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!
Interested in becoming an Ambassador?
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January 16, 2025CNCF Ambassadors
Browse Geographically
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Showing 22 of 272 Ambassadors
(He/Him)
Forrester Research

Aditya Soni
(He/Him)
Forrester Research
- Location: Jaipur, India
- Languages: English, Hindi
- Project Experience: Argo, cert-manager, Container Network Interface (CNI), containerd, ContainerSSH, CRI-O, DevSpace, DevStream, Envoy, etcd, Fluentd, Flux, gRPC, Helm, Istio, Jaeger, Knative, Kubeflow, Kuberhealthy, Kubernetes, Kubescape, Linkerd, Litmus, Open Cluster Management, OpenGitOps, OpenTelemetry, Operator Framework, Serverless Workflow, Service Mesh Interface (SMI), Service Mesh Performance
DevOps & Cloud Engineer, Public Speaker, Tech Mentor, Lead Organizer CNCG Jaipur, OpenSource & Community Contributor, AWS Community Builder, AWS Community Leader, 1 x (AWS, GCP, Azure), 6 x RedHat, CKA, KCNA certified.
Why I am excited to be an ambassador: It’s been more than three years, I am being part of CNCF programs actively contributing via blogs, and public speaking on different open source DevOps/Cloud technologies at virtual and in-person events, I want to expand my learning and contribution with a wide area of peoples and uplift them with like-minded folks I can grow at the same time can share & help with my ideas to build better community bonding & culture.
(He/Him)
Red Hat

Ali Ok
(He/Him)
Red Hat
- Location: Istanbul, Turkey
- Project Experience: CloudEvents, Istio, KEDA, Knative, ko, Kubernetes, Operator Framework
Ali is a Principal Software Engineer at Red Hat, where he focuses on developing and contributing to open-source software. He has a strong track record of contributions to various projects, communities, and foundations, and he is currently an active contributor to the Knative project. In addition to his technical contributions, Ali is also deeply committed to mentoring and promoting contributor growth within the CNCF community. He plays an active role in the Google Summer of Code program at CNCF, where he serves as an admin. He is also a frequent speaker on topics such as starting to contribute to open-source software and the projects he is working on.
Why I am excited to be an ambassador: Becoming a CNCF Ambassador is an exciting opportunity for me to expand my reach and impact within the community. As someone who is already involved in mentoring and contributor growth activities at CNCF, I’m eager to use the ambassador title to promote CNCF technologies, open-source software, and help interested individuals get started with contributing to CNCF projects. Additionally, being part of a network of other CNCF Ambassadors will allow me to collaborate and share ideas with like-minded individuals who are passionate about the same things. I’m excited to be part of this community and look forward to making a meaningful impact.
(He/Him)
Red Hat

Aykut Bulgu
(He/Him)
Red Hat
- Location: Turkey
- Project Experience: Argo, Helm, Istio, Knative, Kubernetes, Operator Framework, Strimzi
Aykut Bulgu has 15+ years of experience working as a software engineer, consultant, trainer, and technical content architect. He has worked on many enterprise projects—mainly Java—and has expertise in JBoss middleware. He’s an expert on Apache Kafka, Apache Camel, Kubernetes/OpenShift, and Strimzi (Kafka on Kubernetes).
He is currently working as a Principal Software Engineer at Red Hat Ansible team. After years with Java, he tries to master and embrace Python and Go as his new languages. Moreover, he helps organizations with technical content development and training via System Craftsman.
(He/Him)

Barun Acharya
(He/Him)
- Location: Ghaziabad, India
- Project Experience: Cilium, Container Network Interface (CNI), containerd, CRI-O, Falco, gRPC, Helm, k3s, KubeArmor, Kubernetes, KubeVirt, Kyverno, OpenTelemetry, Operator Framework, Service Mesh Interface (SMI)
Barun likes hacking on low level stuff and fiddling around developer toolings. He maintains KubeArmor, a CNCF Sandbox project and currently works as a Software Engineer at Accuknox. He loves to talk about Open Source and has been associated with programs like Google Summer of Code and LFX Mentorship. Find his blogs at https://barun.cc
Why I am excited to be an ambassador: Becoming a CNCF Ambassador has heightened my enthusiasm to further promote, educate, and support the cloud-native community. Leveraging my prior experience as a speaker and maintainer, I am now even better positioned to advocate for and strengthen the ecosystem through advocacy and knowledge sharing.
(He/Him)
3-shake

Daiki Hayakawa
(He/Him)
3-shake
- Location: Tokyo, Japan
- Project Experience: Argo, Artifact Hub, cert-manager, Chaos Mesh, Cilium, CloudEvents, Container Network Interface (CNI), CoreDNS, etcd, external-secrets, Fluentd, gRPC, Harbor, Helm, k3s, KEDA, ko, Kubernetes, Kuma, Kyverno, Lima, Litmus, Longhorn, NATS, Open Policy Agent (OPA), OpenEBS, OpenTelemetry, Operator Framework, Prometheus, Telepresence, Vitess
I contribute to Kubernetes SIG Docs as the Japanese localization owner within the CNCF community, and I am also an individual contributor to Kubernetes, Kubernetes CSI, and various Kubernetes SIGs. I serve as an organizer for study groups targeted at beginners, mainly covering cloud-native technologies centered around Kubernetes (https://k8s-novice-jp.connpass.com/). Additionally, I co-host broadcasts with friends on YouTube, where we share updates and news about cloud-native tools (https://www.youtube.com/@KubernetesInternal). When I give presentations, I often share findings from my research into the internal implementations of Kubernetes and its related repositories (https://speakerdeck.com/bells17).
Chronosphere

Eric D Schabell
Chronosphere
- Location: Amsterdam, Netherlands
- Project Experience: Argo, containerd, CRI-O, Fluentd, Helm, Jaeger, Kubernetes, OpenTelemetry, OpenTracing, Operator Framework, Prometheus
Eric is Chronosphere’s Director Evangelism. He’s renowned in the development community as a speaker, lecturer, author, baseball expert, and CNCF Ambassador. His current role allows him to help the world understand the challenges they are facing with observability. He brings a unique perspective to the stage with a professional life dedicated to sharing his deep expertise of open source technologies and organizations. More on https://speakerhub.com/speaker/eric-d-schabell
Why I am excited to be an ambassador: I’m excited to officially have the title of ambassador as I’ve been actively promoting a lot of the work they do for over a decade now.
(He/Him)
NAV - Norwegian Labor and Welfare Administration

Hans Kristian Flaatten
(He/Him)
NAV - Norwegian Labor and Welfare Administration
- Location: Bergen, Norway
- Project Experience: Buildpacks, cert-manager, Cilium, Falco, Fluentd, Helm, Jaeger, Kubernetes, Kyverno, Linkerd, Litmus, MetalLB, OpenMetrics, OpenTelemetry, Operator Framework, Prometheus
Platform Engineer in the largest branch of the Norwegian Government (NAV) where I am tech lead for Cloud Native Application Observability. Public speaker and Co-Organizer of KCD Oslo, Cloud Native Bergen, GDG Bergen and Co-Host of Norway’s only Platform Engineering podcast Plattformpodden.
(He/Him)
Red Hat

Jakub Scholz
(He/Him)
Red Hat
- Location: Prague, Czech Republic
- Project Experience: Kubernetes, Open Policy Agent (OPA), OpenTelemetry, Operator Framework, Strimzi
Jakub has a long experience with message-oriented middleware and currently focuses mainly on Apache Kafka and its integration with Kubernetes. He is one of the founders and maintainers of the Strimzi project. Strimzi provides operators and other tools to make running Apache Kafka on Kubernetes as easy as possible. He also likes to talk about anything related to Apache Kafka and Kubernetes.
(He/Him)
Tencent

Jesse Meng
(He/Him)
Tencent
- Location: Shanghai, China
- Project Experience: Argo, Cilium, CloudEvents, containerd, Contour, CoreDNS, Envoy, etcd, gRPC, Harbor, Helm, Istio, Karmada, KEDA, Knative, KubeEdge, Kubernetes, OpenCost, Operator Framework, Prometheus, Rook, Serverless Devs, SPIFFE, SPIRE, Virtual Kubelet, Volcano
I am a cloud native believer and advocator with over 15 years of experience in cloud computing. I was an early contributor to Kubernetes and led its adoption at eBay for six years. I am currently working as a product and development owner of cloud native FinOps at Tencent Cloud, where I founded the open-source project Crane, which helps users optimize their cloud costs. I am also auther of “The Journey of Kubernetes Production Adoption Success”, translator of “Cloud FinOps”, and speaker on various cloud native topics including Cloud Native Campus in geektime.
Why I am excited to be an ambassador: I am excited to be an ambassador because I love cloud native and I want to share my passion and knowledge with others. I think cloud native is the future of software development and it can bring many benefits to users, developers, and businesses. I want to help the cloud native community grow and thrive by contributing to open-source projects, writing books and articles, and organizing events. Being an ambassador will give me more opportunities to connect with other cloud native enthusiasts and learn from their experiences. I hope to inspire more people to join the cloud native journey and make a positive impact on the world.
(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)
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)

Mauricio Salatino
(He/Him)
- Location: London, United Kingdom
- Project Experience: Argo, Backstage, Buildpacks, CloudEvents, Crossplane, Dapr, Helm, Istio, KEDA, Keptn, Knative, Kubeflow, Kubernetes, KubeVela, OpenFeature, OpenFunction, Operator Framework
I am an Open Source Software Engineer at @Diagrid, contributing to and driving initiatives for the Dapr OSS project. I also serve as a Steering Committee member for the Knative Project, and I am Co-Leading the Knative Functions initiative. I’ve been writing on my blog, salaboy.com for over 15 years and I just published a book titled Platform Engineering on Kubernetes for Manning. I previously worked at VMware and Red Hat, building tools to help developers be more productive.
Why I am excited to be an ambassador: I’ve been working on Cloud Native and CNCF communities for over seven years now, and I’ve been constantly trying to give back and connect people who share the same interests around open source projects. Being an ambassador allows me to expand my network to keep connecting, mentoring, and guiding community members to grow.
(He/Him)
Gradle / CDF / Jenkins

Oleg Nenashev
(He/Him)
Gradle / CDF / Jenkins
- Location: Neuchâtel, Switzerland
- Languages: English, French, Russian
- Project Experience: Argo, Artifact Hub, Backstage, Buildpacks, Cilium, CloudEvents, Crossplane, Falco, Fluentd, gRPC, Helm, Istio, Jaeger, Keptn, Knative, Kubernetes, KubeVirt, Open Policy Agent (OPA), OpenFeature, OpenFunction, OpenGitOps, Operator Framework, Prometheus
Oleg is a developer tools hacker, community builder and DevRel consultant. He’s passionate open source software, open ecosystems and open hardware advocate. Oleg is a core maintainer Jenkins project where he writes code, mentors contributors and organizes community events. He is a CNCF and CDF ambassador, Testcontainers Champion and a former Jenkins Board member and CDF TOC Chair. Oleg has a PhD degree in electronics design and volunteers in the Free and Open Source Silicon Foundation, and in a number of Ukrainian support and Russian anti-war organizations.
Why I am excited to be an ambassador: CNCF is a driver behind many open source initiatives and industry-wide projects in the areas of observability, software delivery and virtualization. For years I’ve been a user and contributor of many projects, and also advocated for CNCF projects and best practices in my talks. It is an honor to join the CNCF Ambassadors. There are many great folks there, and I am happy to join the team. Looking forward to participating more!
Sessionize profile: https://sessionize.com/onenashev/
(He/Him)
Red Hat
Pranshu Srivastava
(He/Him)
Red Hat
- Location: India
- Project Experience: gRPC, Helm, Kubernetes, Open Cluster Management, Open Policy Agent (OPA), OpenMetrics, Operator Framework, Prometheus, Rook
Pranshu is a Kubernetes SIG Instrumentation co-chair, a NodeJS emeritus, and a Senior Software Engineer at Red Hat. He has embraced Open Source throughout the years as a mentee, and a mentor, for various code programs. He enjoys helping the cloud ecosystem by building critical APIs, tools, and driving impactful discussions in the Observability space.
(She/Her)
Codefresh by Octopus Deploy

Regina Voloshin
(She/Her)
Codefresh by Octopus Deploy
- Location: Tel Aviv, Israel
- Project Experience: Argo, Crossplane, Helm, Knative, Kubernetes, Open Cluster Management, Operator Framework, Prometheus
I am an OSS Tech Lead at Codefresh by Octopus Deploy, an ArgoCD maintainer and involved with the Argo community. I am also a speaker at CNCF events (GitOpsCon, ArgoCon, KubeDay Israel). I also actively encourage and inspire others to contribute to CNCF projects and to speak at conferences.
Why I am excited to be an ambassador: I love being part of and collaborating with the cloud-native OSS community. In addition to the great benefit of using OSS, I strongly believe that adopting the methodology used to write, maintain and release OSS widely benefits any organization. CNCF makes cloud-native OSS accessible to everyone, and I am excited to take part in fostering the CNCF ecosystem and increasing the OSS adoption.
(He/Him)
Sopra Steria

Roberth Strand
(He/Him)
Sopra Steria
- Location: Oslo, Norway
- Languages: English, Norwegian
- Project Experience: Argo, Backstage, cert-manager, Cilium, Container Network Interface (CNI), CoreDNS, Dapr, Envoy, external-secrets, Fluentd, Flux, gRPC, Helm, k3s, KEDA, Keptn, Knative, Kubernetes, Kured, Linkerd, Open Policy Agent (OPA), Open Service Mesh, OpenGitOps, Operator Framework, Prometheus, Service Mesh Interface (SMI), Thanos
I am a self-proclaimed “cloud automator”, and I work at Sopra Steria based out of Oslo, Norway. I have been granted the title of Microsoft MVP for my work with Azure, and I have been an active contributor in the CNCF for which I earned the title Cloud Native Ambassador. I initiated Cloud Native Norway, a non-profit that works to build up and enable Cloud Native adoption and development in Norway. I also co-founded the Azure Cloud Native User Group, and founded the Norwegian PowerShell User Group. In the CNCF, I have been active for years in TAG App Delivery, and currently serves as co-chair for the TAG, maintainer on the OpenGitOps project, and as co-chair of the Platforms Working Group.
Why I am excited to be an ambassador: For many years, the CNCF has continued to impress me. The way that the foundation has supported the community and the projects is truly admirable. Even though I have other honorary titles, the CNCF Ambassador title is one that I value very much. While I don’t do community work for the titles, I am happy for the recognition. I have big plans for my work in the CNCF, and I look forward to seeing how the ambassador program will help me achieve more for the community.
Sessionize: https://sessionize.com/roberth-strand
(She/Her)

Savitha Raghunathan
(She/Her)
- Location: Boston, United States
- Project Experience: containerd, CoreDNS, CRI-O, etcd, Fluentd, Harbor, Helm, Istio, Konveyor, Kubernetes, Operator Framework, Prometheus
Savitha Raghunathan is a Senior Software Engineer at Red Hat, currently focusing on Application Modernization and Cloud Native adoption. Her role as a maintainer for the CNCF Sandbox project Konveyor has provided her with valuable insights into the growing demand for modernizing critical applications to align with cloud-native technologies, thereby deepening her understanding of the application lifecycle. In her previous position, Savitha worked as a platform engineer, where she dedicated herself to building internal developer platforms using Kubernetes and other cloud native projects.
Why I am excited to be an ambassador: Contributing to CNCF projects has been incredibly fulfilling, and the support and positivity I’ve experienced from the community during difficult periods, including the pandemic, have deepened my bond with this community. This role as a CNCF Ambassador has given me a chance to reciprocate that support, share my valuable experiences, and facilitate the onboarding of new contributors and adopters into the CNCF ecosystem.
(He/Him)

Sebastien Prune Thomas
(He/Him)
- Location: Levis, Quebec, CANADA
- Project Experience: Argo, CDK for Kubernetes (CDK8s), cert-manager, Cilium, containerd, Cortex, Crossplane, Envoy, external-secrets, gRPC, Harbor, Helm, Istio, Jaeger, k3s, Knative, Kubeflow, Kyverno, Lima, NATS, Open Policy Agent (OPA), OpenCost, OpenTelemetry, OpenTracing, Operator Framework, Prometheus, Service Mesh Performance, SPIFFE, Strimzi, Thanos
I’ve been involved and passionated by the CNCF community for many years ! I’m co-organizing the Canadian CNCF & Kubernetes meetups for Canada (virtual) and Quebec City / Montreal meetups in person with other wonderful Organizers and Ambassadors ! I’m also a speaker in other meetups, at 2022 KubeCon US and at KubeCon’s Rejeks 2023. I love sharing my experience and documenting. I try to blog my projects and experiences. Check at https://medium.com/@prune998 I’m invested in some CNCF or OSS projects linked to K8s and I’m maintaining an official fork of KubeColor that was unmaintained for years: https://github.com/kubecolor/kubecolor I’ve been patching a lot of projects, OSS or CNCF, like ArgoCD, Cilium, Kafka tools…
Why I am excited to be an ambassador: My goal as an ambassador is to promote Kubernetes and the wonderful ecosystem under the CNCF banner. Being involved in the Ambassador community will help me grow my skills at communicating and hopefully inspire others to join the movement.
(He/Him)
ITQ

Stéphane Este-Gracias
(He/Him)
ITQ
- Location: Luxembourg
- Project Experience: Antrea, Artifact Hub, Backstage, Buildpacks, Carvel, cert-manager, Cilium, containerd, Contour, Distribution, Flux, Harbor, Helm, Kubernetes, Kured, Lima, OpenGitOps, OpenTelemetry, Operator Framework, Prometheus, Teller, zot
For many years now, I have been a strong advocate for the development and promotion of free and open-source software. My passion for this cause has led me to actively participate in various initiatives, such as organizing the Cloud Native Luxembourg meetups and being part of the French localization team of CNCF Glossary. I’m dedicated to promoting the benefits of open-source software, believing it to be more secure, reliable, and conducive to innovation. Additionally, I leverage my expertise to help teams harness cloud-native technologies, fostering a culture of collaboration and continuous improvement.
Why I am excited to be an ambassador: Drawing from my passion for open-source, I will strive to promote the ethos of collaboration, emphasizing the merits of open-source projects within the CNCF landscape and encouraging more entities to contribute and participate. I am committed to guiding the next generation of cloud native enthusiasts. Through mentorship programs and hands-on training sessions, I aim to reduce the learning curve for newcomers and ensure they have the necessary tools and knowledge to thrive within the ecosystem. In essence, as a CNCF Ambassador, my overarching goal is to be a catalyst for growth, learning, and innovation within the Cloud Native community, ensuring that it remains at the forefront of technological progress while upholding the values of collaboration, inclusivity, and open-source spirit.
(He/Him)
Liquid Reply

Sven Pfennig
(He/Him)
Liquid Reply
- Location: Hanover, Germany
- Project Experience: Chaos Mesh, containerd, Dapr, Kuasar, Kubernetes, Linkerd, NATS, Operator Framework, Strimzi, wasmCloud
Hi, I’m Sven 👋. A cloud native developer, open source contributor and Wasm enthusiast. I’m running the WebAssembly meetup in Munich and serving as tech lead in the TAG Runtime – Wasm working group. You can find me at cloud-native meetups in Hannover and northern Germany.
(He/Him)
karriere.at

Thomas Schuetz
(He/Him)
karriere.at
- Location: St. Pölten, Austria
- Project Experience: Argo, Carvel, cert-manager, Crossplane, Flux, Harbor, Helm, Istio, k3s, K8sGPT, Keptn, Kubernetes, KubeVela, OpenFeature, OpenGitOps, OpenTelemetry, Operator Framework, Prometheus
Thomas is a Enterprise Architect, Advocate and Educator enthusiastic about making cloud-native more comfortable. As a CNCF/CDF Ambassador and Open Source Contributor, he is always eager to find ways to deliver software and troubleshoot issues more efficiently.
Why I am excited to be an ambassador: I am very passionate about cloud-native technologies and working with them is cool. In the last few years, I got more and more involved in the cloud-native community and learned that it’s not only about technical things, it’s also about the people and the community. I am excited to be an ambassador because I like to bring people into the cloud-native world but also educate and teach them how to use products and technologies.
(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.