Michelle Sandford is a Developer Engagement Leader who writes code, builds with GitHub and Azure AI, and learns out loud. She likes sharing what’s useful (and what isn’t), and believes shipping is better than talking about it:

- A community builder, connecting MVPs, user groups, universities, and developer communities into thriving ecosystems that learn together and lift each other higher.
- A technical storyteller, Michelle shapes how the world talks about AI‑powered engineering and Azure innovation bringing clarity, curiosity, and creativity to every conversation.
- A program strategist, designing scalable, repeatable motions that help developers grow their capability and confidence at pace with a rapidly evolving industry.
- A bridge between engineering and the field making sure developers feel heard, supported, and empowered, from the first line of code to the final production push.

Michelle Sandford is a Developer Engagement Leader who writes code, builds with GitHub and Azure AI, and learns out loud. She likes sharing what’s useful (and what isn’t), and believes shipping is better than talking about it: - A community builde... Show more

Michaël Hompus is an Architect and Area Lead at Info Support.

As an architect he is part of several teams, creating new and innovative solutions.
Michaël has many years of development experience with .NET, Java, and Azure.

His passion is to share knowledge with colleagues, customers, and peers.
Microsoft has recognized his efforts for the community by awarding him a Microsoft MVP award.

Michaël Hompus is an Architect and Area Lead at Info Support. As an architect he is part of several teams, creating new and innovative solutions. Michaël has many years of development experience with .NET, Java, and Azure. His passion is to sh... Show more

Emanuele is an entrepreneur, engineer, and researcher passionate about achieving impact with AI.

After earning his PhD in machine learning and working as a guest researcher at EPFL in Lausanne, he is now co-founder and Head of AI at xtream, a company that applies AI to solve complex business challenges. xtream was acquired by TeamSystem in September 2025.

Emanuele is also a professor of AI at the Catholic University of Milan and has been a guest lecturer at Italian, Swiss, and Polish universities.

He has published 8 papers in international journals with 175+ citations and contributed to over 30 international conferences, including AMLD Lausanne, ODSC London, WeAreDevelopers Berlin, PyData Berlin, PyData Paris, PyCon Italy, the Swiss Python Summit, and Codemotion Milan and Rome.

Emanuele is an entrepreneur, engineer, and researcher passionate about achieving impact with AI. After earning his PhD in machine learning and working as a guest researcher at EPFL in Lausanne, he is now co-founder and Head of AI at xtream, a comp... Show more

Annie Talvasto is an award-winning international technology speaker and leader. She has spoken at over 100+ tech events worldwide, including KubeCon + CloudNativeCon and Microsoft Build & Ignite. She has been recognized with the CNCF Ambassador, Azure & AI Platform MVP awards. She has co-organized the Kubernetes & CNCF Finland meetup since 2017. In the past, she has also served as a track chair for KubeCon + CloudNativeCon, Program Chair for Secure AI Summit (powered by Cloud Native) and hosted Cloud Native Live, a weekly livestream by CNCF, for over 3 years.

Annie Talvasto is an award-winning international technology speaker and leader. She has spoken at over 100+ tech events worldwide, including KubeCon + CloudNativeCon and Microsoft Build & Ignite. She has been recognized with the CNCF Ambassador, Azur... Show more

Deborah Melkin has been working as a database professional with SQL Server for over 25 years. She spends her days helping programmers with all aspects of database design, queries, performance, and deployment. In 2016, she began her blog, Deb the DBA. Soon after that, she began speaking at SQL Saturdays and user groups.

Deborah was an IDERA ACE Class of 2020, "One To Watch" as part of a #Redgate100 in 2022, and as well as the winner of Speaker Idol at PASS Summit in 2019. She is a former board member of the New England SQL Server User group (NESQL) and a former member of the Azure Data Community Advisory Council.

Deborah is a co-founder of WITspiration and a co-leader of the Data Platform WIT (Women in Tech) user group. She is also a Redgate Community Ambassador and she has been a Microsoft MVP for the Data Platform since November 2020.

In her spare time, Deborah can usually be found doing something musical or something geeky with her husband, Andy, and their dog, Sebastian.

Deborah Melkin has been working as a database professional with SQL Server for over 25 years. She spends her days helping programmers with all aspects of database design, queries, performance, and deployment. In 2016, she began her blog, Deb the DBA.... Show more

Andrew Madson leads Developer Relations at Perplexity, where he builds global programs that help developers and data teams adopt modern data and AI tooling. He has built DevRel, education, and evangelism functions at Fivetran, Tobiko Data, and Dremio, delivering technical content, large-scale community programs, and keynotes across major industry conferences.

Andrew is a published author of the O’Reilly “Definitive Guide to Apache Polaris” and a graduate professor of data science and engineering. Andrew previously led AI and data teams at Arizona State University, J.P. Morgan Chase, and MassMutual among others.

Andrew Madson leads Developer Relations at Perplexity, where he builds global programs that help developers and data teams adopt modern data and AI tooling. He has built DevRel, education, and evangelism functions at Fivetran, Tobiko Data, and Dremio... Show more

Business Applications MVP - I breathe, innovate, design and develop as a way of survival. If curiosity killed the cat, I think I have no more lives left.
With a developer background, working with .NET and C#, I got my first consultancy job developing for SharePoint 2010 and Microsoft Project. With experience in several projects worldwide, all kind of organisation sizes and industries, I have focused my expertise deploying Dynamics 365 modules and Power Platform solutions. I am leading multiple CoE implementation for Power Platform, adoption models for Low code in multi-size orgs, and designing a long list of Power Platform solutions combining Azure assets and 3rd party integrations.
My motivation is to keep sharing my knowledge, the outcome of my daily projects and experiences with those who might find it useful, helpful and even interesting.
In addition to my speaker profile I co-organise the Bizz Summit ES conference.

Business Applications MVP - I breathe, innovate, design and develop as a way of survival. If curiosity killed the cat, I think I have no more lives left. With a developer background, working with .NET and C#, I got my first consultancy job developin... Show more

Alex is an application development enthusiast since the late nineties and works as an architect, lead developer and mentor at large enterprises and small companies. He spends his time teaching other developers the details of the Microsoft development platform and frameworks, and coaches architects to design and build modern distributed applications at cloud scale. He has received the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional award for Visual Studio and Development Technologies since 2007. In his spare time Alex likes to participate in all kinds of sport, and loves playing and programming new and retro video games.

Alex is an application development enthusiast since the late nineties and works as an architect, lead developer and mentor at large enterprises and small companies. He spends his time teaching other developers the details of the Microsoft development... Show more

Daniel is an AI Architect at Payoneer with over two decades of experience leading development teams, both in Israel and abroad, from idea to production. His current focus is AI infrastructure and multi-agent systems in real-world use — the layer that ties together developer tools, knowledge graphs, and product delivery.

Daniel is a public speaker and a blog writer, and an active contributor to open source. He also runs the "NG-Heroes" meetup, a space for the local tech community to meet and share what they're learning. Outside of work, family comes first. He proudly holds the title of "The Best Developer in the World" — awarded by his wife, and he has no plans to give it back.

Daniel is an AI Architect at Payoneer with over two decades of experience leading development teams, both in Israel and abroad, from idea to production. His current focus is AI infrastructure and multi-agent systems in real-world use — the layer that... Show more

Biju Thomas is an Oracle ACE Director (since 2015) and a Cloud Technical Solutions Expert leading Data Intensity’s Digital Transformation practice. With a background spanning software development and enterprise database architecture, he brings a practitioner’s perspective to building scalable, production-ready cloud solutions.

Biju specializes in modern data platforms, cloud migrations, and multicloud architectures, helping organizations integrate robust data foundations with hyperscaler ecosystems such as Microsoft Azure. A long-time community contributor and frequent speaker, he focuses on practical patterns that bridge enterprise data platforms with modern AI and application development.

Learn more at www.bijoos.com
.

Biju Thomas is an Oracle ACE Director (since 2015) and a Cloud Technical Solutions Expert leading Data Intensity’s Digital Transformation practice. With a background spanning software development and enterprise database architecture, he brings a pr... Show more

He works at Kubermatic as a Kubernetes Consultant and Trainer to help companies with their cloud-native journey. Before that, he worked for startup and enterprise companies in the advertising, banking, and telecom industries as SysAdmin, Application Admin, DevOps Engineer, and SRE for more than 20 years. He is a CNCF Ambassador and Kubestronaut. He organizes KCD Istanbul and DevOpsDays Istanbul events and other local meetups.

He works at Kubermatic as a Kubernetes Consultant and Trainer to help companies with their cloud-native journey. Before that, he worked for startup and enterprise companies in the advertising, banking, and telecom industries as SysAdmin, Application ... Show more

Marino Wijay is a Canadian, Traveller, International Speaker, and Open Source Advocate and Architect for AI, API Platforms, Service Mesh, Kubernetes, and Networking. He is a CNCF Ambassador, Organizer for KCD Toronto, and Founder of EmpathyOps. He is passionate about technology and modern distributed systems. He will always fall back to the patterns of Networking and the ways of the OSI. Community building is his driving force; A modern Jedi Academy.

Marino Wijay is a Canadian, Traveller, International Speaker, and Open Source Advocate and Architect for AI, API Platforms, Service Mesh, Kubernetes, and Networking. He is a CNCF Ambassador, Organizer for KCD Toronto, and Founder of EmpathyOps. He i... Show more

Matteo is a Solutions Engineer at GitHub, CNCF Ambassador and Cloud Native aficionado, a former startup CTO and DevRel. Open Source contributor, part of the Kubernetes Release Team since v1.31 and until v1.34, serving in Release Engineering since v1.33.

Hacker, builder and problem solver by nature. Singing in a metal band whenever there's nothing left to fix in the cloud. @mbianchidev on (almost) every social media.

Matteo is a Solutions Engineer at GitHub, CNCF Ambassador and Cloud Native aficionado, a former startup CTO and DevRel. Open Source contributor, part of the Kubernetes Release Team since v1.31 and until v1.34, serving in Release Engineering since v1.... Show more

As Developer Advocate, Ram prioritizes empowering and educating developers on how to use technology to create innovative products, features, and services. Ram can typically be found conversing with the VAST developer community in order to better understand their needs and facilitate product development that helps to maximize their value. Prior to VAST, Ram was a senior developer advocate at Nylas, senior software engineer at Drop and Rangle.io. He holds a degree in engineering.

As Developer Advocate, Ram prioritizes empowering and educating developers on how to use technology to create innovative products, features, and services. Ram can typically be found conversing with the VAST developer community in order to better unde... Show more

Passionate Software Engineer who loves to learn DevOps, Microservices, and Cloud Computing

Passionate Software Engineer who loves to learn DevOps, Microservices, and Cloud Computing Show more

Kanwal Khipple is the CEO and Founder of 2toLead, a trailblazing consulting firm dedicated to innovative digital workplace transformations. Over the past decade, he has established himself as a trusted authority in creating engaging, award-winning employee experiences that seamlessly blend design, technology, and human-centric thinking. Recognized by the Nielsen Norman Group for designing two Top 10 Intranets, Kanwal continues to influence how modern organizations enhance collaboration, learning, and performance.

As AI reshapes how employees interact with information and one another, Kanwal focuses on leveraging cutting-edge tools—like personalization engines, intelligent chatbots, and workplace analytics—to drive meaningful, future-ready workplaces. A long-standing Microsoft 365 community contributor and Microsoft and Business Applications MVP since 2009, he frequently speaks on the value of embracing emerging technologies to amplify rather than replace human connection. His mission is to ensure that as we evolve our workplaces with AI, we do so ethically, responsibly, and with enduring human value at the core.

Kanwal Khipple is the CEO and Founder of 2toLead, a trailblazing consulting firm dedicated to innovative digital workplace transformations. Over the past decade, he has established himself as a trusted authority in creating engaging, award-winning em... Show more

Since February 2022, I have been an Microsoft MVP, M365 & TEAMS.
Voice has been focus the last 20 years within Contact Centers and for the last 13 years I have been working with Enterprise Voice solutions .
In February 2024 I started to work for Capgemini Norway as Managing Consultant.
Since 2017 I have been working with Microsoft Teams and Voice solutions where using Direct Routing produced from Azure.
I also do integrations from Teams Voice to Dynamics365, both Dyn365 Sales and the Microsoft Digital Contact Center Platform.
Since I started working for Capgemini, my area of focus has been changed to M365 Copilot and Copilot Studio. I mainly works in Copilot Studio Full and create different type of agent for clients.
I also have the Norwegian podcast #TeamsCastAway and also run two blogs.

Since February 2022, I have been an Microsoft MVP, M365 & TEAMS. Voice has been focus the last 20 years within Contact Centers and for the last 13 years I have been working with Enterprise Voice solutions . In February 2024 I started to work for ... Show more

i'm a Microsoft Certified Trainer, Cloud & AI enthusiast, and technology evangelist passionate about helping professionals and organizations unlock the full power of Microsoft technologies.

With deep expertise in Microsoft 365, Power Platform, Power Automate, Power Apps, SharePoint, and AI-driven productivity, i'm specializes in transforming complex technical concepts into practical, real-world solutions. He empowers businesses to automate processes, modernize workflows, and build intelligent applications without heavy code.

As a frequent speaker and community contributor, Walid shares actionable insights on Artificial Intelligence, Automation, Data, and Cloud innovation—bridging the gap between strategy and implementation. His sessions are dynamic, practical, and focused on delivering immediate value.
Driven by a mission to accelerate digital transformation in Tunisia and beyond, Walid combines technical excellence with a passion for teaching, mentoring, and inspiring the next generation of tech professionals.
www.chafroud.net

i'm a Microsoft Certified Trainer, Cloud & AI enthusiast, and technology evangelist passionate about helping professionals and organizations unlock the full power of Microsoft technologies. With deep expertise in Microsoft 365, Power Platform, Pow... Show more

Jeroen ter Heerdt is Head of Product at Tabular Editor. He works on defining the future of semantic model development. Previously he worked on the Power BI team. He can be found on social media at @dutchdatadude.

Jeroen ter Heerdt is Head of Product at Tabular Editor. He works on defining the future of semantic model development. Previously he worked on the Power BI team. He can be found on social media at @dutchdatadude. 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

Mika is a dual-category Microsoft MVP (Cloud Security, and Azure Operations & Management) and Chief AI Officer at Netox, a Finnish Microsoft partner.
He works where identity, cloud security and AI collide, and his current focus is the governance problem that arrived with agents: how to inventory the non-human identities already sitting in a tenant, design Entra Agent ID blueprints per trust boundary, put permissions on the agent instead of the template, and stop user-built Copilot Studio agents from quietly becoming unmanaged automation with real data access. That work does not stop at the tenant boundary, so he also builds the enterprise layer above it: tool evaluation and autonomy classification frameworks mapped into ServiceNow AI Control Tower, so an organisation has one register of every agent it runs regardless of which platform built it. Around that he designs Azure AI landing zones, secures AI workloads with Defender for Cloud, Purview and Conditional Access, and still spends plenty of time on the unglamorous parts: landing zones, policy as code, and PowerShell that has to run correctly at three in the morning.

In addition to his work in cloud and AI, Mika is deeply involved in humanitarian efforts. He serves as Head of Disaster Management for his local Red Cross branch and has been deployed as an information management delegate during natural disasters in Finland and abroad. His expertise in crisis response and data coordination plays a crucial role in emergency operations.

When he is not securing cloud environments, building AI solutions, or managing disaster response, you will likely find him enjoying craft beer.

Mika is a dual-category Microsoft MVP (Cloud Security, and Azure Operations & Management) and Chief AI Officer at Netox, a Finnish Microsoft partner. He works where identity, cloud security and AI collide, and his current focus is the governance pro... Show more

Yash is Developer Advocate at DigitalOcean, KubeCon speaker and a core maintainer of Meshery, an open-source CNCF sandbox project. He is a mentor for the LFX 2024 projects and was an LFX mentee in the 2023 mentorship under Meshery. He hosts weekly Meshery Development calls and engage in CNCF communities

Yash is Developer Advocate at DigitalOcean, KubeCon speaker and a core maintainer of Meshery, an open-source CNCF sandbox project. He is a mentor for the LFX 2024 projects and was an LFX mentee in the 2023 mentorship under Meshery. He hosts weekly Me... Show more

Microsoft AI (former M365 Development) MVP. Around 25 years of experience working with Microsoft Technologies. MS Certified Teams Application Developer, specialist in Developing Azure and SharePoint MCPD. Passionate about technology, blogger, technical writer and MS community active member.

Microsoft AI (former M365 Development) MVP. Around 25 years of experience working with Microsoft Technologies. MS Certified Teams Application Developer, specialist in Developing Azure and SharePoint MCPD. Passionate about technology, blogger, technic... Show more

Usman is a Staff Developer Advocate at Grafana Labs from Nuremberg, Germany. He works with the Open Source community on the community forum, GitHub and Slack.

He has over 15 years of experience in IT and in Cloud Stack where he served multiple customers all over Europe, US, Japan, etc.

He is an active international public speaker participating in multiple conferences and events.

In his free time, Usman likes to spend time with his family, go out on occasional traveling and play games or read comics.

Usman is a Staff Developer Advocate at Grafana Labs from Nuremberg, Germany. He works with the Open Source community on the community forum, GitHub and Slack. He has over 15 years of experience in IT and in Cloud Stack where he served multiple cus... Show more

Hossein is a Cloud Tech Lead with nearly a decade of experience architecting distributed systems and scalable infrastructure. From engineering enterprise-grade, on-premises Kubernetes platforms to leading complex DevOps transformations, he specializes in building resilient systems. Beyond driving technical strategy, Hossein actively mentors platform engineering teams and shares his expertise through industry talks and workshops.

Hossein is a Cloud Tech Lead with nearly a decade of experience architecting distributed systems and scalable infrastructure. From engineering enterprise-grade, on-premises Kubernetes platforms to leading complex DevOps transformations, he specialize... Show more

Jakub is a CNCF Ambassador and engineer at Cloudera with deep expertise in Kubernetes, streaming, and messaging. As a co-founder and maintainer of the Strimzi project, he has spent years bridging the gap between Apache Kafka and cloud-native infrastructure. Before his time at Cloudera, Jakub worked at Red Hat and in the financial sector, bringing a wealth of real-world operational experience to the open-source community.

Jakub is a CNCF Ambassador and engineer at Cloudera with deep expertise in Kubernetes, streaming, and messaging. As a co-founder and maintainer of the Strimzi project, he has spent years bridging the gap between Apache Kafka and cloud-native infrastr... Show more

Whitney Lee is a creator and systems thinker who explores how observability, AI, and platform engineering connect across the cloud native ecosystem. She brings humor, depth, and clarity to complex technologies while building original frameworks that help others understand how systems fit together. She runs a vibrant YouTube channel, hosts Datadog Illuminated and Software Defined Interviews, has delivered two KubeCon keynotes and countless breakout talks, and combines storytelling and technical rigor to illuminate the human side of cloud native engineering.

Whitney Lee is a creator and systems thinker who explores how observability, AI, and platform engineering connect across the cloud native ecosystem. She brings humor, depth, and clarity to complex technologies while building original frameworks that ... Show more

Known across the cloud-native community as Maharaj, I make complex technology accessible - from KubeCon stages to community meetups to client boardrooms. What started as a manual QA engineering career over a decade ago has evolved into leading developer relations at scale as a Principal Developer Advocate.

With a B.Tech in Computer Science Engineering and a PGDM in Marketing, I combine engineering depth with narrative instinct - debugging a Kubernetes operator in the morning and crafting a developer content strategy by afternoon.

Speaker at every KubeCon since Chicago 2023, Co-Chair of KubeCon India 2025, Co-Chair of the CNCF Platform Engineering Technical Community Group, and organiser of Cloud Native Hyderabad.

Known across the cloud-native community as Maharaj, I make complex technology accessible - from KubeCon stages to community meetups to client boardrooms. What started as a manual QA engineering career over a decade ago has evolved into leading develo... Show more

Sander ten Brinke is a Microsoft MVP (DevTech) and Senior Software Engineer at Arcady, a Dutch IT consultancy firm based in Zwolle. He loves working with .NET, Azure, DevOps and a whole lot more. He always stays up to date with all new technology and loves sharing his knowledge with everyone by speaking, blogging, podcasting and more!

Sander is an accomplished speaker, he has spoken at 40+ events, including meetups and big conferences like WeAreDevelopers World Congress 2024 and 2025 (15k attendees), NDC Oslo 2025,
Swetugg 2026, NDC Copenhagen 2026, FutureTech and more! He was in the top 3% of the most active speakers on the Sessionize Platform in 2024 and 2025!

Sander ten Brinke is a Microsoft MVP (DevTech) and Senior Software Engineer at Arcady, a Dutch IT consultancy firm based in Zwolle. He loves working with .NET, Azure, DevOps and a whole lot more. He always stays up to date with all new technology and... Show more

Christoph's professional journey has been shaped by his experiences at a German insurance group, a mid-sized IT consulting firm specializing in Microsoft technologies, and Microsoft itself. His passion lies in digital transformation and its impact on individuals and businesses. For Christoph, the human aspect and their needs within the digital transformation space take precedence, along with the ever-evolving technological challenges.

He also enjoys challenging the status quo occasionally. There isn't a one-size-fits-all solution for every customer. Daily reevaluation is essential to achieve the best outcomes, recognizing that each customer and project is unique and cannot be replicated exactly.

Christoph's professional journey has been shaped by his experiences at a German insurance group, a mid-sized IT consulting firm specializing in Microsoft technologies, and Microsoft itself. His passion lies in digital transformation and its impact on... Show more