CNCF People

Ashley is an Event Planner at The Linux Foundation, helping with the fulfillment of sponsorship benefits for Kubecon + CloudNativeCon events. Ashley has been in the events industry producing and coordinating global meetings and conferences since 2011. She has worked in the private, public and non-profit sectors strongly focused on exhibits and sponsorships. Ashley received her BAA from Central Michigan University.

Over the past eleven years, Audra has evolved from organizing global events, to empowering others to do the same, to becoming a speaker herself. For seven of those years, she led programming for both major tech conferences and intimate summits at O’Reilly Media.Audra’s passion for community building and her expertise in event management have made her a sought-after speaker at conferences such as KubeCon + CloudNativeCon, DevOpsDays, and DevOps World. She has also been a featured speaker at the Open Source Summit, where she shared her insights on the intersection of open source and community engagement.Since 2022, Audra has served as a Community and Outreach Manager at the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), where she drives global initiatives like Kubernetes Community Days (KCDs), Cloud Native Community Groups (CNCGs), the ChatLoopBackOff (CLBO) livestream series, and CNCF’s member video and streaming programs.Audra is fueled by a commitment to elevate emerging voices and deepen community engagement. Her passion lies in connecting industry leaders, spotlighting technical innovators, and creating platforms where ideas spark, grow, and resonate globally.

Bob Killen is a Senior Technical Program Manager focusing on improving CNCF project governance processes and finding engaging ways to bring end users and maintainers together. He serves the Kubernetes project as a Steering Committee member and is a recently retired Contributor Experience Special Interest Group chair. Before joining the CNCF, Bob was a program manager at Google's Open Source Programs Office, where he guided and developed strategies for Google's open source projects. Bob has a history of bringing cloud and HPC/AI/ML together and is passionate about Academic Outreach. He is also an outspoken advocate of Open Source, Open Science, and pets of the furry 4-legged variety.

Celia is a Senior Manager of Events at The Linux Foundation, bringing over 20 years of experience in the hospitality and events industry. With a proven track record of managing everything from high-profile social events to large-scale tech conferences, she plays a pivotal role in executing impactful events for The Linux Foundation’s collaborative projects. Celia holds a Bachelor of Science in International Hotel & Tourism Management from Johnson & Wales University and is passionate about delivering seamless event experiences that foster innovation and connection.

Chris is a PMP-certified technology leader with a consistent record leading high-performing software teams. He has managed projects for clients such as Samsung and MetLife in addition to distributed blockchain development teams like the Aragon DAC. Chris has been developing mobile and web applications for over 20 years and has been working with CNCF since May 2018. He holds a Systems Design Engineering degree from the University of Waterloo.

Chris brings more than 15 years experience as The Linux Foundation’s vice president of Developer Programs. His work is focused on working with developer community to advance open source projects at scale. Previously Chris served as Twitter's head of open source, where he led a team of developer advocates and was responsible for Twitter's open source engineering, strategy and culture. He has also contributed to Gentoo Linux and served on the Eclipse Foundation's Board of Directors and the Java Community Process Executive Committee. An engineer by trade, Chris brings a passion for both open source and community development to the organization.

Christophe leads the training and certification programs for the CNCF.In his role, he makes sure that the courses, training and certifications offered by the CNCF are following and reflecting the fast evolving Cloud Native ecosystem.Christophe is a seasoned Open Source veteran with more than 20 years of experience acting both in the community (Ubuntu, OpenStack, Cloud Native…) and professional services.He started and lead « Objectif Libre » a successful French company that was delivering services and trainings (35% of their activities) on Open Source technologies (mainly Cloud Native and OpenStack). He is also the co-creator of CloudKitty, the rating component of OpenStack. Following acquisitions, he then worked for Linkbynet and Accenture.Living in Montreal but originally from France, he enjoys spending time with his wife and kids to discover their new region. He can also be found around basketball courts, his other great passion.

Cody is an Event Manager with a focus on Content at The Linux Foundation, and manages the speakers and content for KubeCon + CloudNativeCon events. Prior to joining The Linux Foundation, Cody brings over six years in the event industry and has assisted planners in over one hundred corporate events.

Daniel Krook is focused on better serving the maintainers, contributors, and users in the community of 200+ open source projects hosted by the CNCF. He has been involved in the use, creation, and advocacy of open source technology for over 20 years. He partnered with the LF to establish the "Call for Code with The Linux Foundation" umbrella and has guided 16 projects through the process of joining the LF and using LFX tools.He has built software end-to-end for a wide array of industries and earned certifications in cloud architecture, application development, and system operations along the way. Most recently, he worked at IBM as a principal engineer developing first-of-a-kind solutions that integrate open source technologies with commercial products and services.Daniel has spoken at many open source conferences (including main-stage presentations at the first CloudNativeDay and the first KubeCon run by the CNCF), hosted dozens of meetups (primarily OpenWhisk, Cloud Foundry, OpenStack, and PHP), and has contributed to many technical blogs, videos, podcasts, articles, and books.

David is an Inside Sales Manager at The Linux Foundation, where he leads a team of sales representatives who promote The Linux Foundation and its Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF). He is a United States Navy veteran with 20 years of experience in Operations Management and Process Improvement. He has a Bachelor of Science degree from Cornell University and a Master of Arts degree from the Naval War College. He is passionate about tech sales and the role open source plays in cybersecurity, cloud native, and mobile technologies.

Diogenese Topper is a Community Marketing Manager at the Linux Foundation, where he manages community engagement and growth for open source projects and ecosystems.With a passion for fostering collaboration and building meaningful connections, Diogenese brings his experience in community-driven marketing, digital campaigns, and event production to support global open source communities. His work spans community engagement initiatives, virtual event hosting, and content creation—all aimed at creating positive impact and amplifying voices within the open source ecosystem.

Donald is a Developer Evangelist for CNCF in the China region, helping companies and members to take part in the CNCF ecosystem, The Linux Foundation, and the bigger open source community.

Eliza Power is the Senior Manager of Marketing Communications at The Linux Foundation, where she drives marketing and content strategy to amplify the stories of CNCF projects and open source communities, making advanced technology accessible through engaging, human-centered storytelling.Eliza brings extensive experience across technology and entertainment, spanning marketing strategy, thought leadership, journalism, and multimedia production. She has led global campaigns, produced documentaries spotlighting technologists, and built a worldwide writing program that empowers developers and engineers to share their expertise.Passionate about global tech communities, Eliza highlights the people behind the technology—showcasing their stories, talent, and impact through compelling narratives. Outside her work with CNCF, Eliza is an award-winning screenwriter specializing in horror and dark comedy for film and television.

Elna is an Event Manager at The Linux Foundation, mainly working on CNCF events, and managing events with Chinese aspects. Elna has extensive track records leading cross-functional events globally. Prior to joining the Linux Foundation, Elna produced and managed corporate events for Fortune 500 investment banks in Hong Kong such as State Street, Goldman Sachs and BNY Mellon. Fluent in English, Mandarin and Cantonese, she works effortlessly across all regions, countries and cultures.

Erin is an experienced Event Manager with a specific expertise in Tradeshows and Conferences. She has a passion for strategic event marketing, strong vendor relationships, and delivering exceptional experiences. She earned her Bachelor's degree in Communications and Business at the University of Utah, and began her career in sales and marketing. She managed 20+ tradeshows annually for a CPG company, before moving to the agency side where she mastered her Project Management and Customer Services skills managing experiential marketing campaigns for clients like Amazon Fresh and Kodiak Cakes. She recently received her Master's degree in Strategic Communication and is excited to utilize this knowledge to bring more research, data and strategy into her projects and events.

Haley is the Public Relations Manager at the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), where she manages media and analyst relations to elevate CNCF’s stories and projects. With a passion for making complex topics more understandable, Haley brings her expertise working with enterprise technology brands to craft compelling messaging and news releases, coordinate interviews, and manage PR efforts for CNCF’s global events. Her experience has earned coverage in top-tier and high-impact publications, driving visibility and thought leadership across the tech landscape.

Horace is currently working as Director of CNCF Asia, supporting China's cloud native ecosystem and open source projects. Horace is also the Director of OpenInfra Asia. Previously, Horace worked in the Intel Open Source Technology Center for 13 years, as a technical account manager supporting open source community projects engagement in China, including Cloud Computing, DataCenter and Client Computing. Outside of work, Horace likes jogging, swimming, music, movies, fashion and art.

Ihor is a Senior Developer Advocate at Cloud Native Computing Foundation, focused on Kubernetes-related efforts in the open source community. He is a Product Manager for Kubernetes, co-leading the Product Management Special Interest Group, focused on enhancing Kubernetes as an open source product. Besides that, he is participating in Kubernetes release process as a features lead for multiple Kubernetes releases. A Linux user since 2005 with a deep engineering background, Ihor has been responsible for projects tightly bound to the cloud computing space, containerized workloads and Linux systems. His recent speaking appearances include talks at Kubernetes Leadership and Contributors Summits, OpenStack Summits NA and APAC, OpenSource Summit EU, ContainerDays EU, Google DevFests and other industry-leading events.

Jake is an Membership Sales Representative at The Linux Foundation, working with the Cloud Native Computing Foundation. He brings experience in technology sales and cloud solutions, with an academic background that includes an Associate degree in Computer Science - Network Technology from Lehigh Carbon Community College, and ongoing studies for a Bachelor's in Information Technology at Western Governors University. Jake is dedicated to enhancing open-source software solutions in cloud native computing and network security.

Jeffrey (@jeefy) is Head of Projects at the CNCF, with a focus on improving community and project automation. Before that, he's worked at Red Hat and the University of Michigan focusing on Cloud Native technologies and CICD patterns. Jeffrey has been a contributor to upstream Kubernetes, helping in SIG-Contribex, SIG-Release, and SIG-UI. He passionately advocates for open source development and recognizing and alleviating burnout. Meetups: Board Member for Orchestructure

Over the years, Jerry Lee has run global IT businesses in cutting-edge technologies, including open source, cloud computing, big data, mobile, and deep-learning. Through the use of his skill sets and his extensive network, he has created synergy and contributed to business and social growth initiatives in not only the Korea market but also the entire Asia-Pacific region.

Joanna Lee is the Vice President of Strategic Programs and Legal at CNCF and the Linux Foundation, where she manages strategic programs that are designed to support the health, growth, and sustainability of open source ecosystems. Joanna also oversees legal and policy initiatives, governance, and code of conduct incident response. Prior to joining the Linux Foundation and CNCF, Joanna served as a legal and strategic advisor to open source software foundations, tech standard setting organizations, and a broad range of technology companies.

Jonathan Bryce is the Executive Director of Cloud & Infrastructure at the Linux Foundation, where he leads both the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) and the OpenInfra Foundation—two of the largest and most influential open source communities in the world. With over 15 years of open source leadership, Jonathan co-founded the OpenStack project, guiding its evolution into a global ecosystem that supports a multi-billion-dollar market and serves as the de facto standard for open cloud infrastructure. Before his open source career, Jonathan spent over a decade in data center infrastructure and co-founded one of the industry's earliest cloud computing companies, which grew into a billion-dollar business following its acquisition by Rackspace. Passionate about open collaboration, infrastructure innovation, and empowering users, contributors, and ecosystems worldwide, Jonathan frequently speaks at international conferences on open source strategy, infrastructure modernization, cloud-native technologies, and open source AI initiatives.

Jorge (@castrojo) is a Developer Relations specialist at the CNCF, with a focus on improving developer experience and communities. Jorge graduated with a degree in Telecommunications from Michigan State University and rode with the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment for four years. He has contributed to Kubernetes, Ubuntu, Kubeflow, and the Cloud Custodian open source projects. He now resides in Ann Arbor, Michigan with his lovely wife Jill, their son Rafael, and their beagle Oscar. Hobbies and interests include heavy metal, passport renewal, paleontology, gaming, technology, and scouting out the best beers in the world.

Kaitlin is the Senior Public Relations Manager at the Cloud Native Computing Foundation, where she leads global media and analyst relations. She brings over a decade of experience in open source and cloud communications, shaping narratives for developer tools, infrastructure platforms, and emerging technologies like AI and observability.At CNCF, Kaitlin drives PR strategy across the foundation’s 200+ projects and flagship initiatives, including KubeCon + CloudNativeCon. She works closely with project maintainers, member companies, and internal stakeholders to increase visibility, manage high-impact announcements, and strengthen CNCF’s global reputation.

Kate is an Event Planner at The Linux Foundation, helping with the fulfillment of sponsorship benefits for Kubecon + CloudNativeCon events. Prior to her role at LF, Kate worked as a Marketing Operations Assistant for China Telecom Americas where she was responsible for their industry conference and tradeshow planning and logistics.

Katherine brings over a decade of experience in event management, with a strong background in planning and executing corporate and nonprofit conferences and events of all sizes across a wide range of industries and destinations. She has a proven track record in contract negotiation, event logistics, and production management. Detail-oriented and creativity-driven, Katherine thrives on juggling complex logistics, solving problems in real time, and collaborating with cross-functional teams to deliver seamless, high-impact experiences. She’s always looking for ways to improve efficiency, elevate attendee engagement, and exceed expectations.

Keith (Chan Chak Fai) has been in IT industry for more than 20 years. He is born in HK and holds an MBA degree from UK. He started his IT journey from involving in IP stack network to focusing on IT security solution since 1997. He has been helping a lot of Enterprise in Asia Pacific to deploy security solution around the globe. Since 2009, he has also stepped into particularly Open Source Area. He has helped a lot of companies in Greater China for a better open source management and strategy, which covers Government, Banking and Finance, High Tech. He has successfully helped more than 40+ overseas companies to introduce their latest technology in Asia Pacific, as being the General Manager in Greater China. He is now the Director of Strategic Planning of The Linux Foundation APAC, helping The Linux Foundation to promote open source in Greater China.

Lindsay works collaboratively with the CNCF community to support, manage and execute events that build capacity within the ecosystem. Lindsay has 20+ years of experience in executing, leading, and designing global event experiences in corporate, nonprofit, and educational settings. Within that time, Lindsay supported The Linux Foundation events team for 3 years working on Open Sources Summits, Embedded Linux Conferences, Leadership Summits, etc. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Event & Hospitality Management from the University of Central Florida.

Lukasz has been a Senior Developer at the CNCF since 2017 and has been working for The Linux Foundation since 2018. He is the creator and maintainer of the DevStats reporting tool. Prior to joining the CNCF, Lukasz worked remotely for companies based in the US, including Cleverstep, Jamis and Spreemo Health. He loves to travel in polar areas, such as polar Norway, Finland and Russia. From 2011 to 2012, he was a scientist for a Polish polar expedition to the Hornsund fjord on the island of Spitsbergen, in northern Norway. Lukasz graduated from Warsaw University of Technology with a Master of Science in Engineering. He lives in a small town in Poland with his wife and two kids.

Mary is a Meeting & Event Coordinator, Sponsorship Management, at The Linux Foundation, helping with the fulfillment of sponsorship benefits for Kubecon + CloudNativeCon events. Mary has worked as a Marketing Coordinator where she has assisted in planning trade shows, conferences, and webinars. She holds a BS in Marketing and Hospitality, from Georgia State University of Atlanta, Georgia.

Nate is the CNCF's Head of Mentorship and Documentation. He leads the TechDocs team, which includes a group of writers, designers, and web developers. Together, they deliver high-quality documentation that supports the cloud-native ecosystem. Nate and the TechDocs team help CNCF projects organize and write documentation, ensuring clarity, consistency, and accessibility.Beyond his work in documentation, Nate also oversees the CNCF mentorship programs. Working with the TAG Contributor Strategy Mentoring Working Group, he helps CNCF projects prepare for mentorship programs such as LFX Mentorship, Google Summer of Code, and Outreachy. He also administers CNCF's participation in the LFX Mentorship program, working with the Linux Foundation to foster the growth and development of new contributors.Before joining CNCF, Nate worked as a Senior Creative Technologist at AKQA, where he helped build, install, and support interactive installations for retail spaces, conferences, and other events. His diverse background includes technical writing, systems administration, and embedded software development roles.

Shellea is a Projects Coordinator for the Cloud Native Computing Foundation. She is responsible for membership operations.

Taylor is a Program Manager for CNCF. She is responsible for membership operations and program management. With more than 10 years of operations experience, she comes to CNCF from Jive Software, where she managed the professional services partner program and various internal projects. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Journalism from the University of Oregon.

Tin is a Senior Event Coordinator at The Linux Foundation, and manages the Project Pavilion at KubeCon + CloudNativeCon events. Prior to joining The Linux Foundation, Tin brings over seven years in the event industry and has planned and executed over one hundred corporate events, ranging from large scale meetings to intimate educational seminars.

Uche is a developer advocate at the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF). Uche has contributed to a wide range of open source projects including Grafana, Pyroscope, and the Thanos project. He's the co-organizer of the kubernetes Community Days (KCD) Africa. He is really passionate about creating a safe space for newbie contributors to contribute, learn, and collaborate within the CNCF community.

Vanessa is the Director of CNCF Events, managing global events for The Linux Foundation’s Collaborative Projects. She has 20+ years experience producing conferences, corporate meetings, trade shows and consumer events for Fortune 500 Companies in both the IT and golf industries. Vanessa holds a BS in Political Science from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Wendi has been working as an Event Planner for The Linux Foundation since 2014 with her primary focus being CNCF’s KubeCon+CloudNativeCon events (since late 2016) where she manages the scholarship program and DEI activities, and acts as a liaison between the PR and Events team for Media + Analyst engagement at events. Wendi has produced corporate and non-profit events for over 15 years. She holds a BA from California State University, Fullerton and a certification in grant writing from the Center of NonProfit Management.