George is a distributed systems expert and a hands-on engineering leader. He is a Director of Engineering at MongoDB, focusing on implementing cloud native technologies at enterprise scale. He is an Ambassador of the Data on Kubernetes community and the author of The Platform Engineering Playbook, by Packt. Most recently, he has been a speaker at global events like Kubecon, OpenSource Summit, Hashiconf, LeadDev, SaaStr, and more.

George is a distributed systems expert and a hands-on engineering leader. He is a Director of Engineering at MongoDB, focusing on implementing cloud native technologies at enterprise scale. He is an Ambassador of the Data on Kubernetes community and ... Show more

Simon Koudijs is a software engineer and trainer working at the boundary between software, infrastructure, and configuration. He has worked across startups and the pension industry, with a focus on improvements that are measurable and useful in practice.

He speaks and teaches about Git workflows, Kubernetes, configuration, and internal platforms, with a particular focus on how shared infrastructure shapes software behaviour. He presented an early version of the Reverse GitOps pattern at Platform Engineering Day Europe 2026, co-located with KubeCon, and currently builds the open-source `gitops-reverser` operator (github.com/ConfigButler/gitops-reverser).

Simon Koudijs is a software engineer and trainer working at the boundary between software, infrastructure, and configuration. He has worked across startups and the pension industry, with a focus on improvements that are measurable and useful in pract... Show more

Rory is a senior advocate for Datadog who has extensive experience with Cyber security and Cloud native computing. In addition to his work as a security reviewer and architect on containerization technologies like Kubernetes and Docker he has presented at Kubecon EU and NA, as well as a number of other cloud native and security conferences. He is one of the main authors of the CIS benchmarks for Docker and Kubernetes, a published author on the topic of Cloud Native Security and member of Kubernetes SIG-Security. When he's not working, Rory can generally be found out walking and enjoying the scenery of the Scottish highlands.

Rory is a senior advocate for Datadog who has extensive experience with Cyber security and Cloud native computing. In addition to his work as a security reviewer and architect on containerization technologies like Kubernetes and Docker he has present... Show more

Akshat Sharma is a Open Source Advocate and Mentor and currently serves as Developer Advocate at Deskree, dedicated to building meaningful connections between technology and community.
In 2024, he was selected as one of 1,220 contributors from over thousands of applicants in Google Summer of Code. In 2025,2026 he returned as a mentor guiding contributors in Google Summer of Code 2025, Mifos Summer of Code, and Code for GovTech. His research journey has taken him to the University of California and IIT Indore, and he has authored ten research papers in recent advancements and technology. He has presented his work at prestigious conferences including ICACIS 2023, ICNSBT 2024, C3IT 2024, Interledger Summit 2024,Grpconf 2025, OpenSearchCon Japan 2025, Google Tokyo GSOC Meetup 2025, Fossasia 2026 and so on. Additionally, he regularly attended key industry-leading gatherings such as Open SSF, Open Source Summit India, and KubeCon + CloudNativeCon India, Pycon India.

Akshat Sharma is a Open Source Advocate and Mentor and currently serves as Developer Advocate at Deskree, dedicated to building meaningful connections between technology and community. In 2024, he was selected as one of 1,220 contributors from over... Show more

Alex Soto is a Developer Advocate at IBM. He is passionate about the Java world and software automation and believes in the open-source software model. Alex is the co-author of Manning and O'Reilly books Testing Java Microservice, Quarkus Cookbook, Kubernetes Secrets Management, GitOps Cookbook, RHCE Ansible Automation Study Guide, Applied AI for Enterprise Java Development, and AI Agents with Java.
A Java Champion since 2017, he is also an international speaker (Devoxx, KubeCon, DevNexus, JavaOne, JavaLand, ...) and teacher at Salle URL University. You can follow him on Twitter (@alexsotob) to stay tuned to what’s happening in Java.

Alex Soto is a Developer Advocate at IBM. He is passionate about the Java world and software automation and believes in the open-source software model. Alex is the co-author of Manning and O'Reilly books Testing Java Microservice, Quarkus Cookbook, K... Show more

Patrycja is a principal consultant and founder of Yon Labs, a startup developing automated tools for detecting and refactoring security vulnerabilities, performance anti-patterns, and cloud misconfigurations. She brings deep expertise in Java, C++, SRE, DevOps, security, performance optimization, and cloud technologies.

She is a regular speaker at leading software conferences, including KubeCon, JavaOne, Devoxx, JFokus, and others. Patrycja has been recognized as a Java Champion and holds titles such as Oracle Groundbreaker Ambassador, Oracle ACE Associate, and Oracle ACE Pro. In 2016, she was named one of the Top 10 Women in Tech in Poland.

Her interests focus on automated software engineering, particularly static and dynamic analysis techniques to support software verification, optimization, and deployment.

Patrycja is a principal consultant and founder of Yon Labs, a startup developing automated tools for detecting and refactoring security vulnerabilities, performance anti-patterns, and cloud misconfigurations. She brings deep expertise in Java, C++, S... Show more

Jos is a Tech Lead with extensive experience helping customers transition to cloud-native solutions and infrastructure. Over the past years, he has guided teams and organizations in adopting DevOps practices and building resilient systems.

Passionate about knowledge sharing and community building Jos has been an active part of the organizing teams for DevOpsDays Amsterdam and Eindhoven, as well as KCD Amsterdam and Utrecht.

Jos is a Tech Lead with extensive experience helping customers transition to cloud-native solutions and infrastructure. Over the past years, he has guided teams and organizations in adopting DevOps practices and building resilient systems. Passion... Show more

Sonali Srivastava is a Senior Developer Advocate at Improving, co-chair of KubeCon India 2026, and an organizer at the CNCF Women in Cloud Native Community Group. With over seven years of experience spanning system administration, software development, and developer advocacy, she has established herself as a prominent voice in the open source and cloud-native communities.
Sonali focuses on bridging the gap between developers and CNCF projects by creating POCs for cutting-edge technologies and developing engaging blogs, demos, tutorials, and videos. She is the creator of LFS255: Mastering Kubernetes Security with Kyverno, a comprehensive course hosted by The Linux Foundation.
She has spoken at major conferences, including KubeCon India, SOSS Community Day, KCD Bengaluru, FOSS United Chennai, and Mumbai chapters. She has made significant contributions to the open source project systemd during her Outreachy internship.
Based in Mumbai, India, Sonali welcomes connections from students and caregivers looking to start or restart their careers in technology, embodying her commitment to giving back to the community that has supported her journey. She is dedicated to creating supportive environments for underrepresented groups in technology.

Sonali Srivastava is a Senior Developer Advocate at Improving, co-chair of KubeCon India 2026, and an organizer at the CNCF Women in Cloud Native Community Group. With over seven years of experience spanning system administration, software developmen... Show more

Hi! I’m Niv - an early tech enthusiast from before “DevOps” was even a word. I’m a member of acomplish.ai technical staff and AWS Community Hero, co-leading the AWS Israel User Group where I help connect and empower builders. I love sharing knowledge through public speaking and I’ve had the privilege of speaking at events like AWS re:Invent, KubeCon, DevOpsDays, and Geektime Code.

Hi! I’m Niv - an early tech enthusiast from before “DevOps” was even a word. I’m a member of acomplish.ai technical staff and AWS Community Hero, co-leading the AWS Israel User Group where I help connect and empower builders. I love sharing knowledge... Show more

Lin is the Head of Open Source at Solo.io, co-chair of KubeCon + CloudNatibeCon 2026. She actively contributes to AAIF and CNCF projects. She is the author of “Sidecar-less Istio Explained” and “AI Agents in Kubernetes”, and holds more than 200 patents.

Lin is the Head of Open Source at Solo.io, co-chair of KubeCon + CloudNatibeCon 2026. She actively contributes to AAIF and CNCF projects. She is the author of “Sidecar-less Istio Explained” and “AI Agents in Kubernetes”, and holds more than 200 paten... Show more

Harshita Varma is a contributor to the Kubernetes project, actively involved in the SIG Contributor Experience community, with a focus on enhancing the contributor journey. She began her open-source journey by contributing to the Thanos project, sparking her passion for open source. In March 2022, she was selected as an LFX mentee for Kubernetes under the CNCF. Since then, Harshita has significantly contributed to Kubernetes, earning the prestigious Dan Kohn Scholarship to attend KubeCon EU 2023 in Amsterdam as an attendee. Currently, she continues to engage with the open-source ecosystem, fostering collaboration and inclusivity within the Kubernetes community.

Harshita Varma is a contributor to the Kubernetes project, actively involved in the SIG Contributor Experience community, with a focus on enhancing the contributor journey. She began her open-source journey by contributing to the Thanos project, spar... Show more

Steve rescues failed Kubernetes migrations, transforming platform chaos into clarity in 30 days. After saving £100M+ in doomed cloud-native projects and successfully leading 50+ CNCF transformations, he created Platform Fix OS - a systematic approach to platform simplification. Known for his "learn by breaking" philosophy and no-BS take on Kubernetes complexity, Steve delivers the uncomfortable truths vendors won't tell you. His signature talk, "From K8s Chaos to Clarity" has helped thousands of engineers escape the complexity trap. Steve is the straight-talking engineer organisations call when their cloud-native dreams become expensive nightmares. He speaks at KubeCon, DevOps Days, and enterprise summits worldwide, helping teams achieve freedom through radical simplification.

Steve rescues failed Kubernetes migrations, transforming platform chaos into clarity in 30 days. After saving £100M+ in doomed cloud-native projects and successfully leading 50+ CNCF transformations, he created Platform Fix OS - a systematic approach... Show more

Rohit is a Sr. Staff Software Engineer at Databricks, leading the Traffic Platform team. He is a core maintainer of Envoy Proxy and one of its top contributors globally, shaping the project through code, security reviews, and design decisions. He is the co-author of Dynamic Modules and many other features in Envoy.

At Databricks, he builds the networking infrastructure that powers data movement at scale. He has spoken at KubeCon and EnvoyCon, sharing work rooted in real production experience.

Rohit is a Sr. Staff Software Engineer at Databricks, leading the Traffic Platform team. He is a core maintainer of Envoy Proxy and one of its top contributors globally, shaping the project through code, security reviews, and design decisions. He is ... Show more

Monika Rajput is a Senior Technical Consultant at Ahead, where she helps build real-world data and cloud solutions. Over the years, she’s worked with four early-stage startups, shaping products from idea to launch. Alongside her technical work, she’s passionate about helping others grow in tech. She has mentored over 200+ students and actively contributes to the community as a CNCF Ambassador and organiser of CNCF Gurugram.

Monika is also the founder of TMS: The Monika Rajput Stack, a podcast where she shares stories from the world of data, AI, and cloud, featuring people doing meaningful work in tech. She’s currently serving as a Program Committee Member for KubeCon + CloudNativeCon in China, Japan, and India. Her goal is to make technology more open, relatable, and accessible, especially for those who are just getting started.

Monika Rajput is a Senior Technical Consultant at Ahead, where she helps build real-world data and cloud solutions. Over the years, she’s worked with four early-stage startups, shaping products from idea to launch. Alongside her technical work, she’s... Show more

IT Engineer with 14 years of experience, evolving from Security Architecture to Infrastructure and Cloud Engineering.

Speaker at KubeCon + CloudNativeCon, where I share practical, real-world insights on cloud-native technologies and platform engineering.

Currently working as a DevOps Engineer transitioning into Platform Engineering, focused on automation, CI/CD, containers, and Infrastructure as Code. Passionate about building scalable, secure, and resilient platforms, and improving developer experience through better systems and workflows.

IT Engineer with 14 years of experience, evolving from Security Architecture to Infrastructure and Cloud Engineering. Speaker at KubeCon + CloudNativeCon, where I share practical, real-world insights on cloud-native technologies and platform engin... Show more

DevOps Tech Lead at Kaltura and AWS Community Builder, specializing in cloud-native architectures and Pipelines. With over a decade of experience, he has led initiatives in automation, cost optimization, and infrastructure resilience. Adi is passionate about building scalable, event-driven systems and has implemented serverless and containers solutions to enhance applications efficiency. He believes that intelligent automation and dynamic resource management are key to reducing operational overhead. When not optimizing cloud workloads, he enjoys mentoring engineers and perfecting the art of the dad joke- because laughter is the best infrastructure!

DevOps Tech Lead at Kaltura and AWS Community Builder, specializing in cloud-native architectures and Pipelines. With over a decade of experience, he has led initiatives in automation, cost optimization, and infrastructure resilience. Adi is passiona... Show more

I'm Raz Cohen, Head of Platform at Permit.io.
I've carved a niche for myself in the world of Developer Tools, With over seven years diving deep into Kubernetes, cloud-native solutions, open-source projects, Python and Golang.
I've had the privilege of sharing my insights through tech-talks worldwide in stages like - KubeCon Paris 2024, Cloud Native London, OpenSecurity Summit, DevBcn 2023, DevelopersWeek Europe 2023, Hacksquad and more.

My professional journey kicked off in the prestigious 8200 Intelligence corps, setting the stage for my roles at industry leaders like Logz.io and Doubleverify and now at Permit.io.

Outside the tech sphere, I'm an enthusiastic wave surfer and traveler, always eager to explore new cultures and savor unique cuisines.
My curiosity knows no bounds, and I dream of one day blending my love for technology and food by opening my own restaurant - after revolutionize the tech world.
I'm all about innovation, passion, and excellence.

I'm Raz Cohen, Head of Platform at Permit.io. I've carved a niche for myself in the world of Developer Tools, With over seven years diving deep into Kubernetes, cloud-native solutions, open-source projects, Python and Golang. I've had the privilege... Show more

I currently serve as a Senior Tech Lead at DaoCloud, with over 15 years of engineering experience, including 8 years of Kubernetes expertise. My technical focus spans networking, eBPF, service mesh, AI, and more. I have delivered 5 KubeCon talks and 3 KCD talks, and have served on the KubeCon program committee 4 times. I have incubated 6 cloud-native open-source projects, including one CNCF Sandbox. Over the past three years, I ranked 28th globally in CNCF developer activity contributions.

I currently serve as a Senior Tech Lead at DaoCloud, with over 15 years of engineering experience, including 8 years of Kubernetes expertise. My technical focus spans networking, eBPF, service mesh, AI, and more. I have delivered 5 KubeCon talks and ... 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

Hoon Jo is a CNCF Ambassador and Kubestronaut who has spoken at KubeCon North America, Europe, China, and India across multiple years. He is the author of multiple books on Kubernetes and AI-assisted operations, and serves as a program committee reviewer for CNCF regional conferences.

Hoon Jo is a CNCF Ambassador and Kubestronaut who has spoken at KubeCon North America, Europe, China, and India across multiple years. He is the author of multiple books on Kubernetes and AI-assisted operations, and serves as a program committee revi... Show more

Chen Wang is a Senior Research Scientist at the IBM T.J. Watson Research Center. Her interests lie in Kubernetes, Container Cloud Resource Management, Cloud Native AI & LLM systems, and applying AI in Cloud system management. She is an open-source advocate, a Kubernetes & CNCF contributor, and a KubeCon speaker. She obtained an MS and a Ph.D. in Electrical & Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University (CMU).

Chen Wang is a Senior Research Scientist at the IBM T.J. Watson Research Center. Her interests lie in Kubernetes, Container Cloud Resource Management, Cloud Native AI & LLM systems, and applying AI in Cloud system management. She is an open-source ad... Show more

Senior Software Engineer at Red Hat with 13+ years of global experience in 3G, 4G, and 5G network integration. A US patent creator and Telco Automation expert, Marco is an active CNCF Program Committee member and speaker at KubeCon, Kubedays, and CNCF events. He is a contributor to open-source projects including Open5GCore, Kepler, and kube-compare, bridging the gap between Telecommunications and Kubernetes.

Senior Software Engineer at Red Hat with 13+ years of global experience in 3G, 4G, and 5G network integration. A US patent creator and Telco Automation expert, Marco is an active CNCF Program Committee member and speaker at KubeCon, Kubedays, and CNC... Show more

Yuan Chen is a Principal Software Engineer at NVIDIA, working on cloud-native Kubernetes infrastructure for AI in DGX Cloud. He previously built hyper-scale Kubernetes infrastructure at Apple. He has contributed to open source Kubernetes and the CNCF community, delivering 14 KubeCon talks. Yuan was a Principal Architect at JD.com and a Principal Research Scientist at Hewlett Packard Labs. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Georgia Tech.

Yuan Chen is a Principal Software Engineer at NVIDIA, working on cloud-native Kubernetes infrastructure for AI in DGX Cloud. He previously built hyper-scale Kubernetes infrastructure at Apple. He has contributed to open source Kubernetes and the CNCF... Show more

Kennedy is the CTO/Co-Founder at Mitigant, an innovative cloud security startup based in Germany. Kennedy has spent over 12 years in cybersecurity and passionately explores the intersection of security chaos engineering, cyber resilience, incident response, and AI security for cloud security. Kennedy has published over 20 academic papers about several cloud security domains and contributed to the first O'Reilly book on Security Chaos Engineering. He is also a fifth-time member of the AWS Community Builder Program. He has spoken at several international conferences, including InfoQ DevSummit, AWS Community Day DACH, KubeCon (Cloud Native Security Day), NDC {Security}, ChaosCarnival, and BSides Berlin.

Kennedy is the CTO/Co-Founder at Mitigant, an innovative cloud security startup based in Germany. Kennedy has spent over 12 years in cybersecurity and passionately explores the intersection of security chaos engineering, cyber resilience, incident re... Show more

Yoshiyuki Tabata is an OSS consultant with over a decade of experience in IAM, API platforms, and cloud‑native security. He serves as Tech Lead of CNCF TAG Security and Compliance and is a Project Lead and author of the CNCF IAM Whitepaper. He is also a recipient of the 2026 CNCF TAGGIE Award.
He is a frequent speaker at global conferences such as KubeCon. In the Keycloak community, he has served as a co‑chair of KeycloakCon and supports community engagement through events.

Yoshiyuki Tabata is an OSS consultant with over a decade of experience in IAM, API platforms, and cloud‑native security. He serves as Tech Lead of CNCF TAG Security and Compliance and is a Project Lead and author of the CNCF IAM Whitepaper. He is als... Show more

Shivanshu is a Technical Product Manager at Coralogix, working on building an OTeL native observability product.
He has a keen interest in deep tech and OSS. He is a CNCF ambassador and a member of CNCF projects like OTeL, k8s, and Istio. He has had the opportunity to mentor contributors in the Google Summer of Code (GSoC) program and has presented his work at prestigious global conferences, including AI_Dev, the GSoC Mentor Summit, IstioCon, and KubeCon.

Shivanshu is a Technical Product Manager at Coralogix, working on building an OTeL native observability product. He has a keen interest in deep tech and OSS. He is a CNCF ambassador and a member of CNCF projects like OTeL, k8s, and Istio. He has had... Show more

With 16+ years of hands-on cybersecurity leadership across Aerospace, Healthcare, and Financial services, I specialize in securing large-scale cloud platforms, with a strong focus on Azure, Kubernetes, and cloud-native architectures.

At RBC, I lead the global Azure and Kubernetes Security program, driving cloud threat research, security architecture, threat modeling, and risk assessments across enterprise-scale designs. I also collaborate closely with Microsoft, Google, and emerging security startups to co-develop innovative cloud security solutions.

As international speaker, I regularly share insights at leading industry conferences including KubeCon + CloudNativeCon, Cloud Native Security Con, Microsoft Ignite, OWASP, and Azure/GCP Users Groups and CNCF community events.

With 16+ years of hands-on cybersecurity leadership across Aerospace, Healthcare, and Financial services, I specialize in securing large-scale cloud platforms, with a strong focus on Azure, Kubernetes, and cloud-native architectures. At RBC, I lea... Show more

Principal Cloud Support Engineer at AWS, specializing in Amazon ECS and EKS with nearly 20 years in infrastructure and cloud. I work at the intersection of container orchestration and AI/ML, helping enterprise customers run complex workloads at scale.

I've spoken at KubeCon + CloudNativeCon in North America and Europe, delivered workshops and chalk talks at AWS re:Invent, and presented at AWS Summits. My technical writing appears regularly on the AWS Containers Blog, covering topics from Amazon ECS networking to Kubernetes performance at scale.

Outside of AWS, I co-founded Cloud Native Dublin, a 350-member community for cloud-native practitioners in Ireland, and mentor engineers through the AWS Cloud Women Mentorship Program.

Principal Cloud Support Engineer at AWS, specializing in Amazon ECS and EKS with nearly 20 years in infrastructure and cloud. I work at the intersection of container orchestration and AI/ML, helping enterprise customers run complex workloads at scale... Show more

Yash Pal is an open-source contributor and backend developer passionate about cloud-native and MLOps systems. He contributed to Kubeflow Notebooks 2.0, working on the Istio integration setup with guidance from maintainer Andy Stoneberg. He focuses on understanding how Kubernetes, Istio, and ML platforms interact at scale and enjoys sharing insights from his open-source journey.

Yash Pal is an open-source contributor and backend developer passionate about cloud-native and MLOps systems. He contributed to Kubeflow Notebooks 2.0, working on the Istio integration setup with guidance from maintainer Andy Stoneberg. He focuses on... Show more

Architect | Visionary Leader in DevSecOps, Cloud, Middleware, Cloud-Native Resilient and Serverless Cloud & Platform Architectures | Accelerating Enterprise Innovation at Global Scale | Mentor | Open source promoter

Being the best at what I do, seeking to deliver the best of me to others and trying to live a righteous life and be happy.
Growing as a person, always seeking improvement and success, providing everything in my scope, acquiring knowledge by learning from others, helping the growth of the workplace for mutual success.
I am an open-minded person, and free spirit, who likes to enjoy every moment, whether it is going out to enjoy sports, technology and family.

I lead digital transformation initiatives by designing open, scalable, and cloud-native architectures that empower global enterprises to innovate with agility and resilience. With deep expertise in middleware platforms and enterprise cloud solutions, I bridge the gap between strategy and execution. I am a visionary leader in DevSecOps, cloud-native, and serverless architectures, passionate about enabling interoperability, security, and performance across complex ecosystems. As a mentor, open source promoter, and founder, I am committed to shaping the next generation of technology leaders and advancing open innovation on a global scale.

Architect | Visionary Leader in DevSecOps, Cloud, Middleware, Cloud-Native Resilient and Serverless Cloud & Platform Architectures | Accelerating Enterprise Innovation at Global Scale | Mentor | Open source promoter Being the best at what I do, se... Show more