Region & Country

Valued speakers who focus on the geopolitical and cultural aspects of different regions and countries, exploring topics like regional development, international relations, and cultural identity

Sophia Pfab

Sophia Pfab

I am Sophia Pfab, a passionate Scrum Master, Agile Leader, and Organizational Developer with a foundation in Industrial Engineering.

My core focus is creating real value, driving efficiency, and sustainably fostering self-organization and intrinsic motivation within teams—always with a clear outcome-orientation. I thrive on helping organizations and teams establish more effective and long-lasting ways of working.

With several years of experience as a consultant and Scrum Master, I have successfully implemented scaled agile frameworks (e.g., Nexus) and guided organizations through their agile transformations. I use my analytical skills to quickly detect tensions within teams, resolving them through targeted coaching and empathy, supported by my training in Nonviolent Communication (NVC).

My role extends beyond classical Scrum: I coach Product Owners and development teams, facilitate and design customized workshops, and strategically apply methods like Team Topologies and OKRs. My background as a former developer provides me with a deep technical understanding, and I am proficient in tool administration (e.g., Jira, Confluence, and Miro).

I am highly networked within the agile community, regularly discussing current challenges, and I communicate fluently in German and English.

I am Sophia Pfab, a passionate Scrum Master, Agile Leader, and Organizational Developer with a foundation in Industrial Engineering. My core focus is creating real value, driving efficiency, and sustainably fostering self-organization and intrinsi... Show more

Nael Fridhi

Nael Fridhi

Nael Fridhi is a seasoned professional at the forefront of cutting-edge technology, currently serving as a Customer Engineer, Web3 and Application Modernization Specialist at Google Cloud. With a profound passion for leveraging innovative solutions to transform the digital landscape, Nael brings a wealth of experience and expertise to the table. Additionally, Nael harbors a keen interest in artificial intelligence (AI), exploring ways to integrate AI technologies into the modernization journey.

Nael Fridhi is a seasoned professional at the forefront of cutting-edge technology, currently serving as a Customer Engineer, Web3 and Application Modernization Specialist at Google Cloud. With a profound passion for leveraging innovative solutions t... Show more

Naresh Reddy Regalla

Naresh Reddy Regalla

Naresh Reddy Regalla is an accomplished IT leader and engineer with over 20 years of experience delivering enterprise technology solutions across banking, retail, and healthcare sectors. With deep expertise in business process automation and cloud-native solutions, he has established a strong reputation for driving innovation, operational efficiency, and compliance while enabling organizations to scale securely.
Naresh specializes in IBM Business Automation Workflow (BAW), IBM BPM, and Alfresco Activiti, with a proven track record in workflow design, process optimization, and legacy modernization. His cloud architecture expertise spans OpenShift, Kubernetes, AWS, and Pivotal Cloud Foundry, where he has delivered highly resilient, containerized enterprise applications. He is equally skilled as a full-stack engineer, proficient in Java, Spring Boot, REST APIs, and modern frontend frameworks such as React and Angular.
Currently serving as an Expert Application Engineer at Discover Financial Services, Naresh plays a pivotal role in payments fraud detection and risk prevention initiatives, safeguarding the global payments ecosystem. His leadership has contributed to critical solutions, including a secure One-Time Password API, transaction monitoring platforms, and advanced fraud prevention algorithms.
Naresh is a certified AWS Solutions Architect and IBM BPM expert, with a B.Tech in Computer Science & Engineering from Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University. Known for his collaborative leadership style, he has mentored high-performing teams and partnered with business stakeholders to deliver scalable and secure systems.
Passionate about digital transformation, Naresh continues to focus on bridging business and technology, ensuring enterprises remain future-ready in a rapidly evolving digital landscape.

Naresh Reddy Regalla is an accomplished IT leader and engineer with over 20 years of experience delivering enterprise technology solutions across banking, retail, and healthcare sectors. With deep expertise in business process automation and cloud-na... Show more

Arindam Majumder

Arindam Majumder

I’m a developer advocate, writer, and builder who enjoys breaking down complex tech into simple steps, working demos, and content that developers can act on. My blogs have crossed a million views across platforms, and I create technical tutorials on YouTube focused on AI, agents, and practical workflows. I contribute to open source, explore new AI tooling, and build small apps and prototypes to show developers what’s possible with today’s models.

I’m a developer advocate, writer, and builder who enjoys breaking down complex tech into simple steps, working demos, and content that developers can act on. My blogs have crossed a million views across platforms, and I create technical tutorials on ... Show more

Amber Vanderburg

Amber Vanderburg

Amber Vanderburg is a multi-award winning businessperson, keynote speaker, author, and founder of the international learning development company, The Pathwayz Group, which has led 800,000+ learners in more than 75 countries in action-focused learning journeys. Amber's history in talent development includes authoring top-reviewed online learning courses for platforms such as LinkedIn Learning, Lecturio, and PluralSight, acting as Director of a national education leadership company, and coaching with professional sports team academies in Asia. In 2022, she published her first business adventure book "Uniquely Better" about building higher team performance.

Speaking engagements:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMNcx7Jwk9Sp6WxuvrfOOBqdP9440SKl0

Amber Vanderburg is a multi-award winning businessperson, keynote speaker, author, and founder of the international learning development company, The Pathwayz Group, which has led 800,000+ learners in more than 75 countries in action-focused learning... Show more

Anastasiia Zvenigorodskaia

Anastasiia Zvenigorodskaia

• Founder of Have a Plan - growth consulting for tech companies
• 13 years in tech - frontend developer & Chief Operating Officer • Strong development background, business analytics expertise, and an AI-driven approach
• Open Source advocate & Public speaker

• Founder of Have a Plan - growth consulting for tech companies • 13 years in tech - frontend developer & Chief Operating Officer • Strong development background, business analytics expertise, and an AI-driven approach • Open Source advocate & Publ... Show more

Vijay Shekhawat

Vijay Shekhawat

Vijay is a seasoned data and software engineer currently serving as the Staff Software Engineer for TRM Labs Next-Generation Data Platform. In his career, he has previously worked at companies like LinkedIn and Expedia, and he brings deep expertise in Data Lakehouse architectures, real-time streaming, and building secure, high-throughput pipelines for petabyte-scale customer facing analytics.

Vijay is a seasoned data and software engineer currently serving as the Staff Software Engineer for TRM Labs Next-Generation Data Platform. In his career, he has previously worked at companies like LinkedIn and Expedia, and he brings deep expertise i... Show more

María Griselda Garcia Flores

María Griselda Garcia Flores

Griselda is a systems engineer who has been working as a staff software developer at Jalasoft for around +7 years. She is passionate about education, which is why she is a trainer at the Jala University bootcamp at a Latin American level, teaching front-end technologies and Angular. She is a Women Techmakers ambassador and the lead organizer of the GDG Cochabamba and Angular Bolivia communities. She holds a postgraduate degree in Information Technology Management, which has been very useful in leading teams and creating projects. When she's not coding, Griselda plays with her kittens, enjoys watching movies and series, traveling, hanging out with her friends, and doing CrossFit.

Griselda is a systems engineer who has been working as a staff software developer at Jalasoft for around +7 years. She is passionate about education, which is why she is a trainer at the Jala University bootcamp at a Latin American level, teaching fr... Show more

Mike Diehl

Mike Diehl

Mike Diehl is the Director of Data Engineering and Business Intelligence at Improving Winnipeg (formerly Imaginet), a Microsoft partner with offices in Winnipeg, Manitoba (Canada) and with Improving offices across Canada, United States, and South America. Mike has over 25 years of experience using Microsoft database technologies and is an expert in Agile Analytics and Microsoft Azure DevOps.

Mike has spoken many regional, national, and international SQL events over his long career, including the PASS Summit in Seattle Washington, SQLBITS in London UK, and at various SQL Saturday events across Canada and the USA, and other development conferences in Canada.

Mike Diehl is the Director of Data Engineering and Business Intelligence at Improving Winnipeg (formerly Imaginet), a Microsoft partner with offices in Winnipeg, Manitoba (Canada) and with Improving offices across Canada, United States, and South Ame... Show more

Leslie Short

Leslie Short


Leslie Short is the owner of The Cavu Group and the author of "Expand Beyond Your Current Culture." With four decades of experience as a seasoned brand and culture strategist and leadership advisor, she founded The Cavu Group to address critical challenges in building and guiding organizations toward sustainable cultural growth.
Leslie is uniquely skilled at fostering environments that promote continuous evolution and innovation. Her approach emphasizes the importance of listening to and understanding people, whom she recognizes as an organization's greatest asset.
She is deeply committed to creating and maintaining diverse, equitable, accessible, and inclusive cultures. Leveraging her expertise, she develops inclusive workplace strategies and facilitates transformative discussions that challenge the status quo.
Her work delves into the vital intersections of leadership, culture, accessibility, and social impact, equipping businesses with actionable insights to thrive in today’s dynamic and complex business landscape.

Leslie Short has an accomplished background that includes business, entrepreneurship, marketing, and the arts. Her journey began as a classical ballet dancer, which took her to Europe, where she lived for over a decade. After her dance career, Leslie founded an entertainment business in Japan, which was recognized as the country's best business in 1994.
She held influential roles, including President of Marketing, Advertising, and Public Relations at FUBU The Collection, as well as Corporate Operating Strategist at prominent companies both domestically and internationally. Additionally, Leslie launched K.I.M. Media LLC (Keep It Moving) and founded Ascend Bereavement Management, demonstrating her versatility and innovative mindset.

A highly sought-after speaker, Leslie has addressed audiences at prestigious events hosted by Fortune 500 companies, universities, the United Nations, and the European Union, sharing her expertise and insights with a global audience. Leslie is a Chaplain, Certified Mediator, and Conflict Coach.

Leslie Short is the owner of The Cavu Group and the author of "Expand Beyond Your Current Culture." With four decades of experience as a seasoned brand and culture strategist and leadership advisor, she founded The Cavu Group to address critical ch... Show more

Kanika Vatsyayan

Kanika Vatsyayan

Driven by a passion for quality, Kanika Vatsyayan is the Vice-President of delivery and Operations at BugRaptors, overseeing all quality assurance initiatives. With over 10 years in the IT industry, Kanika brings a wealth of experience in test leadership and management across diverse sectors. She is committed to result-oriented, business-centric approaches and actively explores emerging technologies to optimize business models. Kanika is an experienced blogger, sharing her automation and manual testing expertise with a wider audience.

Driven by a passion for quality, Kanika Vatsyayan is the Vice-President of delivery and Operations at BugRaptors, overseeing all quality assurance initiatives. With over 10 years in the IT industry, Kanika brings a wealth of experience in test leader... Show more

Andrea Iacono

Andrea Iacono

Andrea is a software engineer with a broad experience in several industries ranging from e-commerce to industrial automation, from public administration to Web TV / music. His interests are in algorithms, data and AI.

Andrea is a software engineer with a broad experience in several industries ranging from e-commerce to industrial automation, from public administration to Web TV / music. His interests are in algorithms, data and AI. Show more

Rafael Peña

Rafael Peña

Rafael Peña is a travel journalist, consultant, and cultural strategist whose work explores how destinations can tell deeper and more inclusive stories. His reporting has appeared in publications such as Travel + Leisure, Cruise Critic, Travel Noire, the Miami Herald, and others. Through his fieldwork, Rafael has documented the people and places shaping travel today and developed a clear perspective on how culture, representation, and visitor experience intersect.

Drawing on his background as a Black and Latino traveler with roots in the Dominican Republic, Rafael helps destinations and hospitality brands understand the expectations of modern, multicultural audiences. His consulting work guides DMOs and tourism teams in developing messaging, content, and on-the-ground experiences that feel authentic, community grounded, and relevant to a diverse global traveler base.

Rafael is also a sought-after speaker on content strategy, inclusive storytelling, and the evolving needs of BIPOC travelers. He works with PR, marketing, and destination leaders to strengthen traveler trust, expand representation, and design experiences that reflect the full cultural fabric of a place. Through his journalism and his speaking engagements, Rafael pushes the travel industry toward richer stories, better hospitality, and more intentional destination marketing.

Rafael Peña is a travel journalist, consultant, and cultural strategist whose work explores how destinations can tell deeper and more inclusive stories. His reporting has appeared in publications such as Travel + Leisure, Cruise Critic, Travel Noire,... Show more

Scott Carpenter

Scott Carpenter

Scott Carpenter is a senior cybersecurity leader with over a decade of experience across offensive security, threat hunting, and SOC operations. As Director of Security Operations, he leads 24×7 Managed Detection and Response (MDR) services, overseeing incident response, detection engineering, and client advisory across enterprise environments. With prior experience in adversary emulation, penetration testing, and U.S. government offensive cyber operations, Scott brings a unique red to blue perspective. He regularly briefs executives and security teams, translating real world attacker tradecraft into practical, actionable detection strategies.

Scott Carpenter is a senior cybersecurity leader with over a decade of experience across offensive security, threat hunting, and SOC operations. As Director of Security Operations, he leads 24×7 Managed Detection and Response (MDR) services, overseei... Show more

Evan Tahler

Evan Tahler

Evan Tahler is the Head of Engineering at Arcade.dev, building the runtime for secure and scalable agentic tools.

Prior to Arcade, Evan was the Director of Engineering at Airbyte, where he built and led the teams that focused on high-volume data movement and AI-pipelines. Before that, Evan was the CTO and co-founder of Grouparoo, the open-source reverse-ETL company, which was acquired by Airbyte.

Evan's expertise lies in building the technical side of digital products, as well as growing the teams required to do so. He’s helped companies like Disney, TaskRabbit, ModCloth, and Airbus launch new global digital initiatives, and has co-founded 3 successful startups. He is named on multiple patents focusing on authentication and digital entertainment. Evan is an open-source innovator, and frequent speaker at software development conferences focusing on AI, Product Management, Data Engineering, Node.JS, Typescript and DevOps.

Evan holds a Masters in Entertainment Technology and BS in Mechanical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University.

You can learn more about Evan at www.evantahler.com

Evan Tahler is the Head of Engineering at Arcade.dev, building the runtime for secure and scalable agentic tools. Prior to Arcade, Evan was the Director of Engineering at Airbyte, where he built and led the teams that focused on high-volume data m... Show more

Bright Etornam Sunu

Bright Etornam Sunu

Etornam is a Software Engineer who currently specializes in developing resilient Mobile applications for Android and iOS. He has an understanding of modern software engineering and always looking for a better approach to designing software. Aside from his day-to-day activities as a software engineer, he actively contributes to open source projects and also the tech community ecosystem building in Ghana.

Etornam is a Software Engineer who currently specializes in developing resilient Mobile applications for Android and iOS. He has an understanding of modern software engineering and always looking for a better approach to designing software. Aside fro... Show more

Koushik Shanbhag

Koushik Shanbhag

koushik shanbhag is a 2nd year computer science student, game modder, and texture artist with a deep interest in 3D pipelines and open source tools. Passionate about game development and creative workflows, he enjoys exploring technologies like OpenUSD and sharing practical knowledge with the developer and student community

koushik shanbhag is a 2nd year computer science student, game modder, and texture artist with a deep interest in 3D pipelines and open source tools. Passionate about game development and creative workflows, he enjoys exploring technologies like OpenU... Show more

İren Saltalı

İren Saltalı

İren Saltalı is a Staff Software Engineer at Edge Delta, bringing over a decade of experience in software engineering and cloud architecture. With a Master's in Computer Engineering, İren has contributed to various tech companies, including roles as CTO and consultant. He has a passion for cloud technologies, microservices, and large-scale data systems.

An AWS Certified Solutions Architect and Community Builder, İren enjoys tackling complex technical challenges and sharing knowledge. He has co-founded tech startups and actively volunteers in the Cloud and Serverless Turkey community.

İren Saltalı is a Staff Software Engineer at Edge Delta, bringing over a decade of experience in software engineering and cloud architecture. With a Master's in Computer Engineering, İren has contributed to various tech companies, including roles as ... Show more

Ido Leshkowitz

Ido Leshkowitz

Ido Leshkowitz kicked off his web career as a frontend-focused developer, writing JavaScript and building web experiments in behavioral economics for Cornell University. He joined Marketeam.ai in 2023, where he discovered Elixir and LiveView—and they quickly became his main focus.

Ido Leshkowitz kicked off his web career as a frontend-focused developer, writing JavaScript and building web experiments in behavioral economics for Cornell University. He joined Marketeam.ai in 2023, where he discovered Elixir and LiveView—and they... Show more

Prudence Pitter

Prudence Pitter

Prudence Pitter is a board director, global keynote speaker, transformative leadership coach, seasoned HR strategist, and sought-after C-Suite advisor with more than 25 years of Human Resources leadership experience spanning technology, hospitality, retail, healthcare, and financial services. Named to the 2025 "50 Women to Watch" list by 50/50 Women on Boards, she currently serves as a Global Human Resources Leader overseeing people strategy in more than 20 countries, aligning talent development with business growth and organizational resilience. Learn more at prudencepitter.com

Prudence Pitter is a board director, global keynote speaker, transformative leadership coach, seasoned HR strategist, and sought-after C-Suite advisor with more than 25 years of Human Resources leadership experience spanning technology, hospitality, ... Show more

Morad Stern

Morad Stern

I’m the Head of Engineering Branding at Wix. In this role, I lead Wix Engineering’s global brand presence and developer community initiatives, amplifying our unique engineering voice. I am the author of Tiebreaker: The Power of Networking, Communities, and Personal Branding and the founder of the Tech & Innovation Forum, an Israeli Telegram broadcast channel with over 13,800 subscribers from the tech industry.

I’m the Head of Engineering Branding at Wix. In this role, I lead Wix Engineering’s global brand presence and developer community initiatives, amplifying our unique engineering voice. I am the author of Tiebreaker: The Power of Networking, Communitie... Show more

Steven Annegarn

Steven Annegarn

Steven started his career in finance and ventured into analytics around 2018. He is currently Co-owner and CTO of DATA KINGDOM, a scale-up in Data Analytics consultancy. Steven focuses mainly on building the Power BI architecture, Data Modeling and Governance. Trough this, he helps clients get more value out of their data.

Steven started his career in finance and ventured into analytics around 2018. He is currently Co-owner and CTO of DATA KINGDOM, a scale-up in Data Analytics consultancy. Steven focuses mainly on building the Power BI architecture, Data Modeling and G... Show more

Sai Nikhil Donthi

Sai Nikhil Donthi

I am a technical lead and cloud automation specialist with a strong focus on Microsoft Azure and DevOps-driven infrastructure. My work bridges research and practice in dynamic scaling, automation, and workload optimization, with particular expertise in Ansible-based orchestration for Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) environments. I have published research on scaling strategies for refinery turnaround workloads, highlighting cold-start latency, cost–performance tradeoffs, and multi-tier elasticity. Passionate about practical cloud solutions, Excited to share insights on how automation frameworks can improve reliability, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness in time-sensitive industrial operations.

I am a technical lead and cloud automation specialist with a strong focus on Microsoft Azure and DevOps-driven infrastructure. My work bridges research and practice in dynamic scaling, automation, and workload optimization, with particular expertise ... Show more

Sandra Pretzer

Sandra Pretzer

Sandra has her roots in online marketing and key account management and has worked in these areas as a teamlead in startups in an international environment. In 2016, she discovered OKR as her “gateway drug” to the world of agility and took on the role of OKR Master within the company. Excited by this new take on team dynamics and collaboration, she made herself redundant by digitizing and optimizing her job and went into freelancing in 2019. Since then, she has been supporting teams and organizations of all sizes with OKR introductions, developing and working with strategy and corporate goals, developing effective collaboration models and coaching team leads and OKR Masters in their role.

Sandra has her roots in online marketing and key account management and has worked in these areas as a teamlead in startups in an international environment. In 2016, she discovered OKR as her “gateway drug” to the world of agility and took on the rol... Show more

Mark Smith

Mark Smith

Mark has been working with Microsoft Business Applications since 2003 and has run practices of various sizes in multiple countries. He is the creator of the 90 Day Mentoring Challenge. He is a Business Applications MVP, MCT, Mentor and Speaker.

Mark has been working with Microsoft Business Applications since 2003 and has run practices of various sizes in multiple countries. He is the creator of the 90 Day Mentoring Challenge. He is a Business Applications MVP, MCT, Mentor and Speaker. Show more

Jirachai Chansivanon

Jirachai Chansivanon

Consulting Engineering at MongoDB in Singapore and Ex-Microsoft employee with a background in web development who loves to integrate and build various projects, infusing creativity into everything projects.

Consulting Engineering at MongoDB in Singapore and Ex-Microsoft employee with a background in web development who loves to integrate and build various projects, infusing creativity into everything projects. Show more

Édgar Sánchez Gordón

Édgar Sánchez Gordón

30 years writing business apps. In love with functional programming since learning LISP in college. Co-founder of Logic Studio, a software house with over a hundred friends in Quito, Ecuador. Ecuador Technology Chamber Board of Directors. Microsoft Regional Director. Aspiring trail runner and triathlete.

30 years writing business apps. In love with functional programming since learning LISP in college. Co-founder of Logic Studio, a software house with over a hundred friends in Quito, Ecuador. Ecuador Technology Chamber Board of Directors. Microsoft R... Show more

Ryohei Yoshijima

Ryohei Yoshijima

2020-2025 Microsoft Regional Director
2015-2025 Microsoft MVP for Business Application

With experience in Microsoft Dynamics ERP (NAV/AX) that goes further back than anyone in Japan, Ryo has taken part in international projects in Japan and 33 other countries for 25 years, travelling enough miles to circle the globe some 90 times. He is continually involved with several international projects. Since 2018, we have been promoting projects in the area of ERP and CRM integration, low code and Power Platform. Other activities include contributing articles to Japanese IT media and serving on the executive committee of the Global IT Community.

He has made appearances at many related events as a speaker in Japan and abroad on the strength of his project experience, expertise in R&D for Dynamics 365, and the global network he maintains with Microsoft and other Dynamics partners. Have done more than 100 Microsoft Dynamics Projects, more than 750 Pre-Sales Activities, and more than 80 Microsoft Global Event Attendees.

At Kobe University, Ryo majored in multivariate analysis. Having experienced one of the biggest earthquakes in Kobe, he had participated in volunteer IT event activities in the Tohoku disaster area with other Microsoft MVPs and IT community leaders.
Loves Rugby and American football because he used to play.

Profile: bit.ly/Dynamics365JP

2020-2025 Microsoft Regional Director 2015-2025 Microsoft MVP for Business Application With experience in Microsoft Dynamics ERP (NAV/AX) that goes further back than anyone in Japan, Ryo has taken part in international projects in Japan and 33 ot... Show more

Sirsha Chakraborty

Sirsha Chakraborty

Sirsha is the co-founder and CTO at antimattr, building in the space of consumer hardware. He is a part of WTFund cohort in India. Previously, he founded another company, Snipe, which was into gamification and AI.
He is also a maintainer at memlocal.dev which is an open-source AI memory layer that runs locally on smartphones.

Sirsha is the co-founder and CTO at antimattr, building in the space of consumer hardware. He is a part of WTFund cohort in India. Previously, he founded another company, Snipe, which was into gamification and AI. He is also a maintainer at memlocal... Show more

Eliott Bouhana

Eliott Bouhana

Eliott Bouhana is a Software Engineer at Datadog, a leading observability and security SaaS platform. He is working to broaden Datadog' application security integrations producing billions of security traces with better instrumentation for Go. Prior to working at Datadog, he was teaching and working on CUDA processing pipelines for 3D retinal scan medical imaging at the French National Research Center. You may spot him in the wild climbing random walls if there is no climbing gym around.

Eliott Bouhana is a Software Engineer at Datadog, a leading observability and security SaaS platform. He is working to broaden Datadog' application security integrations producing billions of security traces with better instrumentation for Go. Prior ... Show more

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