Meet your Cloud Native Ambassadors (CNAs)!
Ambassadors are an extension of CNCF, furthering the mission of “making cloud native ubiquitous” through community leadership and mentorship.
Get the latest news on the program by following CNCF Ambassadors on Twitter!
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Showing 13 of 272 Ambassadors
(He/Him)
Trendyol
Batuhan Apaydın
(He/Him)
Trendyol
- Location: Istanbul, Turkey
- Project Experience: Argo, Artifact Hub, Buildpacks, cert-manager, containerd, Dex, Falco, Flux, Harbor, Helm, in-toto, ko, Kubernetes, Kyverno, Lima, Open Policy Agent (OPA), ORAS, SPIFFE, SPIRE, zot
Batuhan Apaydın a.k.a. developer-guy has been very active in the Software Supply Chain Security space. He is eager to learn more about it in all aspects because he knows this topic will become one of the utmost critical topics that everybody has to be concerned about. Towards that direction, he won the “Best Sigstore Evangelist” award and wrote a blog post about it to encourage to the next one and took an active role in the first-ever SigstoreCon by being one of the Program Committee members of the event and created a Twitter Community about Software Supply Chain Security and that community is now about 500+ people joined. He is also selected as Docker Captain Program 2023. In addition to that he is also a CDF (Continuous Delivery Foundation) Ambassador 2023. He also tries to be active in Turkey by organizing in-person, and virtual meetups, and workshops. He is the organizer of two important organizations in Turkey named DevOpsTr, CNCF Istanbul Chapter, and Cloud Native Turkiye. He is also one of the organizers of the KCD Turkey. He is also an active contributor to several CNCF projects including Ko, Flux, and Kyverno. He also enjoys writing technical blog posts and wrote 10+ blog posts and all of which are published on important official websites including Kyverno, CD Foundation, Flux, Sigstore, etc. • https://cd.foundation/blog/2022/10/18/tekton-chains/ • https://fluxcd.io/blog/2022/10/prove-the-authenticity-of-oci-artifacts/ • https://fluxcd.io/blog/2022/08/manage-kyverno-policies-as-ocirepositories/ • https://fluxcd.io/blog/2022/11/verify-the-integrity-of-the-helm-charts-stored-as-oci-artifacts-before-reconciling-them-with-flux/ • https://kubesimplify.com/the-secret-gems-behind-building-container-images-enter-buildkit-and-docker-buildx • https://blog.kubesimplify.com/getting-started-with-ko-a-fast-container-image-builder-for-your-go-applications • https://nirmata.com/securing_base_images/ • https://blog.sigstore.dev/how-to-verify-container-images-with-kyverno-using-kms-cosign-and-workload-identity-1e07d2b85061
Why I am excited to be an ambassador: First of all, I’m the first person from Turkey who has been selected as a CNCF Ambassador which is super great for me because I have the energy to spread all my knowledge with other people and I do really like to collaborate with people by organizing in-person, virtual meetups. I thought that I can waste my time and energy by becoming a CNCF Ambassador still continue organizing meetups and sharing knowledge because Turkiye has great potential of using CNCF projects to solve problems.
(He/Him)
Accenture
David Auffray
(He/Him)
Accenture
- Location: Calan, France
- Project Experience: Argo, Artifact Hub, Backstage, cert-manager, Cilium, Confidential Containers, Container Network Interface (CNI), containerd, CRI-O, Crossplane, Dex, Envoy, etcd, external-secrets, Falco, Fluentd, Flux, Harbor, Helm, k3s, KEDA, Krustlet, Kubeflow, Kubernetes, Kubescape, KubeVirt, Kyverno, Longhorn, Notary Project, OpenFeature, OpenGitOps, OpenTelemetry, Prometheus, Thanos, Virtual Kubelet, zot
I am passionate about cloud-native technologies and all open-source technologies. I am very curious and I like to share everything I discover. I test some cloud-native technologies to help my city community expand its skills. If I discover and/or do not understand something, I do not hesitate to create issues on open-source technologies to improve the documentation or features. I co-organize a Cloud-Native community with partners to highlight cloud-native and surrounding technologies, such as generative AI.
(She/Her)
Alibaba Cloud
Fog Dong
(She/Her)
Alibaba Cloud
- Location: Hangzhou, China
- Project Experience: Argo, Dex, etcd, Flux, Harbor, Helm, Kubeflow, Kubernetes, KubeVela, Nocalhost, Open Cluster Management, OpenKruise, Prometheus
Fog Dong, a maintainer of KubeVela, and a senior engineer at Alibaba Cloud. She has been actively involved in the open source community, particularly in the cloud native DevOps field. Fog is now responsible for building large scale application workflow for Serverless Application Engine Product in Alibaba, while she’s also fully experienced on building cloud native CI/CD platform when worked at Bytedance.
Why I am excited to be an ambassador: As an Ambassador of CNCF, I am excited to have the opportunity to promote and educate people about cloud-native technologies, which are shaping the future of computing. CNCF has a vibrant community of developers and tech enthusiasts who are passionate about advancing these technologies, and I am thrilled to be a part of this community. Additionally, as an ambassador, I will have the chance to connect with other like-minded individuals and share knowledge and ideas, which will help us all stay up-to-date with the latest developments in this rapidly-evolving field. Overall, I am honored to represent CNCF and am looking forward to contributing to the growth and success of this innovative organization.
(He/Him)
Desotech srl
Francesco Grimaldi
(He/Him)
Desotech srl
- Location: Altamura, Italy
- Project Experience: Cilium, Dex, Flux, Harbor, Helm, kube-vip, Kubernetes, Longhorn, MetalLB
I’m a Team Leader at Desotech, specializing in cloud-native technologies for over 5 years. I’ve been drawn to the CNCF for a while now, and lately, I’ve been diving into organizing meetups in Southern Italy, both online and in person, to talk about various CNCF projects. I’ve also been visiting high schools around here, trying to spark interest in cloud-native tech among young students. Sharing my knowledge and getting others excited about these innovative technologies is what I’m all about!
(He/Him)
Melio AI
Harry Lee
(He/Him)
Melio AI
- Location: Johannesburg, South Africa
- Project Experience: Argo, cert-manager, Cilium, Dex, Envoy, external-secrets, Fluentd, Flux, Harbor, Helm, Istio, Jaeger, k3s, Knative, Kubeflow, Kubernetes, Longhorn, Open Policy Agent (OPA), Prometheus, Rook, Telepresence
Harry is a DevOps Evangelist and CTO @ Melio AI. He specialises in helping organisations navigate the cloud native landscape and adopt cloud native technologies. Harry runs the Cloud Native Computing Johannesburg Meetup which is part of the CNCF community groups in South Africa. https://www.meetup.com/cloud-native-computing-johannesburg/ https://community.cncf.io/johannesburg/
Why I am excited to be an ambassador: Harry is excited to be an ambassador as he is able to bring local cloud native enthusiasts together. This creates a platform where everyone can share their experiences embarking on their cloud native journeys. Through frequent knowledge sharing, this advances the entire cloud native community as a whole.
(He/Him)
Jim Angel
(He/Him)
- Location: Austin, TX, United States
- Languages: English
- Project Experience: Argo, Buildpacks, cert-manager, Cilium, Container Network Interface (CNI), containerd, CoreDNS, Dex, Dragonfly, Envoy, etcd, external-secrets, Falco, Harbor, Helm, Istio, Knative, ko, Kubeflow, Kubernetes, Open Policy Agent (OPA), Prometheus, Tinkerbell
I’m Jim Angel. I love solving problems and working with incredible people! I’m primarily involved with upstream Kubernetes (SIG-Release and SIG-Docs). Currently working on restarting our local Austin meetup and a Texas KCD. You can follow my latest projects at jimangel.io
Why I am excited to be an ambassador: It’s awesome to get to know so many great people and work with leading technology that’s responsible for changing multiple industries. The community that keeps Kubernetes open and welcome is a special thing, and I hope to maintain such standards myself. I also enjoy helping connect the folks using open source tooling with the resources they need to be successful, and being an ambassador keeps me connected.
(He/Him)
Josh Gavant
(He/Him)
- Location: Chicago, United States
- Project Experience: Argo, Artifact Hub, Backstage, Buildpacks, Carvel, CDK for Kubernetes (CDK8s), cert-manager, CloudEvents, Container Network Interface (CNI), containerd, CoreDNS, CRI-O, Crossplane, Dapr, Devfile, Dex, Distribution, Envoy, etcd, Flux, gRPC, Helm, Jaeger, KEDA, Keptn, Knative, Konveyor, Kubeflow, Kubernetes, KubeVela, KubeVirt, KUDO, Kyverno, Open Cluster Management, Open Policy Agent (OPA), OpenGitOps, OpenTelemetry, Operator Framework, ORAS, Porter, Prometheus, Rook, sealer, SPIFFE, SPIRE, Strimzi, Thanos, zot
Josh is passionate about enabling project builders and end users to succeed with cloud computing. He’s a solution architect for Red Hat and leader of CNCF’s TAG App Delivery and WG Platforms. He also leads the CNCF Chicago community group and other Chicago-area groups. Check out Josh’s blog at https://blog.joshgav.com/!
Why I am excited to be an ambassador: I’m thrilled to continue enabling beginners and experts alike to make the most of cloud computing! As an ambassador I’ll be even more empowered to educate and support Chicago-area developers in our local communities. I’m looking forward to sharing knowledge myself, but most of all I’m looking forward to enabling people in my communities to share their knowledge with each other!
(He/Him)
Kubermatic
Mario Fahlandt
(He/Him)
Kubermatic
- Location: Schirnding Germany
- Project Experience: containerd, Dex, Jaeger, k8gb, Knative, Kube-OVN, Kubeflow, Kubernetes, KubeVirt, Kyverno, Open Policy Agent (OPA), Tinkerbell, zot
Mario is from a small village in Germany and working for Kubermatic. He studied creative media at an English university and moved his field of knowledge to Cloud Native Infrastructure. He is working as a Customer Delivery Architect with the focus on planning and building concepts and architecture for Infrastructure in the cloud native world. Furthermore, he started the Google Developer Group for Cloud in Munich back in 2016. His passion is always to move the cloud native community one step forward. He is part of the Kubernetes SIG ContribEx and helps in the SIG K8s Infra with reporting.
(He/Him)
OpenMeter
Márk Sági-Kazár
(He/Him)
OpenMeter
- Location: Budapest, Hungary
- Project Experience: Argo, cert-manager, containerd, Curiefense, Dex, Distribution, Emissary-ingress, Flux, gRPC, Harbor, Helm, Kubernetes, Open Policy Agent (OPA), OpenTelemetry, Operator Framework, Prometheus, zot
Márk is a SWE/SRE from Hungary with years of experience in various Cloud Native technologies as well as contributing to and maintaining Open Source Software. He is one of the core maintainers of Dex, a Cloud Native identity federation solution and a number of Go libraries (Viper being the most prominent among them). Márk also organizes several tech meetups in Hungary (Go Budapest, Kubernetes and Cloud Native Budapest, Microservices Budapest) and regularly appears as a speaker in the region at meetups, workshops, conferences and podcasts. You can occasionally find him posting to his blog (https://sagikazarmark.hu/), but chances are his GitHub profile is more interesting. In his free time, Márk likes riding a bicycle, reading books, but his favorite hobby for more than 20 years has been Hungarian folk dance.
Why I am excited to be an ambassador: I always liked learning/building new technologies and then sharing the knowledge with others. By working on various Open Source projects for more than a decade I also learned to appreciate the opportunity to learn from people coming from different backgrounds. By being an ambassador I hope that I’ll have more opportunities to connect with people, learn from them and maybe share some of my knowledge as well.
(He/Him)
Desotech
Nicola Marco Decandia
(He/Him)
Desotech
- Location: Altamura, Italy
- Project Experience: Antrea, Carvel, CDK for Kubernetes (CDK8s), cert-manager, Cilium, Container Network Interface (CNI), containerd, Contour, CoreDNS, Dex, Envoy, etcd, Falco, Fluentd, Flux, Harbor, Helm, Istio, Jaeger, k3s, KEDA, Kubernetes, Kyverno, Longhorn, Open Policy Agent (OPA), OpenEBS, OpenELB, rkt, Rook, Vitess
I am a seasoned cloud-native professional with over 20 years of experience in the industry, specializing in Kubernetes, containerization, and DevOps practices. As the founder and organizer of the Bari and Matera CNCF Cloud-Native Meetup, I have fostered a strong local community committed to sharing knowledge and best practices. My technical expertise spans across multiple CNCF projects, including Prometheus, Envoy, and Helm. I regularly share my insights and experiences on my blog at www.tanzu.eu, where I explore emerging trends and innovative solutions in the cloud-native ecosystem. Passionate about continuous learning and collaboration, I am excited to contribute to the community as a CNCF Ambassador.
Why I am excited to be an ambassador: I am thrilled to be an Ambassador because it allows me to actively contribute to the growth and development of the cloud-native ecosystem, which I am truly passionate about. This role provides a unique platform to engage with a diverse and talented community, enabling the exchange of knowledge and ideas that drive innovation. Furthermore, being an Ambassador presents the opportunity to mentor and inspire others while learning from the collective experiences of fellow professionals. It is an honor to serve as a bridge between the CNCF and the broader community, fostering collaboration and mutual support.
(He/Him)
Giant Swarm
Puja Abbassi
(He/Him)
Giant Swarm
- Location: Cologne, Germany
- Project Experience: Cilium, Dex, Helm, Kubernetes, Kyverno, Open Policy Agent (OPA)
Puja Abbassi is the Vice President of Product at Giant Swarm, building a managed cloud native developer platform based on Kubernetes. In Kubernetes he focuses on extending Kubernetes with custom resources and controllers. With many years of Kubernetes experience and having been in the beta batch of CKAs, he enjoys solving problems and helping people in the community, mainly within SIG Contributor Experience. He used to also be a contributor to the CIS Kubernetes Benchmarks. I blog at https://www.giantswarm.io/blog/author/puja-abbassi and sometimes on the CNCF or other community blogs.
Why I am excited to be an ambassador: As a CNCF ambassador, I’m passionate about bringing cloud native technologies to more developers and their organisations around the globe. Especially, as the community is growing both from a project perspective as well as on the end user side, I’m excited to bring the two closer together and see how we can enable end user organisations to build cloud native platforms using CNCF projects.
Sessionize Profile: https://sessionize.com/puja
(He/Him)
FikaWorks, contractor at Shell
Wojciech Kocjan
(He/Him)
FikaWorks, contractor at Shell
- Location: Kraków, Poland
- Project Experience: Argo, cert-manager, CoreDNS, Crossplane, Dex, gRPC, Helm, Jaeger, k3s, Kubernetes, Kyverno, NATS, Open Policy Agent (OPA), OpenTelemetry, Operator Framework, Prometheus, Serverless Workflow, Thanos
Experienced Software Engineer / SRE and CNCF Ambassador, Wojciech has 20 years of experience in IT and over a decade with public clouds. Passionate about building local communities, he’s been co-organizing a local meetup in Krakow, Poland, which is part of CNCF Community. Passionate about automating all the things, building scalable and cloud native solutions, Kubernetes. Experienced with startups as well as large, enterprise companies. In free time, passionate about flying drones, solving puzzles and reading.
(He/Him)
Prusa Research a.s. / Freelance Cloud Consultant
Zdeněk Váňa
(He/Him)
Prusa Research a.s. / Freelance Cloud Consultant
- Location: Prague, Czech Republic
- Languages: Czech, English
- Project Experience: Argo, cert-manager, Crossplane, Dex, etcd, external-secrets, Helm, Jaeger, KEDA, Knative, Kubernetes, Kyverno, OpenCost, OpenGitOps, Thanos
My agenda is taking care of team serving cloud platform and design it’s architecture. I’m a cloud enthusiast who missed events and community in my area. So I have relaunched Cloud Native Prague meetups and I co-organize Kubernetes Community Days Czech & Slovak.
Why I am excited to be an ambassador: I’m honored to be an ambassador as I can help with spreading knowledge about fantastic cloud native technologies and connecting people with the same interest. It can help them to solve their issues instead of reinventing the wheel over and over again.