Hailing from the faraway land of Brentwood, NY and currently residing in the rolling hills of Connecticut, Matt Topol has always been passionate about software. After graduating from Brooklyn Polytechnic (now NYU-Poly), he joined FactSet Research Systems, Inc. in 2009 developing financial software. In the time since, Matt has worked in infrastructure and application development, has lead development teams, and architected large-scale distributed systems for processing analytics on financial data. Matt is a PMC member for the Apache Arrow project, frequently enhancing the Golang library among other enhancements and helping to grow the Arrow Community. Recently, Matt wrote the first and only book on Apache Arrow "In-Memory Analytics with Apache Arrow" and joined Voltron Data in order to work on the Apache Arrow libraries full time and grow the Arrow Golang community.

In his spare time, Matt likes to bash his head against a keyboard, develop/run delightfully demented games of fantasy for his victims--er--friends, and share his knowledge with anyone interested who'll listen to his rants.

Hailing from the faraway land of Brentwood, NY and currently residing in the rolling hills of Connecticut, Matt Topol has always been passionate about software. After graduating from Brooklyn Polytechnic (now NYU-Poly), he joined FactSet Research Sys... Show more

Jakub works at Red Hat as Senior Principal Software Engineer. He has long-term experience with messaging and currently focuses mainly on Apache Kafka and its integration with Kubernetes. He is one of the maintainers of the Strimzi project which provides tooling for running Apache Kafka on Kubernetes. Before joining Red Hat he worked as messaging and solution architect in the financial industry.

Jakub works at Red Hat as Senior Principal Software Engineer. He has long-term experience with messaging and currently focuses mainly on Apache Kafka and its integration with Kubernetes. He is one of the maintainers of the Strimzi project which provi... Show more

Matteo is a Cloud Solution Architect in the Modern Work - AI, Apps & Ecosystem team in Microsoft. In his role, he works with global companies to build innovative projects for the Microsoft 365 ecosystem, based on the latest innovations in the AI & applications development space. He has a strong passion for knowledge sharing and he supports the developer community by writing articles, blog posts and books and by speaking at conferences all around the world. Before joining Microsoft, he was a Microsoft MVP in the Windows Development category and a Nokia Developer Champion for almost 5 years.

Matteo is a Cloud Solution Architect in the Modern Work - AI, Apps & Ecosystem team in Microsoft. In his role, he works with global companies to build innovative projects for the Microsoft 365 ecosystem, based on the latest innovations in the AI & ap... Show more

Dennes is a DBA and Data Platform MVP (2020-2023) living in Malta who loves Data Platform, including Azure Data Platform, Microsoft Fabric, SQL Server and recently got involved by Generative AI. In the past, he was married with software development, resulting in a total of more than 20 years of experience between Data Platform, cloud and software development. He moved to Malta after more than 10 years leading devSQL PASS Chapter in Rio de Janeiro and now is a member of the leadership team of MMDPUG PASS Chapter in Malta organizing meetings, events, and webcasts about Microsoft Data Platform. He is an MCT, MCSE in Data Platforms and BI, with more titles in software development. He can be found working for DTower Software and speaking in SQL Saturdays around Europe

Dennes is a DBA and Data Platform MVP (2020-2023) living in Malta who loves Data Platform, including Azure Data Platform, Microsoft Fabric, SQL Server and recently got involved by Generative AI. In the past, he was married with software development, ... 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

Karoliina is the Head of Modern Work at OP Financial Group, the largest financial services group in Finland. She has over ten years of experience in developing teamwork and internal communications with modern digital tools and leading long-term change in organisations. Karoliina is a Microsoft MVP and a multi-awarded role model for her enthusiasm, knowledge-sharing, and community leadership. She is an experienced and inspiring speaker at international conferences, and she co-organizes the Finnish Teams&Copilot User Group and CollabDays Finland Conference 💜 Community rocks!

Karoliina is the Head of Modern Work at OP Financial Group, the largest financial services group in Finland. She has over ten years of experience in developing teamwork and internal communications with modern digital tools and leading long-term chang... Show more

Simi Olabisi is a Director, AI Specialist (Global Black Belt Team) at Microsoft responsible for accelerating market adoption of AI and driving some of the most strategic and innovative customer AI projects leveraging Azure AI/ML products and services. She boasts an impressive career in the technology sector. Her journey commenced with notable stints at Cisco, Google (GCP), and Amazon Web Services where she helped customers enable innovative technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.

Simi is the Founder of Project Omoverhi (Featured on ABC News), where she invented an innovative, cost-effective solar powered infant incubator for premature infants in developing countries. She also embarked on a two-year venture in the startup arena, where she dedicated her efforts to empowering African software engineers through training and forging connections to international opportunities in Europe, Canada, and the United States.

Her profound insights and career expertise led to her being featured in Glamour Magazine (print, podcast, and YouTube) as a prominent thought leader, particularly in the realm of women's salary negotiation. Simi's educational background includes a Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering from Santa Clara University. She is currently based in Austin, TX, was born in Lagos, Nigeria, and grew up in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia before moving to the United States.

Simi Olabisi is a Director, AI Specialist (Global Black Belt Team) at Microsoft responsible for accelerating market adoption of AI and driving some of the most strategic and innovative customer AI projects leveraging Azure AI/ML products and services... Show more

Martin Förtsch is an IT-consultant of TNG Technology Consulting GmbH based in Unterföhring near Munich who studied computer sciences. Work wise his focus areas are Agile Development (mainly) in Java, Search Engine Technologies, Information Retrieval and Databases.

As an Intel Software Innovator and Intel Black Belt Software Developer he is strongly involved in the development of open-source software for gesture control with 3D-cameras like e.g. Intel RealSense and has built an Augmented Reality wearable prototype device with his team based on this technology.

Furthermore, he gives many talks at national and international conferences about Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things, 3D-camera technologies, Augmented Reality and Test Driven Development as well. He was awarded with the Oracle JavaOne Rockstar.

Martin Förtsch is an IT-consultant of TNG Technology Consulting GmbH based in Unterföhring near Munich who studied computer sciences. Work wise his focus areas are Agile Development (mainly) in Java, Search Engine Technologies, Information Retrieval ... Show more

A professional with more than 20years of experience in the IT Industry, all of them working with Microsoft Technologies. His principal activities are Development and Solution Analysts on his first years and as Team Leader and Solution Architect on the last 6 years. Currently Chief Technology Innovation Officer in ENCAMINA, leading Microsoft technology software development and member of the management board.

For the Spanish Community, he works as organizer and speaker in the most important Microsoft technologies conferences which he is one of the most important leaders. Author of several books and articles in professional magazine, from 2013 he began a new career as co-director of CompartiMOSS, a Microsoft technologies magazine.

In 2011 he was named Microsoft MVP and he still retaining recognition for the seventh consecutive year. He defined himself as a geek, smartphones lover and developer. For the community, has founded TenerifeDev (www.tenerifedev.com) with other friends, a technical community in Tenerife, coordinator at SUGES (SharePoint Users Group on Spain, www.suges.es) and at Comunidad Office 365 Spain.

A professional with more than 20years of experience in the IT Industry, all of them working with Microsoft Technologies. His principal activities are Development and Solution Analysts on his first years and as Team Leader and Solution Architect on th... Show more

Winner of three AI awards, I’ve been working in AI and machine learning for 25 years, designing and developing AI and computer graphic algorithms.

I’m very passionate about AI, focusing on Audio, Image and Natural Language Processing, and predictive analysis as well.
I received several national and international awards that recognize my work and contributions in these areas.

Microsoft MVP for Artificial Intelligence Category, I have the pleasure of being a guest speaker in national and international events.

Winner of three AI awards, I’ve been working in AI and machine learning for 25 years, designing and developing AI and computer graphic algorithms. I’m very passionate about AI, focusing on Audio, Image and Natural Language Processing, and predicti... Show more

Hailing from the heart of Kansas City’s Silicon Prairie, J.D. Hillen is a Software Engineer II at GPS and wearables company, Garmin. Since the age of 15, he's been fascinated with the connection between creativity and code. His love for all things tech has allowed him to work for a wide variety of advertising agencies, marketing firms and even the craft beer industry. When he’s not coding, you’ll find him spending time with his wife and two boys or in the pit of a metal show.

Hailing from the heart of Kansas City’s Silicon Prairie, J.D. Hillen is a Software Engineer II at GPS and wearables company, Garmin. Since the age of 15, he's been fascinated with the connection between creativity and code. His love for all things te... Show more

Over 20 years of SQL Server experience that includes being a DBA, BI development and Application development using VB.NET. Dave currently the Application and Data Administration Lead for Nexus Pharmaceuticals. Prior to that he was the Manager of the DBA team at Stericycle. Dave was a Friend of Red-Gate for 2019 and 2020. He is a frequent presenter at SQL Saturday events and user groups around the country. Has been teaching SQL Server since version 2000 and is the SQL Server instructor at Harper College in Palatine, IL.

Over 20 years of SQL Server experience that includes being a DBA, BI development and Application development using VB.NET. Dave currently the Application and Data Administration Lead for Nexus Pharmaceuticals. Prior to that he was the Manager of t... Show more

Ignat is a systems engineer at Cloudflare working mostly on Linux, platforms and hardware security. Ignat’s interests are cryptography, hacking, and low-level programming. Before Cloudflare, Ignat worked as a senior security engineer for Samsung Electronics’ Mobile Communications Division. His solutions may be found in many older Samsung smart phones and tablets. Ignat started his career as a security researcher in the Ukrainian government’s communications services.

Ignat is a systems engineer at Cloudflare working mostly on Linux, platforms and hardware security. Ignat’s interests are cryptography, hacking, and low-level programming. Before Cloudflare, Ignat worked as a senior security engineer for Samsung Elec... Show more

David Yitzhak, Team leader of Big Data and Nosql databases
David Yitzhak has over 24 years of experience with SQL Server, Oracle, Sybase and PostgreSQL . He is an applicative & infrastructure DBA for relational and Nosql solutions (MongoDB, Redis), Hadoop CDH and Spark. David is a specialist in HA and DRP solutions, tuning, Machine learning , security, High Performance Computing, replication (Oracle & SQL Server), BI infrastructure and system engineering. David Yitzhak holds 3 Degrees from Technicon (Israel Institute of Technology): BSC Information System , MBA and ME (System engineering) and research associate in one of the enterprise Organization. He presents in Oracle open world 2010, Organize Oracle ILOUG for 3 years , SQL Server forums, Microsoft BI forums, Sqlsaturday 2016/17/18/19/20 , DATA SATURDAY , Power Camps , GroupBy Europe , Future Data Driven , Data Platforms GlobalHebrew , Code PaLOUsa 2021\2 , Pass summit 2021 and more …

David Yitzhak, Team leader of Big Data and Nosql databases David Yitzhak has over 24 years of experience with SQL Server, Oracle, Sybase and PostgreSQL . He is an applicative & infrastructure DBA for relational and Nosql solutions (MongoDB, Redis),... Show more

Senior Solution Architect @ Databricks, ex-Microsoft, co-organiser of Databricks London Meetup, I specialize in Big Data Analytics, Data Engineering, Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence. In addition to helping customers building out data platforms and solving real world problems using data, I also write about Data & AI, make demos and tutorials on YouTube and do public speaking on related topics.

Senior Solution Architect @ Databricks, ex-Microsoft, co-organiser of Databricks London Meetup, I specialize in Big Data Analytics, Data Engineering, Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence. In addition to helping customers building out data platf... Show more

Josh has been interested in computers since he was five years old. He has worked professionally as a developer, engineer, director, and architect for over 20 years. He considers himself a lifelong learner. He ​loves mentoring and working with others. His passion is seeing others progress through their careers.

Josh has led large product development initiatives for multiple financial services organizations. This has included migrating from desktop applications to the web and from on-premise to the cloud.

Josh has been interested in computers since he was five years old. He has worked professionally as a developer, engineer, director, and architect for over 20 years. He considers himself a lifelong learner. He ​loves mentoring and working with othe... Show more

Erland Sommarskog is an independent consultant based in Stockholm. He has worked with SQL Server since 1991. He was first awarded SQL Server MVP in 2001, and he has been re-awarded every year since. His focus is on systems development with the SQL Server Database Engine and his passion is to help people to write better SQL Server applications.

Erland Sommarskog is an independent consultant based in Stockholm. He has worked with SQL Server since 1991. He was first awarded SQL Server MVP in 2001, and he has been re-awarded every year since. His focus is on systems development with the SQL Se... Show more

Alexander Klein is a senior Business Intelligence consultant with more than 20 years of experience. He focuses on Business Intelligence and Data Warehouse projects with Microsoft technologies like SQL Server, Power BI, Azure ML or Cognitive Services.

Since 2008, he has been a self-employed consultant in large and medium-sized projects in all sectors across Europe. He has been visiting SQL Saturdays all over Europe since 2013.Since 2017 Alexander speaks at national and international conferences / user groups about Data Warehouse, BI, Azure and AI.

Alexander Klein is a senior Business Intelligence consultant with more than 20 years of experience. He focuses on Business Intelligence and Data Warehouse projects with Microsoft technologies like SQL Server, Power BI, Azure ML or Cognitive Services.... Show more

Uwe Ricken is working with IT systems since the 90’s. The start of experiences with Microsoft SQL Server came with the assignment for development of membership administration software for the American Chamber of Commerce in Germany. The software has been distributed to five additional European countries. The primary passion for developments with Microsoft SQL Server expanded in 2007 with his engagement as a DBA for Deutsche Bank AG in Frankfurt am Main. After 6 years of operational experiences as a DBA and over 14 years as a developer of complex database models he achieved the “Microsoft Certified Master – SQL Server 2008” certification which “was” the highest technical certification. The year 2013 finished with the first MVP award for his support to the Microsoft SQL Server community in Germany and Europe.
To provide his deep knowledge about Microsoft SQL Server to the interested community Uwe Ricken is blogging since 2010 at http://www.sqlmaster.de about his daily experiences with Microsoft SQL Server. His blog posts are in German language only to provide the German speaking SQL community inside views into the technology of Microsoft SQL Server.
Uwe Ricken is a speaker on many international conferences and events and preferred topics are “Database Internals”, “Indexing” and “Development”.

Uwe Ricken is working with IT systems since the 90’s. The start of experiences with Microsoft SQL Server came with the assignment for development of membership administration software for the American Chamber of Commerce in Germany. The software has ... Show more

Gomolemo is a young South African who is determined to make a long-lasting impact on the world through technology.

A .NET developer with a history of creating written programming tutorials for university students and conducting multiple coding workshops, hackathons and speaking at various conferences across the globe.

Gomolemo eventually fell in love with the Power Platform, because it was a low-code platform which gave way for him to empower and upskill not just those with a technical background, but anyone from any industry who was looking to learn how to build applications.

He has since co-authored a Power Platform Udacity course and is now a Cloud Advocate at Microsoft focused on Power Apps and Fusion Development leveraging his love and skill for both traditional and low-code development.

Gomolemo is a young South African who is determined to make a long-lasting impact on the world through technology. A .NET developer with a history of creating written programming tutorials for university students and conducting multiple coding wor... Show more

Michael is an IT Process automation Expert with Customers all around the Globe, a Cloud and Datacenter MVP since 2015, and an au2mation enthusiast.

Michael is an IT Process automation Expert with Customers all around the Globe, a Cloud and Datacenter MVP since 2015, and an au2mation enthusiast. Show more

Mackenzie is a developer advocate with a passion for DevOps and code security. As the co-founder and former CTO of a health tech startup, he learnt first-hand how critical it is to build secure applications with robust developer operations.
Today as the Developer Advocate at GitGuardian, Mackenzie is able to share his passion for code security with developers and works closely with research teams to show how malicious actors discover and exploit vulnerabilities in code.

Mackenzie is a developer advocate with a passion for DevOps and code security. As the co-founder and former CTO of a health tech startup, he learnt first-hand how critical it is to build secure applications with robust developer operations. Today a... Show more

My name’s Joe Griffin, and I’m CEO of proMX UK, a Microsoft Inner Circle partner within the proMX group of companies. I hold various Microsoft certifications in Dynamics CRM/365 Customer Engagement, Azure, Power BI and SQL Server and am also a PRINCE2 Project Manager and Agile Practitioner. I have a broad knowledge of working with and managing projects involving Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement, Azure, Power BI, .NET and other technologies within the Microsoft cloud stack. During this time, I’ve developed a keen interest in coding, and love working with Transact-SQL, JScript, PowerShell, DAX & C#. Thanks to my previous experience, I have practical knowledge operating within the energy efficiency, managed services, retail, print & direct mail and utility sectors. I love getting involved as part of the Business Applications technical community and was very fortunate to receive the Most Valuable Professional (MVP) award from Microsoft in 2020, in recognition of my contributions in this area. When I’m not blogging or tinkering, I enjoy reading, catching up on the latest films/TVs and also enjoy learning about and studying history.

My name’s Joe Griffin, and I’m CEO of proMX UK, a Microsoft Inner Circle partner within the proMX group of companies. I hold various Microsoft certifications in Dynamics CRM/365 Customer Engagement, Azure, Power BI and SQL Server and am also a PRINCE... Show more

Tommaso is a Cloud Solution Architect for Microsoft's Application Innovation team. He supports developers in the adoption of Microsoft's technologies with a focus on Cloud Native Applications and DevOps.

Tommaso is a Cloud Solution Architect for Microsoft's Application Innovation team. He supports developers in the adoption of Microsoft's technologies with a focus on Cloud Native Applications and DevOps. Show more

Jenkins is an M365 Copilot & Development MVP and Microsoft Certified Trainer who has been working on SharePoint for more than 21+ years, focusing on building custom solutions for Microsoft Teams, SharePoint Framework, Power Platform, Office 365 and SharePoint. Having a very strong background in development both front-end and back-end, he is riding the modern web development wave and helping community with learning latest development techniques. He has been working on SharePoint for 20 years, who started his career on SharePoint version 2003. He is living in Chennai, India providing innovative and cost-effective solutions. He holds two master’s degrees in information technology. He is passionate about SharePoint and actively blogs, organize events, speaks at events and International Conferences, most recently on the topics of Copilot, Microsoft Teams, SharePoint and Power Platform.

Jenkins is an M365 Copilot & Development MVP and Microsoft Certified Trainer who has been working on SharePoint for more than 21+ years, focusing on building custom solutions for Microsoft Teams, SharePoint Framework, Power Platform, Office 365 and S... Show more

Defining Go-to-market strategy for Enterprises to extend Microsoft Copilot & Power Platform through AI tools and low code/ no code solutions. Aiming to create a sustainable impact for the Enterprises & consumers by turbocharging product value with the magic of modern tech! 🚀 .

I have prior experience in Global e-commerce, with Amazon in Multi-Million dollars Brand Transparency Program to protect the Fortune 500 brands and SMBs against counterfeit products on Amazon. I was also associated with Vodafone in Business Transformation Programs across international markets to position the company for competitive advantage.

From growing up as an Army kid to becoming an Army wife, community spirit and exploring uncharted territories is in the DNA.

Defining Go-to-market strategy for Enterprises to extend Microsoft Copilot & Power Platform through AI tools and low code/ no code solutions. Aiming to create a sustainable impact for the Enterprises & consumers by turbocharging product value with th... 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

With over 20 years of experience developing software on the Microsoft stack, Roelant Dieben has a lot to share about stuff that has been obsolete for years. At Sopra Steria he is helping companies with their Azure cloud and AI challenges, he is a Microsoft Azure & AI MVP, and has a passion for machine learning & AI and application lifecycle management.

With over 20 years of experience developing software on the Microsoft stack, Roelant Dieben has a lot to share about stuff that has been obsolete for years. At Sopra Steria he is helping companies with their Azure cloud and AI challenges, he is a Mic... Show more

Ragnar is a Most Valuable Professional (MVP) for Microsoft 365 Office Apps and Services. Together with MVP Alexander Egger, he hosts the “Alex & Ragnar Show,” a bi-weekly Video Live Stream about Microsoft 365 Hybrid Workplace and also "Guardians of M365 Governance" with Christian Buckley. Ragnar is a blogger and podcaster, headset geek, and core-member of Viva Explorers Community. He has an M.A. in Social Science and an Executive MBA, and has also published several books and articles about modern work.

Ragnar is a Most Valuable Professional (MVP) for Microsoft 365 Office Apps and Services. Together with MVP Alexander Egger, he hosts the “Alex & Ragnar Show,” a bi-weekly Video Live Stream about Microsoft 365 Hybrid Workplace and also "Guardians of ... Show more

Dave has been developing database applications for over 30 years. A Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT) since 2001, he has taught many classes from Intro to Programming to Advanced SharePoint Development. Dave is a seven time Microsoft MVP and runs three user groups, MAD SharePoint, www.madsharepoint.com, the Mid Atlantic Cybersecurity Experts MeetUp, www.meetup.com/MACEME, and the Baltimore Cloud Meetup, www.meetup.com/Baltimore-Cloud.

Dave does SharePoint training and application development for DSA, Inc., a DoD contractor that does great work for the U.S. Army over at Aberdeen Proving Ground. Dave has a bunch of certifications, including MCSD App Builder, MSCE for SharePoint, and MCSA SQL Server certification.

In his spare time, Dave teaches as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Maryland College Park's iSchool, Towson University and Stevenson University.

Check out www.PatrickPerspective.com to hear about Dave and his daughter Sarah's different views on tech!

Dave has been developing database applications for over 30 years. A Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT) since 2001, he has taught many classes from Intro to Programming to Advanced SharePoint Development. Dave is a seven time Microsoft MVP and runs thr... Show more