Kari Kakkonen

Gofore, Finland

Mr. Kari Kakkonen has worked in testing for almost 30 years. He has EuroSTAR Testing Excellence, Tester of the Year, and DASA Exemplary DevOps Instructor Awards.

He authored Dragons Out software testing book. He trains at Gofore.  Kari volunteers at ISTQB, TMMi, and FiSTB.

Kari and Marko are co-authors of ‘ACT 2 LEAD Software Testing Leadership Handbook’.

Marko Rytkönen

Hidden Trail Oy, Finland

Mr. Marko Rytkönen works as a QA Coach for Hidden Trail. He specializes in helping with test leadership and actively shares his thoughts via public talks and trainings. He has worked for 30+ years in testing and QA in different roles.

René Tuinhout

Dutch Vechicle Authority, Netherlands

René is an experienced test advisor, a test & quality (practice) manager and an experienced speaker on (inter)national events. René repaired an imperfection in the bva testing technique, was co-author of a book on testing and reviewer of several other software testing books.

Above all, he’s passionate about our ever changing field of expertise and the influences other fields have on it (and what we can learn from that).

René combines his passion for testing with a passion for improvisational theatre, making his presentations and workshops filled with energy and interaction.

Maikel Peters

DUO, Netherlands

I have been working as a tester for over 25 years now. I live in the little village of Aduard near Groningen in the Netherlands with my girlfriend Mirjam and little son Darius.

I worked for many companies and organizations, since 2013 for the government organization Dienst Uitvoering Onderwijs (under the Ministry of Education). I have been involved in the government workgroup Chain testing since 2017 with the Chain test village as one of the results.

Bells Smętek

Soflab, Poland

Bells (they/them) – Senior manual QA tester and experienced technical writer. They gathered experience working in Poland and Spain and survived being hired in a vacation rental startup during the start of the pandemic.

With a background in English studies (philology, translation, communication) and a keen interest in humanities, always happy to learn and grow, they like seeing the human aspect of tech. A writer, poet, yogi and dog behaviourist in their free time.

Maryia Tuleika

Regent AB, Sweden

Maryia is test automation consultant, primarily working in backend testing and embedded systems leading test automation in one or more teams. 

She is also active in local Swedish test community and on Linkedin, teaching new test professionals in technical schools and speaking on international stage.

Having experience in broad spectrum of industries helps her focus on the important things and having a balance between hard work and enjoying life.

Magnus Pettersson

Didup, Sweden

I have worked in testing since 2007 and I have tested everything from hardware to firmware to desktop, mobile and web applications.

I also have extensive experience of field testing. Currently working as a test and quality consultant.

Much of my free time is spent doing some kind of storytelling. During most of my life, I’ve been an active role player. I also have a high school degree in video and TV-production. On top of that I’ve dabbled in theatre.

Rik Marselis

Sogeti, Netherlands

Rik Marselis has dedicated over 4 decades to IT, since 25 years his focus is on quality & testing. He is a highly regarded presenter, trainer, author, consultant and coach who supported many organizations and people in improving their quality engineering & testing practice.

His presentations are appreciated for their liveliness, and use of practical examples with humorous comparisons.

Rik presented at EuroSTAR for 8 times and received the EuroSTAR 2023 Testing Excellence Award. He presented keynote speeches on conferences in at least 10 countries in Europe and Asia. And he co-authored the TMAP book “Quality for DevOps teams

Wouter Ruigrok

Sogeti, Netherlands

Wouter is leading the NL team for developing Sogeti’s GenAI Amplifier, a GenAI based service that supports various quality engineering and testing activities in such way that the user doesn’t have to bother about crafting prompts themselves.

Dermot Canniffe

Inflectra, Ireland

Dermot’s been a part of the software industry since 2001 and doesn’t seem to be quitting any time soon. He has been known to ramble on about subjects that range from BDD, cognitive biases and Agile test automation. He’s very likely to use sci-fi metaphors when discussing these subjects.

Chris Armstrong

Testing Peers, UK

Having worked in software quality roles since 2004, Chris specialises in strategic test leadership. Through the years, he has worked with and led testing teams, and has learnt the skills needed to overcome many challenges faced by team leads and test managers.

Chris is passionate about quality; people, processes, and products. He is an active member of the global software testing community and co-host of both the popular podcast “Testing Peers” and the monthly YouTube stream “9 out of 10 Testers.”

Chris loves to engage with new people – facilitating events and interesting discussions is his bag.