With over 20 years of software development experience, Marit is passionate about building great software with great people, and making developers’ lives easier.
She regularly presents at international conferences and shares her expertise through webinars, podcasts, blog posts, videos, and tutorials. She's also contributed to the book “97 Things Every Java Programmer Should Know” (O’Reilly Media).

With over 20 years of software development experience, Marit is passionate about building great software with great people, and making developers’ lives easier. She regularly presents at international conferences and shares her expertise through web... Show more

Nathaniel T. Schutta is a software architect and Java Champion focused on cloud computing, developer happiness and building usable applications. A proponent of polyglot programming, Nate has written multiple books, appeared in countless videos and many podcasts. He’s also a seasoned speaker who regularly presents at worldwide conferences, meetups, universities, and user groups. In addition to his day job, Nate is an adjunct professor at the University of Minnesota, where he teaches students to embrace (and evaluate) technical change. Driven to rid the world of bad presentations, he coauthored the book Presentation Patterns with Neal Ford and Matthew McCullough, and he also published Thinking Architecturally and Responsible Microservices available from O’Reilly. His latest book, Fundamentals of Software Engineering is now available.

Nathaniel T. Schutta is a software architect and Java Champion focused on cloud computing, developer happiness and building usable applications. A proponent of polyglot programming, Nate has written multiple books, appeared in countless videos and ma... Show more

Brian Vermeer is a Staff Developer Advocate at Snyk and a respected authority in Java and secure software development. He is an internationally recognized Java Champion and Oracle ACE Pro, honored for his outstanding contributions to Java and open source advocacy.
With over 15 years of hands-on software engineering experience, Brian specializes in Java, cybersecurity, and AI. He has authored numerous articles on this and has contributed to a wide range of open source projects within the ecosystem.
Brian is an active developer community leader, serving as a JUG leader for both the NLJUG and VirtualJUG, co-leading DevSecCon, and conference organizer for J-Fall and J-Spring. He is also a frequent speaker at leading international conferences, including JavaOne, Devoxx, and Devnexus.
Beyond his professional work in technology, Brian serves as a reservist in the Royal Netherlands Air Force in the rank of Captain and is a Taekwondo Master and instructor.

Brian Vermeer is a Staff Developer Advocate at Snyk and a respected authority in Java and secure software development. He is an internationally recognized Java Champion and Oracle ACE Pro, honored for his outstanding contributions to Java and open so... Show more

Notorious engineer at work and after hours, tracing meanders of the art of software engineering. Java Champion. Testcontainers Champion. Remote Software Gardener, mostly working in web-oriented Java gardens. Programming usually in Java (since 1.3), Scala and Go, but in other languages too. Fan of agility, seen mostly as choosing the right tools and approaches after asking the right questions. Developer, trainer and conference speaker. In his talks, Piotr covers not only hardcore Java but also software architecture, computer security, and soft-skills.

Notorious engineer at work and after hours, tracing meanders of the art of software engineering. Java Champion. Testcontainers Champion. Remote Software Gardener, mostly working in web-oriented Java gardens. Programming usually in Java (since 1.3), S... Show more

Eric Deandrea is a Java Champion & Senior Principal Software Engineer at IBM on the Quarkus engineering team. Eric has over 26 years of experience designing and building Java-based solutions and developer training programs. He is a contributor to various OSS projects, including Quarkus, Spring, LangChain4j, Docling, WireMock, and Microcks, as well as a speaker at many public events and user groups around the world. Eric recently put his Quarkus and Spring knowledge to use by publishing his first book, “Quarkus for Spring Developers (https://red.ht/quarkus-spring-devs).” Outside of work, Eric enjoys boating on the lakes of New Hampshire, ice hockey, and martial arts, in which he holds a black belt in Kempo Karate.

Eric Deandrea is a Java Champion & Senior Principal Software Engineer at IBM on the Quarkus engineering team. Eric has over 26 years of experience designing and building Java-based solutions and developer training programs. He is a contributor to var... Show more

International Speaker, JavaChampion, Cofounder of JBCNConf and DevBcn conferences in Barcelona, and AI4Devs conference in Amsterdam.

Currently working as a Staff Developer Advocate in Java at Sonar (SonarQube), focused on Code Quality, Dev Productivity, AI & Security.

I have worked as a (paid) developer for more than 30 years ago using multiple languajes, but for the last 15 using Java. Although I started when I was 14 with my Amstrad CPC 6128 :)

I am very interested in simulated reality, psychology, philosophy, and Java.

International Speaker, JavaChampion, Cofounder of JBCNConf and DevBcn conferences in Barcelona, and AI4Devs conference in Amsterdam. Currently working as a Staff Developer Advocate in Java at Sonar (SonarQube), focused on Code Quality, Dev Produc... Show more

Anton is a Developer Advocate at JetBrains, where he focuses on IntelliJ IDEA and the intersection of AI agents and developer tooling. A Java Champion since 2014 with a background in server-side development, he has spent over a decade building tools and content for developers. These days, you'll find him speaking at conferences, exploring agentic workflows, and looking for ways to make the development experience smarter and more enjoyable.

Anton is a Developer Advocate at JetBrains, where he focuses on IntelliJ IDEA and the intersection of AI agents and developer tooling. A Java Champion since 2014 with a background in server-side development, he has spent over a decade building tools ... Show more

Ixchel Ruiz has been developing software applications and tools since 2000. Her research interests include Java, dynamic languages, client-side technologies, and testing. As a member of the JCP Executive Committee, Java Champion, Oracle ACE Pro, Testcontainers Community Champion, CDF Ambassador, Hackergarten enthusiast, Open Source advocate, public speaker, and mentor, Ixchel is deeply committed to fostering inclusive and collaborative tech communities. She actively mentors aspiring developers and champions initiatives aimed at increasing diversity and accessibility in the technology sector.

Ixchel’s work is characterised by a relentless pursuit of innovation, a deep understanding of user needs, and an unwavering commitment to ethical technology development.

Ixchel Ruiz has been developing software applications and tools since 2000. Her research interests include Java, dynamic languages, client-side technologies, and testing. As a member of the JCP Executive Committee, Java Champion, Oracle ACE Pro, Test... Show more

Kevin Dubois is often featured as a (keynote) speaker at conferences around the world, where he shares his passion and knowledge about developer experience, open source, cloud native development and Java. He is also an author, java Champion, and an accomplished software architect and platform engineer. Kevin currently works as a Senior Principal Developer Advocate at IBM, and is also Technical Lead for the CNCF Developer Experience Technical Advisory Group.

Kevin contributes to projects like Quarkus, LangChain4j, Knative, Apache Camel, and Podman (Desktop).

Multilingual and multicultural, Kevin speaks English, Dutch, French, and Italian fluently. Currently based in Switzerland, he has also lived in Belgium, Italy, Montana and Utah.
When he’s not coding or speaking at conferences, you’ll likely find Kevin exploring the great outdoors—whether he's hiking rugged trails, gravel biking through scenic routes, snowboarding down epic mountain slopes, or packrafting on untamed waters.

Kevin Dubois is often featured as a (keynote) speaker at conferences around the world, where he shares his passion and knowledge about developer experience, open source, cloud native development and Java. He is also an author, java Champion, and an a... Show more

A N M Bazlur Rahman is a Software Engineer with over a decade of specialized experience in Java and related technologies. His expertise has been formally recognized through the prestigious title of Java Champion. Beyond his professional commitments, Mr. Rahman is deeply involved in community outreach and education. He is the founder and current moderator of the Java User Group in Bangladesh, where he has organized educational meetups and conferences since 2013.

In the past two years, Mr. Rahman has been an active speaker at various international conferences and Java user groups. His talks have often focused on specialized topics such as concurrency and virtual threads. In addition to his community work, Mr. Rahman also serves as an editor for Java Queue at InfoQ and Foojay.io, both of which are leading platforms for technology content. Notably, he has authored five books on the Java programming language in Bengali, three of which have become best sellers in Bangladesh.

He has published a new book with O'Reilly titled "Modern Concurrency in Java."
https://learning.oreilly.com/library/view/modern-concurrency-in/9781098165406/

A N M Bazlur Rahman is a Software Engineer with over a decade of specialized experience in Java and related technologies. His expertise has been formally recognized through the prestigious title of Java Champion. Beyond his professional commitments, ... Show more

Oliver Drotbohm has been a member of the Spring open source engineering team for 15 years. His work focused on software architecture, DDD, REST, and persistence technologies. His new book, “Modulithic Applications with Spring”, is due for release in 2026.

Oliver Drotbohm has been a member of the Spring open source engineering team for 15 years. His work focused on software architecture, DDD, REST, and persistence technologies. His new book, “Modulithic Applications with Spring”, is due for release in ... Show more

Baruch Sadogursky (@jbaruch) did Java before it had generics, DevOps before there was Docker, and DevRel before it had a name. He built DevRel at JFrog from a ten-person company through IPO, co-authored "Liquid Software" and "DevOps Tools for Java Developers," and is a Java Champion, Microsoft MVP, and CNCF Ambassador alumni.

Today, he's obsessed with how AI agents actually write code. At Tessl, an AI agent enablement platform, Baruch focuses on context engineering, management, and sharing. On top of sharing context with AI agents, Baruch also shares knowledge with developers through blog posts, meetups, and conferences like DevNexus, QCon, Kubecon, and Devoxx, mostly about why vibecoding doesn't scale.

Baruch Sadogursky (@jbaruch) did Java before it had generics, DevOps before there was Docker, and DevRel before it had a name. He built DevRel at JFrog from a ten-person company through IPO, co-authored "Liquid Software" and "DevOps Tools for Java De... Show more

Simon Martinelli is a Java Champion, Vaadin Champion, and Oracle ACE Pro with over three decades of experience as a software architect, developer, consultant, and trainer. He is the creator of the AI Unified Process (AIUP) and a strong advocate of Spec-Driven Development.
As the owner of Martinelli LLC, he coaches teams to get up to speed with AI-driven development. He regularly shares his insights through international conferences, articles, and his blog, Keep IT Simple (https://martinelli.ch), where he writes about AI, architecture, and modern Java development.
He is also a lecturer at two universities in Switzerland, where he teaches software architecture, persistence, DevOps, and cloud-native development.

Simon Martinelli is a Java Champion, Vaadin Champion, and Oracle ACE Pro with over three decades of experience as a software architect, developer, consultant, and trainer. He is the creator of the AI Unified Process (AIUP) and a strong advocate of Sp... Show more

Ivar Grimstad is the Jakarta EE Developer Advocate at Eclipse Foundation. He is a Norwegian Java Champion and JUG Leader based in Sweden.

Besides advocating the Jakarta EE technologies, Ivar is contributing to the Jakarta EE specifications as well as being the PMC Lead for Eclipse Enterprise for Java (EE4J). He is also one of the specification leads for Jakarta MVC and represents Eclipse Foundation on the JCP Executive Committee.

Ivar is also involved in a wide range of other open-source projects and communities. He is a frequent speaker at International developer conferences.

Ivar Grimstad is the Jakarta EE Developer Advocate at Eclipse Foundation. He is a Norwegian Java Champion and JUG Leader based in Sweden. Besides advocating the Jakarta EE technologies, Ivar is contributing to the Jakarta EE specifications as well... Show more

Andres is a Java/Groovy developer and a Java Champion, with more than 2 decades of experience in software design and development. He has been involved in web and desktop application development since the early days of Java. Andres is a true believer in open source and has participated on popular projects like Groovy, Griffon, and DbUnit, as well as starting his own projects. Founding member of the Griffon framework and Hackergarten community event. Author of JReleaser.

Andres is a Java/Groovy developer and a Java Champion, with more than 2 decades of experience in software design and development. He has been involved in web and desktop application development since the early days of Java. Andres is a true believer ... Show more

Richard Fichtner is the Principal Software Architect at XDEV Software GmbH, with over 20 years of experience in the software industry. He works at the intersection of business and technology and is a strong advocate for best practices in modern Java development. Richard is passionate about sharing knowledge on Java technologies, making him a frequent and highly rated conference speaker.

He is the founder and leader of the Java User Group Oberpfalz and co-organizes the JCON conferences. JCON EUROPE brings together the worldwide Java community from more than 60 countries.
Richard has been recognized as a Java Champion, Oracle ACE Pro, IBM Champion, and Vaadin Champion. With a Master of Science in Applied Computer Science, his expertise spans Java, clean code, pragmatic development practices, and European data privacy, helping organizations build modern, maintainable software.

In his spare time, Richard enjoys relaxing by a campfire and listening to or playing country music.

Richard Fichtner is the Principal Software Architect at XDEV Software GmbH, with over 20 years of experience in the software industry. He works at the intersection of business and technology and is a strong advocate for best practices in modern Java ... Show more

Mary is a Technical Solutions Architect and Advocate in the Emerging Technology area. She started as an engineer in Unix/C, then transitioned to Java around 2000 and has never looked back since then. After 20+ years of being a software engineer and technical architect, she discovered her true passion in developer and customer advocacy. Most recently she has serviced companies of various sizes such as IBM, US Cellular, Bank of America, Chicago Mercantile Exchange, in topic areas that included Java, GenAI, Streaming systems, Open source, Cloud and Distributed messaging systems. She is also a very active tech community leader outside of her day job. She is the President of the Chicago Java Users Group (CJUG), and the Chicago Organizer of the AI Collective Chicago Chapter.

Mary is a Technical Solutions Architect and Advocate in the Emerging Technology area. She started as an engineer in Unix/C, then transitioned to Java around 2000 and has never looked back since then. After 20+ years of being a software engineer and... Show more

Gerrit Grunwald is a software engineer that loves coding for around 40 years already. He is a true believer in open source and he is an active member of the Java community, where he founded and leads the Java User Group Münster (Germany), he is a JavaOne rockstar and a Java Champion. He is a speaker at conferences and user groups internationally and writes for several magazines.

Gerrit Grunwald is a software engineer that loves coding for around 40 years already. He is a true believer in open source and he is an active member of the Java community, where he founded and leads the Java User Group Münster (Germany), he is a Jav... Show more

Michael is Java Champion and Senior Consultant at INNOQ, a software-development and consulting company based in Germany. With over 15 years of professional experience, his expertise ranges from application development with Java and Spring Boot to designing distributed systems and contributing to open-source projects. Lately his interests revolve around observability, containerization and code maintenance. He is a frequent speaker at conferences and meetups and author of popular articles, including a period op-ed for a German magazine.

Michael is Java Champion and Senior Consultant at INNOQ, a software-development and consulting company based in Germany. With over 15 years of professional experience, his expertise ranges from application development with Java and Spring Boot to des... Show more

Nacho is a software engineer from Barcelona, fan of TDD and XP practices. He has been working with Java and other web technologies before the effect 2000 and had experience in different roles in the IT world now working at Dynatrace writing code to monitor applications. You may probably meet him before as founder of the Barcelona Java Users Group ( https://barcelonajug.org ) & the Barcelona Developers Conference ( DevBcn - https://www.debcn.com, former JBCNConf ). He enjoys spending time with his family, playing sports & improving his eXtreme Programming skills

Nacho is a software engineer from Barcelona, fan of TDD and XP practices. He has been working with Java and other web technologies before the effect 2000 and had experience in different roles in the IT world now working at Dynatrace writing code to m... Show more

Michael Redlich has been an active member within the Java community for the past 25 years. He founded the Garden State Java User Group (formerly the ACGNJ Java Users Group) in 2001 where he serves as one of the directors. Since 2016, Mike has served as a Java community news editor for InfoQ where his contributions include the weekly Java news roundup, news items, technical articles and technical reviews from external authors. He is currently the lead Java Queue editor. Mike joined Payara as a contract Developer Advocate and Technical Writer in the summer of 2023.

He is the author of "Helidon Revealed: A Practical Guide to Oracle’s Microservices Framework" that was released in December 2024.

Mike has presented at venues such as Devnexus, JavaOne, Oracle Code One, JCON World, Emerging Technologies for the Enterprise, Trenton Computer Festival (TCF), TCF IT Professional Conference, and numerous Java User Groups. Mike serves as a committer on the Jakarta NoSQL and Jakarta Data specifications and the Eclipse JNoSQL project. He also participates on the leadership council of the Jakarta EE Ambassadors. Mike was named a Java Champion in April 2023.

He retired from ExxonMobil Technology & Engineering in June 2023 with 33½ years of service. His experience included developing custom scientific laboratory and web applications, polymer physics, chemometrics, infrared spectroscopy and automotive testing. He also has experience as a Technical Support Engineer at Ai-Logix, Inc. (now AudioCodes) where he provided technical support and developed telephony applications for customers.

Michael Redlich has been an active member within the Java community for the past 25 years. He founded the Garden State Java User Group (formerly the ACGNJ Java Users Group) in 2001 where he serves as one of the directors. Since 2016, Mike has served ... Show more

Since 2015, Maarten has taken the stage over 70 times at 40+ events across 20 countries, inspiring audiences with his practical insights and passion for technology.

His experience spans:
* Community-driven events: local meetups and Java User Groups;
* Top-tier international conferences: including JavaOne, Devnexus, JavaZone, multiple Devoxx editions, and J-Fall;
* Private engagements: in-house company events and guest lectures at both primary and professional education institutions.

Beyond speaking, Maarten actively shapes the developer and speaking communities. He spent three years on the J-Fall Program Committee, and now mentors upcoming speakers through the NLJUG Speaker Mentoring Programme and Info Support’s internal Speaking Community.

Since 2015, Maarten has taken the stage over 70 times at 40+ events across 20 countries, inspiring audiences with his practical insights and passion for technology. His experience spans: * Community-driven events: local meetups and Java User Gro... Show more

Justin Lee is a Java Champion and a Kotlin fanatic. He has been programming in Java since 1996 and has worked on virtually every level of the application stack from database drivers all the way to application servers and front end interfaces. A long time advocate of Java and Kotlin, he has spoken at conferences and user groups all across three continents. He is an active open source community member contributing when and where he can. He is currently a Senior Software Engineer at DataDog and can be found on twitter and github as @evanchooly.

Justin Lee is a Java Champion and a Kotlin fanatic. He has been programming in Java since 1996 and has worked on virtually every level of the application stack from database drivers all the way to application servers and front end interfaces. A long... Show more

Rafael works as a software consultant in Oslo, Norway. He is a proponent of static typing and a JVM enthusiast with particular interest in code instrumentation, concurrency and functional programming. Rafael blogs about software development, regularly presents at conferences and was pronounced a JavaOne Rock Star. When coding outside of his work place, he contributes to a wide range of open source projects and often works on Byte Buddy, a library for simple runtime code generation for the Java virtual machine. For his work, Rafael received a Duke's Choice award and was elected a Java Champion.

Rafael works as a software consultant in Oslo, Norway. He is a proponent of static typing and a JVM enthusiast with particular interest in code instrumentation, concurrency and functional programming. Rafael blogs about software development, regularl... Show more

Patrick Baumgartner is a Java Champion, passionate software crafter, and technical agile coach at 42talents. He helps teams build elegant, simple, and robust solutions, specializing in cloud software with Java, the Spring ecosystem, and other open-source technologies.

Patrick is an active member of the Software Craft, Java, and Agile communities in Switzerland. As a trainer and coach, he focuses on making a real impact by sharing knowledge, experimenting, and fostering continuous improvement. He enjoys learning with and from others.

Patrick Baumgartner is a Java Champion, passionate software crafter, and technical agile coach at 42talents. He helps teams build elegant, simple, and robust solutions, specializing in cloud software with Java, the Spring ecosystem, and other open-so... Show more

Guillaume Laforge is Developer Advocate for Google Cloud Platform, at day, focusing on generative AI, LLMs, serverless technologies and event-driven architecture, and at night, he is a Java Champion and wears his Apache Groovy hat.

Guillaume Laforge is Developer Advocate for Google Cloud Platform, at day, focusing on generative AI, LLMs, serverless technologies and event-driven architecture, and at night, he is a Java Champion and wears his Apache Groovy hat. Show more

Hanno Embregts is a Java Developer with a passion for learning, teaching and making music.

In his day-to-day job as a Teacher / Technology Advocate at Info Support, Hanno prefers work that is fast-paced and versatile. This is why he juggles Java development, software architecture, public speaking, leading Info Support’s Speaker Community and teaching courses at Info Support’s Knowledge Centre.

Hanno is a Java Champion, an Oracle ACE Pro and one of the leaders of the NLJUG (the Dutch Java User Group). Outside of work Hanno likes making music with his friends. He plays the flute, the guitar and he likes to sing.

Software conferences are Hanno’s favourite thing in the world, because they allow him to do the three things he loves most at the same time: learning new things, teaching others about stuff he discovered and yes: even making music from time to time!

Hanno Embregts is a Java Developer with a passion for learning, teaching and making music. In his day-to-day job as a Teacher / Technology Advocate at Info Support, Hanno prefers work that is fast-paced and versatile. This is why he juggles Java d... Show more

Viktor Gamov is a Principal Developer Advocate at Confluent, founded by the original creators of Apache Kafka®. With a rich background in implementing and advocating for distributed systems and cloud-native architectures, Viktor excels in open-source technologies. He is passionate about assisting architects, developers, and operators in crafting systems that are not only low in latency and scalable but also highly available.
As a Java Champion and an esteemed speaker, Viktor is known for his insightful presentations at top industry events like JavaOne, Devoxx, Kafka Summit, and QCon. His expertise spans distributed systems, real-time data streaming, JVM, and DevOps.
Viktor has co-authored "Enterprise Web Development" from O'Reilly and "Apache Kafka® in Action" from Manning. 
Follow Viktor on X—@gamussa to stay updated with his latest thoughts on technology, his gym and food adventures, and insights into open-source and developer advocacy.

Viktor Gamov is a Principal Developer Advocate at Confluent, founded by the original creators of Apache Kafka®. With a rich background in implementing and advocating for distributed systems and cloud-native architectures, Viktor excels in open-source... Show more

Ken Kousen is the author of the Pragmatic Programmers books "Mockito Made Clear" and "Help Your Boss Help You", the O'Reilly books "Kotlin Cookbook", "Modern Java Recipes", and "Gradle Recipes for Android", and the Manning book "Making Java Groovy". He is a regular speaker on the No Fluff, Just Stuff conference tour, and has spoken at conferences all over the world. He is a Java Champion, a JavaOne Rock Star, and a Devnexus Rock Star. Currently he a Professor of the Practice of Computer Science and Associate Director for STEM Initiatives at the Entrepreneurship Center at Trinity College in Hartford, CT.

In addition to various industry certifications, he has BS degrees in both Mathematics and Mechanical Engineering from M.I.T., an MA and Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering from Princeton, and an MS in Computer Science from R.P.I.

Ken Kousen is the author of the Pragmatic Programmers books "Mockito Made Clear" and "Help Your Boss Help You", the O'Reilly books "Kotlin Cookbook", "Modern Java Recipes", and "Gradle Recipes for Android", and the Manning book "Making Java Groovy". ... Show more

Elias Nogueira is a distinguished software engineer specializing in Quality Engineering, delivering practical hands-on sessions on testing and development practices for backend, frontend, and mobile technologies using Java and open-source solutions.

As a Java Champion and Oracle ACE Pro, he actively contributes to the Java community, advocating for best practices and innovation in testing. As an editor for Java Magazine NL, he helps writers deliver the best content to readers in the Netherlands.

Elias Nogueira is a distinguished software engineer specializing in Quality Engineering, delivering practical hands-on sessions on testing and development practices for backend, frontend, and mobile technologies using Java and open-source solutions. ... Show more