Liji Thomas, a Microsoft MVP in AI, is a seasoned technologist with over 15 years of experience in creating transformative digital experiences. As Gen AI Manager at H&R Block, she drives innovation by leveraging generative AI to enhance customer experiences and deliver business value. Her expertise spans AI, machine learning, natural language processing, and conversational AI.

Liji is passionate about harnessing AI's transformative potential to revolutionize business and human interaction with technology. A thought leader in the field, she actively shares her insights through speaking engagements, publications, and community involvement. Committed to diversity and inclusion, she mentors aspiring technologists and advocates for the next generation of AI leaders.

Liji Thomas, a Microsoft MVP in AI, is a seasoned technologist with over 15 years of experience in creating transformative digital experiences. As Gen AI Manager at H&R Block, she drives innovation by leveraging generative AI to enhance customer expe... Show more

Vignesh Ganesan is a Microsoft MVP and an Enterprise Architect & Technology Strategist with 15 years of experience. He specializes in technical presales, product marketing, Go-to-Market strategy, leadership, consulting, advisory, solution design and designing and implementing SaaS, IaaS and PaaS environments including on-premises and hybrid infrastructures. In addition to that he also has a sound knowledge in designing and implementing security solutions for customers using native cloud controls along with 3rd party tools to build a secure Cloud environment. During his recent stint with Pitney Bowes, Microsoft and Deloitte, he designed technical solutions that can meet his customer’s needs and helped in driving their Digital Transformation so that they can get the best out of their Microsoft 365 & Azure implementation. He has worked on many products/technologies so far such as Active Directory, Windows Server , SharePoint & Exchange Server , Microsoft 365 , Azure AD ,Azure IaaS & PaaS , Slack , Google Workspace Enterprise Mobility & Security etc. .He has spoken on plethora of user groups , conferences & events across the globe and you can find all his work on his blog site i.e. Vignesh’s SharePoint Thoughts and his YouTube Channel . Over the years he has written almost 400 technical articles and has involved himself in many technical community related engagements for which he was awarded the prestigious Microsoft MVP Award and the C Sharp corner MVP Award . He always has a thirst to constantly learn something new which is what made him to complete almost 20+ Microsoft certifications.

My Microsoft MVP Profile : https://mvp.microsoft.com/en-us/PublicProfile/5004713

My Blogsite : https://vigneshsharepointthoughts.com/

My YouTube Channel : https://www.youtube.com/c/VigneshGanesan

My Microsoft Transcript : https://www.credly.com/users/vignesh-ganesan/badges

Vignesh Ganesan is a Microsoft MVP and an Enterprise Architect & Technology Strategist with 15 years of experience. He specializes in technical presales, product marketing, Go-to-Market strategy, leadership, consulting, advisory, solution design and... Show more

Ruby Jane Cabagnot, a proficient web developer, speaker, and co-author of Practical Enterprise React, is an active figure in the tech world. Passionate about programming languages like TypeScript, C#, and React, RJ's ongoing learning fuels her drive for innovation and boundary-pushing. She is dedicated to educating and promoting women in technology.

Ruby Jane Cabagnot, a proficient web developer, speaker, and co-author of Practical Enterprise React, is an active figure in the tech world. Passionate about programming languages like TypeScript, C#, and React, RJ's ongoing learning fuels her drive ... Show more

Pamela is a Developer Advocate for Kotlin Multiplatform at JetBrains and has more than 20 years of experience writing desktop, web and mobile apps.

Pamela is a Developer Advocate for Kotlin Multiplatform at JetBrains and has more than 20 years of experience writing desktop, web and mobile apps. Show more

Glenn F. Henriksen is a mentor and developer from Norway. As the co-founder and CTO of Justify, he gets to build new legal tools for everyone to use, helping to create better communication and less conflict in relationships. He's continuously exploring new tools, processes and technologies, and improving how he and his fellow developers work with code, tasks and projects. He has been a Microsoft Development MVP, a part of the Microsoft Regional Director program and is an ASP.NET Insider and an Azure Advisor. In the past 25+ years he has co-owned two companies, worked as a consultant, manager, support tech, network admin, developer, architect, technical lead and more, but his favourite things are still swapping code for food and building stuff that makes a difference in people’s lives.

Glenn F. Henriksen is a mentor and developer from Norway. As the co-founder and CTO of Justify, he gets to build new legal tools for everyone to use, helping to create better communication and less conflict in relationships. He's continuously explori... Show more

Michael Coté studies how large organizations improve how they build software to run and grow their business. His books Changing Mindsets, Monolithic Transformation, and The Business Bottleneck cover these topics. He’s been an industry analyst at RedMonk and 451 Research, done corporate strategy and M&A, and was a programmer. He also co-hosts several podcasts, including Software Defined Talk. His daily-ish newsletter is at newsletter.cote.io.

Michael Coté studies how large organizations improve how they build software to run and grow their business. His books Changing Mindsets, Monolithic Transformation, and The Business Bottleneck cover these topics. He’s been an industry analyst at RedM... Show more

Anu Natarajan is a Data, AI, and Cloud Architect with over 25 years of experience delivering modern data platforms, AI solutions, and cloud-native applications. She is a Microsoft Data Platform & AI MVP, Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT), and Microsoft Certified Trainer Community Lead, recognized for her technical expertise and community leadership.

As Founder and Director of Pearl Innovations Limited, Anu helps organizations harness the power of Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Fabric, Azure Databricks, Power BI, and AI to solve complex business challenges. Pearl Innovations is also committed to empowering women returning to the workforce by providing mentorship, real-world experience, and opportunities to build successful careers in technology.

Anu Natarajan is a Data, AI, and Cloud Architect with over 25 years of experience delivering modern data platforms, AI solutions, and cloud-native applications. She is a Microsoft Data Platform & AI MVP, Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT), and Microso... Show more

Cathrine loves data and coding, as well as teaching and sharing knowledge 🤓 She is based in Norway and works as a Data & Analytics Principal Consultant in Evidi, focusing on Data Modeling and Data Integration. Her core skills are Microsoft Fabric, Azure Synapse Analytics, Azure Data Factory, Azure SQL, SQL Server and T-SQL development, but she enjoys everything from programming to data visualization. Outside of work she’s active in the Azure and Microsoft Data communities as a Microsoft Data Platform MVP, international speaker, blogger, organizer, and chronic volunteer. She blogs at cathrinew.net and posts as @cathrinew.net on Bluesky.

Cathrine loves data and coding, as well as teaching and sharing knowledge 🤓 She is based in Norway and works as a Data & Analytics Principal Consultant in Evidi, focusing on Data Modeling and Data Integration. Her core skills are Microsoft Fabric, A... Show more

Deepthi is a SQL Server Database Administrator with several years of experience in Administering SQL Servers. She is a Microsoft certified trainer and Microsoft certified professional with an Associate and Expert level Certification in Data Management and Analytics. Deepthi blogs for DBANuggets.com. Deepthi is a Co-Organizer for Microsoft Data and AI South Florida user group, Data TGIF, Cloud Data Driven User Group, Future Data Driven Summit, Databash Conference and Data Platform Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Virtual Group. She is also DEI Steering Committee member for PASS Data Community Summit. She is a Redgate Community Ambassador. Along with this, Deepthi loves arts and crafts. You can contact her on Twitter @dbanuggets.

Deepthi is a SQL Server Database Administrator with several years of experience in Administering SQL Servers. She is a Microsoft certified trainer and Microsoft certified professional with an Associate and Expert level Certification in Data Managemen... Show more

Tejas Chopra is a Senior Software Engineer, working in the Data Storage Platform team at Netflix, where he is responsible for architecting storage solutions to support Netflix Studios and Netflix Streaming Platform. Prior to Netflix, Tejas was working on designing and implementing the storage infrastructure at Box, Inc. to support a cloud content management platform that scales to petabytes of storage & millions of users. Tejas has worked on distributed file systems & backend architectures, both in on-premise and cloud environments as part of several startups in his career. Tejas is an International Keynote Speaker and periodically conducts seminars on Micro services, NFTs, Software Development & Cloud Computing and has a Masters Degree in Electrical & Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University, with a specialization in Computer Systems.

Tejas Chopra is a Senior Software Engineer, working in the Data Storage Platform team at Netflix, where he is responsible for architecting storage solutions to support Netflix Studios and Netflix Streaming Platform. Prior to Netflix, Tejas was workin... Show more

Dave Stokes has worked for organizations ranging alphabetically from the American Heart Association to Xerox in areas ranging from anti-submarine warfare to webmaster. He lives in a small Texas town with the required hound dog and pickup truck. Dave is the Author of MySQL & JSON - A Practical Programming Guide, now in a second edition.

Dave Stokes has worked for organizations ranging alphabetically from the American Heart Association to Xerox in areas ranging from anti-submarine warfare to webmaster. He lives in a small Texas town with the required hound dog and pickup truck. Dave... Show more

Glenn Colpaert is co-founder and CEO at Zure Belgium. He is a Microsoft Azure MVP since 2014 and is a frequent speaker at national and international events.

With over 18 years of experience gained in many national and international projects, he can adapt quickly to customer-specific situations and scenarios.
Currently, he’s mainly focused on designing and building secure, scalable cloud-based solutions on Microsoft Azure.

Glenn likes to share his experience with the community and is he's an active crew member of the Belgian Azure User Group (AZUG).

Glenn Colpaert is co-founder and CEO at Zure Belgium. He is a Microsoft Azure MVP since 2014 and is a frequent speaker at national and international events. With over 18 years of experience gained in many national and international projects, he ca... Show more

A seasoned technologist with over 20 years of experience in the Ops space. He is currently serving as the Global Field CTO for a leading cloud-native and open-source data protection company.

Exploring the world of Cloud,Cloud-Native, DevOps and Open-Source Software software and raising awareness that there is still very much a requirement to protect data and workloads within these platforms.

Author of 90DaysOfDevOps, an Open Learning resource for the community with over 20,000 GitHub Stars sharing structured route to learning the world of DevOps.

Current Project: Up The Stack, a look into the graduated and incubating projects that we see within the CNCF Landscape.

A seasoned technologist with over 20 years of experience in the Ops space. He is currently serving as the Global Field CTO for a leading cloud-native and open-source data protection company. Exploring the world of Cloud,Cloud-Native, DevOps and Op... Show more

Lead BI Architect, with a background as business analyst with a 20-year experience, data analysis is one of his daily tasks, with Power BI a world of possibilities opened.
Super User in the Power BI community since the start of the program back in 2018 that allowed him to achieve a Microsoft MVP for the first time in 2019.

The engagement with the community, went further in 2020 with the first presentation on DAX and the blog https://pbiportugal.com/.
In 2021 there was a shift in his career with full time job in data, currently he provides solutions in Power BI and the Microsoft environment for customers in different business areas.

Making his own tools in Excel and VBA since University to improve the analysis and ways to show data that allowed users to have quick insights.
With Power Query and Power BI, the insights are easier and faster, and takes BI to a different level since removes the dependency on specialized professionals to have data as we need and when we need it.

Lead BI Architect, with a background as business analyst with a 20-year experience, data analysis is one of his daily tasks, with Power BI a world of possibilities opened. Super User in the Power BI community since the start of the program back in ... Show more

Rizel Scarlett is a Staff Developer Advocate at Block. With a diverse background spanning GitHub, startups, and non-profit organizations, Rizel has cultivated a passion for utilizing emerging technologies to champion equity within the tech industry. She moonlights as an Advisor at G{Code} House, an organization aimed at teaching women of color and non-binary people of color to code. Rizel believes in leveraging vulnerability, honesty, and kindness as means to educate early-career developers.Rizel Scarlett is a Staff Developer Advocate at Block. With a diverse background spanning GitHub, startups, and non-profit organizations, Rizel has cultivated a passion for utilizing emerging technologies to champion equity within the tech industry. She moonlights as an Advisor at G{Code} House, an organization aimed at teaching women of color and non-binary people of color to code. Rizel believes in leveraging vulnerability, honesty, and kindness as means to educate early-career developers.

Rizel Scarlett is a Staff Developer Advocate at Block. With a diverse background spanning GitHub, startups, and non-profit organizations, Rizel has cultivated a passion for utilizing emerging technologies to champion equity within the tech industry. ... Show more

Emiliano is a Uruguayan-Spanish software developer, Microsoft MVP in Developer Technologies, and passionate community advocate based in Tenerife. He’s also a proud dad, balancing family life with a deep commitment to tech and community.

As Team Lead at Intelequia Technologies, he drives the design of scalable cloud solutions using Microsoft technologies, blending strategic vision with hands-on execution. With years of experience tackling complex challenges, Emiliano brings strong expertise in cloud architecture and team leadership.

A frequent speaker and blogger, he shares practical insights to support and mentor the global developer community—giving back to the ecosystem that shaped his own journey.

Emiliano is a Uruguayan-Spanish software developer, Microsoft MVP in Developer Technologies, and passionate community advocate based in Tenerife. He’s also a proud dad, balancing family life with a deep commitment to tech and community. As Team Le... Show more

Olivier Van Steenlandt is a Business Intelligence Professional who spent most of his early career assisting retail companies to get more value of their data using the Microsoft BI Stack (SSIS, SSAS, SSRS, Power BI).

As his first experience in the field (in Business Intelligence), Olivier worked as a Big Data Analyst using tools such as Hadoop and Spark.

In 2015 the focus changed to traditional data warehousing & reporting using SSIS, SSRS & MicroStrategy. A bit later, around June 2019, the opportunity arose to fill the position of BI Teamlead. In this function he was able to set up a hybrid BI Team (team members in Belgium and Belarus).

Early 2020, Olivier joined the dataMinds crew as a core member, assisting to organise several events.

Around April 2021, Olivier started a new position as BI Teamlead in another Retail Company to support business growth. Besides the challenge to help the BI Team grow and deliver projects on time, he started to use SSAS & Power BI.

In April 2025, Olivier stepped away from internal positions and became an independent consultant.

When Olivier is not working there is a high chance that you find him on a football field, studying (BI Related), playing music (Saxophone / Piano) or cooking.

Olivier Van Steenlandt is a Business Intelligence Professional who spent most of his early career assisting retail companies to get more value of their data using the Microsoft BI Stack (SSIS, SSAS, SSRS, Power BI). As his first experience in the ... Show more

Gabi Münster (she / her) started working with SQL Server technologies in 2005 during her time as Web Application developer. After 11 years as BI consultant / Data architect and being awarded Data Platform MVP since 2018, she joined Microsoft in March 2022 as part of the Azure Data Customer Advisory Team and works as a Principal Program Manager covering Fabric.
She speaks at regional chapter meetings, national and international conferences. Since 2016 she also supports a regional chapter as co-lead.
Apart from BI topics she also supports Diversity topics.

Gabi Münster (she / her) started working with SQL Server technologies in 2005 during her time as Web Application developer. After 11 years as BI consultant / Data architect and being awarded Data Platform MVP since 2018, she joined Microsoft in March... Show more

Polyglot Coding Architect in London, founder of #ldnug, speaker, tabletop gamer, geek. Tattooed, pierced, and bearded. The 'guv' on @BrighterCommand

Polyglot Coding Architect in London, founder of #ldnug, speaker, tabletop gamer, geek. Tattooed, pierced, and bearded. The 'guv' on @BrighterCommand Show more

Chirag is an Independent Consultant & Trainer at Patel Consulting, based in London UK, focusing on enabling secure & compliant collaboration and productivity solutions in organisations using Generative AI, Microsoft 365 and Purview technologies.

With over 25 years of experience in technology professional services and training delivery, Chirag’s career spans from database development & administration, implementing collaboration & information management solutions to cloud deployments & migrations. Key roles include, Product Owner, Solution Architect & Engineer specialising hands-on delivery of technical solutions with demonstrated results in designing & implementing secure, reliable, scalable and fault tolerant mission critical enterprise solutions. Chirag’s contributions extends to various channels and partners on practical consultancy, classroom training, and personalised training with clients in many sectors, he establishes himself as leader and problem solver on projects for broad adoption of tech and is also a regular speaker at community events.

Chirag holds MSc in Business Systems Analysis & Design and is a Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT), TOGAF Certified Architect, BCS Chartered IT Professional and a recipient of Microsoft MVP award every year since 2020. He is also an Approved Chartered Membership Assessor at BCS (British Computer Society).

Chirag is an Independent Consultant & Trainer at Patel Consulting, based in London UK, focusing on enabling secure & compliant collaboration and productivity solutions in organisations using Generative AI, Microsoft 365 and Purview technologies. W... Show more

Julia helps teams improve system reliability, observability, and scalability by guiding the adoption of modern infrastructure and operational practices.
Beyond her work, Julia is a a Community Manager to the OpenTelemetry project, CNCF Ambassador, AWS Container Hero, Docker Captain, Google Women Techmakers Ambassador, and Girl Code Ambassador. She’s an active community leader who helps organize KCD NY, AWS Community Day NY, and the Cloud Native Meetup NYC.

Julia helps teams improve system reliability, observability, and scalability by guiding the adoption of modern infrastructure and operational practices. Beyond her work, Julia is a a Community Manager to the OpenTelemetry project, CNCF Ambassador, A... Show more

Sagar is a Staff Android Engineer who has been building apps for 11 years now. He is also a Google developer expert in Android and a co-organizer for Google Developer Groups at Boston and enjoys educating for the mobile dev community.

Sagar is a Staff Android Engineer who has been building apps for 11 years now. He is also a Google developer expert in Android and a co-organizer for Google Developer Groups at Boston and enjoys educating for the mobile dev community. Show more

Steve Jones has been working with databases and computers for over two decades. He has worked with SQL Server since 1991, from v4.2 through SQL Server 2016. He has been a DBA, developer, and manager in a variety of large and small companies across multiple industries. In 2001 Steve founded SQLServerCentral with two partners and has been publishing technical articles and facilitating discussions among SQL Server professionals ever since. He currently is the full time editor of SQLServerCentral, as well as an evangelist for Redgate Software. Steve is a 10 year Microsoft Data Platform MVP and lives on a horse ranch in Colorado.

Steve Jones has been working with databases and computers for over two decades. He has worked with SQL Server since 1991, from v4.2 through SQL Server 2016. He has been a DBA, developer, and manager in a variety of large and small companies across mu... Show more

Edoardo is a Developer Relations Engineer. He has a strong software developer and team leader background, working on various projects and platforms. He is passionate about creating and sharing content that educates and inspires other developers, such as tech talks, videos, podcasts, conferences, and more. He enjoys connecting with the developer community and promoting the benefits of open source software.

Edoardo is a Developer Relations Engineer. He has a strong software developer and team leader background, working on various projects and platforms. He is passionate about creating and sharing content that educates and inspires other developers, such... Show more

Paul (AKA @mrpaulandrew) is the Co-Founder & CTO of Cloud Formations, a specialist data consultancy based in the UK. With nearly 20 years’ experience designing and delivering Microsoft data architectures, Paul leads a passionate team of engineers, supporting businesses small and large with scalable cloud platforms. Business value delivered through data insights. Over the years, Paul has covered the breadth and depth of design patterns and industry leading concepts, including Lambda, Kappa, Delta Lake, Data Mesh and Data Fabric.

Paul is also a Microsoft Data Platform MVP, director for the Data Relay community conference, East Midlands user group leader, book author and mentor. In addition to the day job(s), Paul is a father of three, husband, foodie, runner, blood donor, geek, Lego, and Star Wars fan! Lastly, Paul confesses to enjoying a Ramstein playlist when given half a chance to do some coding for a customer project.

Paul (AKA @mrpaulandrew) is the Co-Founder & CTO of Cloud Formations, a specialist data consultancy based in the UK. With nearly 20 years’ experience designing and delivering Microsoft data architectures, Paul leads a passionate team of engineers, su... Show more

Microsoft 365 advisor
Cybersecurity Architect

Microsoft 365 advisor Cybersecurity Architect Show more

As GCD of Xebia Microsoft Services, Rene enables consultants to help organizations and leadership teams to build an engineering culture that allows them to build, deliver, and operate software in a secure and compliant way. With a focus on both the technical and cultural aspects of a company, Rene helps clients transform their work processes, operating model, and culture to become high-speed, innovative, and productive.

Rene is passionate about learning new technologies and exploring the cultural and people aspects of companies. He believes that by focusing on both technical implementation and cultural development, we can drive our industry forward. He loves sharing his knowledge and insights at conferences and training events.

As a frequently asked speaker at well-known industry events like GitHub Universe, NDC, Techorama, AllDayDevOps, NDC, and Visual Studio Live!, Rene is known for his expertise in Microsoft Azure, DevOps and DevOps Culture. In addition to being a Microsoft MVP since 2012, he is also the founder of the popular community event Global DevOps Bootcamp.

As GCD of Xebia Microsoft Services, Rene enables consultants to help organizations and leadership teams to build an engineering culture that allows them to build, deliver, and operate software in a secure and compliant way. With a focus on both the t... Show more

Femke Cornelissen is Chief Copilot at Wortell. She is also the founder of Dutch Women in Tech (DWIT). Femke's goal with DWIT is to connect women in tech and help to inspire young women to choose a job in IT. Women can connect through the community in Microsoft Teams and various on- and offline events.

Femke is also a Microsoft 365 blogger with only Dutch content. Her goal is to organize, speak and attend conferences to learn, connect and share knowledge with others.

Find out more at www.femkecornelissen.com

Femke Cornelissen is Chief Copilot at Wortell. She is also the founder of Dutch Women in Tech (DWIT). Femke's goal with DWIT is to connect women in tech and help to inspire young women to choose a job in IT. Women can connect through the community in... Show more

I work as Cloud Architect at glueckkanja AG where I am responsible to plan and deploy UC infrastructures based on Microsoft technologies. I'm working as technician and consultant for more than 15 years and been specialized in Microsoft Lync/Skype for Business and Microsoft Teams for 8 years. From beginning of my UC consultant career, I was focused on Enterprise Voice implementations.
Since a few years I am co-organizer of the Microsoft Teams User Group Germany and involved in the community as speaker and blog post author. In March 2020, I started my own Office 365 YouTube channel where I publish on a regular basis new video content for my weekly “Office 365 QuickTipps” channel. In a further YouTube project, together with my friend Michael Plettner, we release a German Microsoft 365 Talk.
Since July 2021, I have been a Microsoft MVP for Microsoft 365 in recognition of my commitment to the Microsoft Tech Community.

I work as Cloud Architect at glueckkanja AG where I am responsible to plan and deploy UC infrastructures based on Microsoft technologies. I'm working as technician and consultant for more than 15 years and been specialized in Microsoft Lync/Skype for... Show more

Data Architect & Microsoft Data Platform MVP, named Top 50 Women in Tech Norway, who makes complex data platforms simple, practical, and trusted. Specialized in Microsoft Fabric, Power BI, Purview and data governance, turning complexity into clarity and real business value.

Data Architect & Microsoft Data Platform MVP, named Top 50 Women in Tech Norway, who makes complex data platforms simple, practical, and trusted. Specialized in Microsoft Fabric, Power BI, Purview and data governance, turning complexity into clarity ... Show more