, product, and technology to position GitLab as the leading DevSecOps platform for software innovation. A former engineer, Ashley has a passion for solving the challenge of positioning and messaging software platforms to technical audiences. She has a strong track record of transforming organizations, discovering, and integrating acquisitions, building strategic roadmaps, as well as messaging and positioning products. She has developed go-to-market strategies at companies like Alteryx, Tableau, Amazon, and Oracle. Ashley is a frequent contributor to top-tier publications such as Forbes and VentureBeat, and a speaker at premier industry events such as Saastr, SaaStock and Fortune Brainstorm Tech focusing on topics like “The Future of Work Takes an Open-source Mindset,” “Your Best Marketing Asset: Open Source Communities,” “How to Become a Company Everyone Wants to Work For,” and The Future of Tech. Ashley serves as a Board Director for Seeq Corporation and an Advisor for Snorkel AI and Alation. She has an MSBA in Computer Information Science from Colorado State University and a BS in Computer Science from Old Dominion University, where she played Division I soccer.
Brian has spent 25 years building technical teams as complex architectures and is currently building OpenContext, a tool for understanding your organization's sociotechnical map. When he is not working to map complex systems, he fly fishes and loves working with his son’s CubScout pack.
John Willis has worked in the IT management industry for more than 35 years. Previously he was an evangelist at Docker Inc., VP of solutions for Socketplane (sold to Docker) and Enstratius (sold to Dell), and VP of training & services at Opscode where he formalized the training, evangelism and professional services functions at the firm. Willis also founded Gulf Breeze Software, an award-winning IBM business partner, which specializes in deploying Tivoli technology for the enterprise. Willis has authored six IBM Redbooks for IBM on enterprise systems management and was the founder and chief architect at Chain Bridge Systems.
https://itrevolution.com/author/john-willis/
John is a senior product marketing manager at Redis. He has a decade of experience working at the intersection of technology and business strategy as a product leader and product marketer.
Damon Edwards is senior director, product at PagerDuty. Previously, Damon was a co-founder of Rundeck, the makers of the popular open source runbook automation platform acquired by PagerDuty in 2020. Prior to Rundeck, Damon was the managing partner of DTO Solutions, a DevOps and operations improvement consultancy. Damon has spent the past 23 years working with both the technology and business ends of IT operations. He is known for being a leader in porting cutting-edge DevOps techniques to large-scale enterprise organizations. Damon is a frequent conference speaker and writer who focuses on DevOps, SRE and operations improvement topics. Damon is active in the international DevOps community, co-host of the DevOps Cafe podcast and a content chair for Gene Kim’s DevOps Enterprise Summit.
Patrick Debois is a versatile technologist with a breadth of experience across Dev, Sec, and Ops. Known for his aptitude in harnessing emerging ideas , he skillfully guides teams and advises businesses ranging from startups to enterprises in their journey. Recognized as a trusted ally among dev, sec, ops communities, and beyond, he is currently immersing himself in the world of AI & Machine Learning continuously pushing the boundaries of his technical expertise.
While Patrick’s technical appetite is vast, his affinity for people is equally profound. He possesses the rare ability to bridge perspectives, effortlessly switching between management and individual contributor levels and roles. This unique experience has led him organising the first Devopsdays in 2009. He is attributed to coining the term DevOps and co-author of the widely known DevOps Handbook. In the past, Patrick has worked together with renowned tech organizations such as Atlassian and Snyk. He currently wears both hats of VP of Engineering and Distinguished Engineer at Showpad.
He thrives in sharing knowledge, organizing numerous community events, and presenting at many more. He believes in transforming his learnings into shareable lessons, using this feedback loop to hone his skills and broaden his perspectives. Through open sharing and lateral thinking, Patrick is not just enhancing his professional growth but also contributing significantly to the evolution of the field.
You can enjoy his past talks on his youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/@jedi4ever/videos. Or follow the firehose of learnings he shares on Twitter https://twitter.com/patrickdebois
Robin's expertise spans over twenty-eight years in software engineering with a focus on digital engineering, DevSecOps and the Agile building of large complex solutions across multiple domains from submarines to satellites. She advocates for continuous learning with multiple certifications including SAFe Fellow, SPCT, CEC, PMP, PMI-ACP, and CSEP. She is a Systems Engineering PhD candidate at Colorado State, researching best practices to deliver complex safety-critical solutions using Agile and DevSecOps.
She provides mentoring, guidance and coaching support and conducts training classes to enable digital transformation for customers and teams. Robin's key areas of focus include systems thinking, digital engineering, DevSecOps and Agile. She has also led several efforts in Agile program execution and continues to lend her expertise in the development of safety-critical systems using digital engineering, DevSecOps, and Agile techniques and processes for management, scheduling and technical performance.
Tapabrata “Topo” Pal is a thought leader, keynote speaker and evangelist in the areas of DevSecOps, continuous delivery, cloud computing, open source adoption and digital transformation. Topo is currently a vice president of architecture at Fidelity Investments. Prior to joining Fidelity, Topo spent 10 years at Capital One where he was a key player in the company’s DevOps and Cloud journey. Topo is a programming committee member of DevOps Enterprise Summit (US, EU). Topo is also a co-author of Investments Unlimited: A Novel About DevOps, Security, Audit Compliance and Thriving in the Digital Age, published by ITRevolution.
Shlomi Ben Haim is the co-founder and CEO of JFrog, makers of the JFrog DevOps Platform. He has served in this role, as well as a member of JFrog’s board of directors since 2008, and as chairman of JFrog’s board of directors since January 2020. Mr. Ben Haim is the driving force behind the JFrog's vision, strategic direction, corporate development and market expansion. Prior to JFrog, Mr. Ben Haim was part of the Israeli founding team and CEO at AlphaCSP, a company implementing software applications that was acquired by Malam Group in 2005. He started his career as an officer in the Israeli Air Force where he led several military units and reached the rank of Major. Mr. Ben Haim holds a B.A. in Business Administration and Management from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel, and an M.Sc. from Clark University.
Shannon Lietz is a 30+ year award-winning technology and security industry veteran. She is currently a startup founder, venture advisor and IANS faculty. Previously, she was the vice president of product and software security at Adobe, driving the security of Adobe's products and software ecosystem. Ms. Lietz has held numerous roles throughout her career with a focus on offensive security, application security, cloud security, DevSecOps, and threat intelligence. In her recent role, Ms. Lietz operated a 24x7 DevSecOps team that specialized in adversary management at Intuit. Shannon has worked for and consulted with many of the Fortune 500. Her work has been instrumental in changing how companies implement software security and has brought critical focus to security metrics. She holds 40+ cloud security patents, is a start-up advisor, community whisperer, is part of the RSA program committee and Glynn 100, and dedicates time to mentoring and coaching. Ms. Lietz holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Biological Sciences from Mount St. Mary’s College.
Brad Maltz leads an organization at Dell focused on delivering DevOps technologies and developer-oriented user experiences with the Dell portfolio. He leads a team that is connecting Dell to the community to enable our customers on their journey to becoming mature DevOps organizations. Brad has been in the industry for over 20 years driving innovation and solutions across the strategic technology landscape. With experience across multiple verticals such as healthcare, finance, biotech, education, government and manufacturing, Brad has been able to help customers with a multitude of problems up and down the technology stack.