2026

Lilia Gargouri

mgm technology partners, Germany

Lilia Gargouri stands for sustainable, scalable, and efficient quality assurance in complex eGovernment projects. She is committed to accessibility, trains career changers, and passionately advocates for greater visibility and equal opportunities for women in IT. A member of the German Testing Board, she actively drives the development of industry quality standards. 

Szilard Szell

Eficode, Finland

Szilárd Széll is a DevOps and AI Transformation Lead, Test Coach, and SAFe 6.0 SPC at Eficode. He has 25 years of experience with DevOps transformation, especially in the telco industry, and lately focusing on AI. He has also worked as an assessor, trainer, facilitator, and coach, and was awarded Tester of the Year 2024 in Finland.

Maria Whaibe

GRIS, Lebanon

Maria Whaibe is a computer and communication engineer who’s always eager to learn, grow, and help other people grow!

Always eager to explore new avenues, after completing her MBA, she took a bold step by establishing her own testing company, GRIS, in Lebanon. As the co-founder and driving force behind GRIS, she has successfully built a diverse portfolio of services, including outsourcing, training, and auditing & consultancy.

One thing that she has always been passionate about is providing training for people and helping them grow, specifically by focusing on integrating management and leadership skills with the testing world.

Paul Gerrard

Gerrard Consulting, UK

Paul Gerrard is a consultant, teacher, author, webmaster, programmer, tester, conference speaker, vlogger and publisher. He has conducted consulting assignments in all aspects of software testing and quality assurance, specialising in test assurance.

He has presented keynote talks and tutorials at testing conferences across Europe, the USA, Australia, South Africa and occasionally won awards for them.

He was the Programme Chair for the 2014 EuroSTAR conference in Dublin and for several other conferences in recent years.

Gek Yeo

AICPA-CIMA, UK

Gek Yeo is a technology leader with 15 years’ experience in QA, DevOps and AI-driven automation. As Head of QA, DevOps at AICPA-CIMA, she built self-sufficient teams, introduced AI-enabled testing, and delivered significant cost savings ahead of schedule.

Previously at SAP, she led automation initiatives and agile coaching across three continents. A STEM advocate, international podcaster, Gek speaks worldwide on “testing at its best”- combining AI, DevOps, and culture to deliver high-quality outcomes while empowering diverse teams. She was the Problem Solver of the Year and Woman of the Year (Finance) finalists at the Women in Tech Excellence Awards 2025.

Andrew Brown

Independent, UK

Dr Andrew Brown is a leading authority on why human mistakes lead to software defects and an acknowledged expert on systems thinking in software development. His recent book on technical debt is Taming Your Dragon.

Leonardo Lanni

QA Roots, Spain

Leonardo Lanni, founder of QA Roots, is a global expert in Quality Engineering with 18+ years of experience. He helps companies build scalable QA strategies, focusing on automation, shift-left, and coaching. An international speaker, he’s also a patent inventor, music lover, and passionate about Agile and Startups.

Evgeny Tkachenko

ServiceTrade, USA

Evgeny Tkachenko is a Quality Engineering Program Lead at  ServiceTrade, with nearly 20 years of leadership experience across test automation, release management, and quality strategy.

He has held senior roles at EPAM Systems, Wayfair, and Amazon, and is the author of two industry-acclaimed books: Navigating Quality Engineering in the AI Era and Testing AI-Powered Applications.

A regular speaker at global conferences and a contributor to international publications, Evgeny is known for delivering actionable insights that help teams build smarter, safer, and more trustworthy software. His work champions the evolving role of quality professionals in the AI era.