Phil Royston

Tesena, Czech Republic

Having wandered reluctantly into IT about 30 years ago, my first contact with formal testing came unexpectedly in 2002, when I was made the Test Manager on a project. It was then that I felt that I had found my true calling.

I became the go-to person they called when there was a “problem in testing”. But after a few years of fire-fighting troubled projects, I began to wonder if there wasn’t a better way. This first led me first to start a testing company 11 years ago and eventually sparked my current fascination with quality engineering and self-organization.

Steve Jefferies

WTW, UK

Steve has over 15 years experience working in software testing and QA, catching the software testing bug as a student tester back in 2008. He has since worked in a wide variety of test management, architecture, SDET and QA lead/engineer roles across a broad range of industries including the pharmaceutical, insurance and cyber security domains.

Shaun McGirr

DevOn Software Services, UK

As DevOn’s Chief AI & Data Officer, Shaun helps customers identify realistic opportunities to apply AI and deliver value with minimal fuss, and helps 300+ developers adopt AI in their daily work, especially in testing.

Samer Naqvi

Global Logic UK

With over 16 years of comprehensive experience as a Test Architect, I specialize in refining QA practices and empowering teams to achieve excellence through cutting-edge tools and methodologies.

My core objective is elevating testing standards across organizations by instilling best practices and adhering to industry standards, positioning testing as a value-added asset.

Beyond my professional pursuits, I am deeply passionate about advocating for women in tech. Through speaking engagements at colleges, organizations, and prominent conferences, I actively raise awareness and motivate the next generation of young women to embrace and excel in the dynamic technology field.

Jarsto van Santen

DUO, Netherlands

Jarsto has been playing with code for over 30 years. Despite studying law he eventually saw sense and turned his hobby into a career. He now works as a Specialist Test Engineer at DUO (part of the Netherlands’ ministry of Education).  

In his free time Jarsto is mildly obsessed with world history, science fiction and fantasy, and all sorts of technology he doesn’t get to play around with at work (yet). He never has quite enough time for all the books and games he’d like to get around to.

Elissa Tahech

Murex, Lebanon

I graduated in July 2023 with a bachelor’s in mechanical engineering and have been working at Murex in the Market Analytics team since then.

With limited coding experience, I quickly learned Python to automate manual testing processes and developed a tool that significantly improved our team’s efficiency.

My journey from novice to automation advocate taught me the importance of fully understanding each process, thinking creatively, and looking at problems from new perspectives. I aim to inspire others to embrace AI and automation, showing that if you can think of an idea, you can create it.

Jonathon Wright

Eggplant, USA

Jonathon Wright is a strategic thought leader and distinguished technology evangelist. He specializes in emerging technologies, innovation, and automation, and has more than 25 years of international commercial experience within global organizations.

Jonathon combines his extensive practical experience and leadership with insights into real-world adoption of Cognitive Engineering (Generative AI).  In his spare time he is a member of Harvard Business Council, A.I. Alliance for the European Commission and British Computer Society.

Jonathon also hosts the QA lead (based in Canada) and the author of several award-winning books (2010 – 2022) the latest with Rex Black on ‘Artificial Intelligence for Testing’.

Tugba Karakaya

Accenture, Germany

Tugba has a technical background focused on test automation and SDET. She embarked on her journey with Accenture in 2018. She has taken on various roles as agile tester, test automation engineer and architect.

Viviane Hennecke

Accenture, Germany

Viviane’s passion lies in improving quality processes. Since 2018, she has been combining her experience in testing, coaching, and training at Accenture with her background in communications management.