Alan Shimel
Founder, CEO & Editor-in-Chief
Techstrong Group

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.

VP and Practice Manager, DevOps and Application Development
The Futurum Group

Mitch Ashley is VP and Practice Lead of DevOps and Application Development for The Futurum Group. Mitch has over 30+ years of experience as an entrepreneur, industry analyst, product development and IT leader, with expertise in software engineering, cybersecurity, DevOps, DevSecOps, cloud, and AI. Mitch comes to The Futurum Group through the acquisition of Techstrong Group (devops.comsecurityboulevard.com, and techstrong.tv), where he serves as CTO and founder of Techstrong Research.

As a Chief Technology Advisor, CTO, CIO, and head of engineering, Mitch led the creation of award-winning cybersecurity products utilized in the private and public sectors, including the U.S. Department of Defense and all military branches. Mitch also led managed PKI services for broadband, Wi-Fi, IoT, energy management and 5G industries, product certification test labs, an online SaaS (93m transactions annually), the development of video-on-demand and Internet cable services, and a national broadband network. He began his career creating large banking and telecom applications and building AI expert systems.

Having led his first of three introductions of DevOps in 2014 and the modernization of three IT organizations, Mitch shares his experiences as an analyst, keynote and conference speaker, panelist, host, moderator, and expert interviewer. His talks cover some of the most in-demand topics, including CIO/CTO leadership, product and software development, DevOps, DevSecOps, containerization, container orchestration, AI/ML/GenAI, platform engineering, SRE, and cybersecurity. He publishes his research on FuturumGroup.com/ and TechstrongResearch.com/resources. He hosts multiple award-winning video and podcast series, including DevOps Unbound, CISO Talk, and Techstrong Gang.

Mitch Ashley
Mike Rothman
General Manager
Techstrong Research
Mike Rothman is the GM of Techstrong Research, bringing 30+ years of experience as a research analyst and security leader. He is recognized as a voice of reason for business leaders in an often over-hyped and extremely complex security industry. For the past 10 years, his research has focused on cloud security and, most recently, DevSecOps and securing cloud-native environments. Rothman helps organizations navigate this disruptive migration without compromising information and infrastructure protection. Mike also serves as chief strategy officer for Techstrong Group and frequently appears at industry conferences and on the various Techstrong TV streaming video programs.