OpenShift Commons Gathering Co-located Alongside KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe
April 1, 2025 | 9:30 AM–3:30 PM GMT+1 | London, UK
Where users, partners, customers, contributors and upstream project leads come together to collaborate and work together across the OpenShift Cloud Native ecosystem.
Event Overview
This in person OpenShift Commons Gathering will be held on April 1st live in London, UK and co-located with CNCF's KubeCon + CloudNativeCon EU.
This Gathering will focus on talks from and by Cloud Native practitioners with production deployments sharing their use cases, insights into their workloads and lessons learned along the way.
Schedule
Code of Conduct: We follow both the Red Hat Event Terms and Conditions and the Code of Conduct of other events such as KubeCon + CloudNativeCon. Similarly we are dedicated to providing a harassment-free experience for participants at all of our events, whether they are held in person or virtually. All event participants, whether they are attending an in-person event or a virtual event, are expected to behave in accordance with professional standards, with both this Code of Conduct as well as their respective employer's policies governing appropriate workplace behavior and applicable laws.
COVID-19 Health + Safety Information: We are committed to our attendee's health and safety and follow the Healthy and Safety policies of the events we are co-located with or by default those of the CNCF.
Please Note: All sessions are first come, first seated. Workshops and roundtables have limited capacity. Workshops are interactive and hands-on; attendees must bring their own laptop to participate.
See sessions from previous gatherings
- 8:30 AM
- Registration, Networking & Coffee Service
- 9:30 AM
- Keynote Kickoff Aubrey Muhlach (Red Hat)
- 9:45 AM
- Balancing Security, Risk and Innovation - How Red Hat Helps Kirsten Newcomer (Red Hat)Natale Vinto (Red Hat)
- 10:30 AM
- Break
- 11:00 AM
- Automating OpenShift in Telco with Validated Patterns Operator and GitOps Tom Kivlin (Vodafone)
- 11:30 AM
- How ABB enables predictive maintenance & operator effectiveness with AI at the far edge Vikas Maurya (ABB)Anders Trosten (ABB)
- 12:00 PM
- Lunch
- 1:00 PM
- Super Hero Awards Amy Marrich (Red Hat)Aubrey Muhlach (Red Hat)
- 1:15 PM
- Enabling Advanced Networking in OpenShift: Adoption of Bring Your Own CNI for Cilium Integration Kanika Gera (Adobe)Alexandru Dobre (Adobe)
- 1:45 PM
- Break
- 2:00 PM
- Worldpay’s Platform as a Product Bernd Malmqvist (Worldpay)Matt Simons (Worldpay)Michal Umlawski (Worldpay)
- 2:30 PM
- Accelerating AI/ML Workloads with OpenShift: Scaling Innovation in the Financial Services Industry Kirsten Newcomer (Red Hat)Shawn Bradley (Wells Fargo)Vip Patel (Wells Fargo)Komron Iranzad (Wells Fargo)
- 3:00 PM
- Ask an OpenShift Expert OpenShift Commons (Red Hat)
Speakers

OpenShift Commons
Red Hat

Alexandru DobreTechnical Lead Computer Scientist
Adobe
Intro
Alexandru Dobre is a Technical Lead Computer Scientist at Adobe. For several years, he has been working on building Kubernetes for Ethos, the de facto containerization platform at Adobe. As a core maintainer of Ethos Infrastructure, Alex specialized in multi-cloud architecture and led several Kubernetes provider adoptions on the Ethos ecosystem, namely Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS) and Red Hat OpenShift Service on AWS (ROSA), and contributed to others. Father of two, when he’s not working on adopting a new provider there’s a good chance to find Alex at a playground entertaining children, not only his ones.
Alireza RahmaniSenior Cloud Success Architect
Red Hat
Intro
Alireza Rahmani is a Senior Cloud Success Architect at Red Hat and a Doctoral Engineer candidate at Penn State University, specializing in AI/ML optimization, cloud computing, and CNCF projects. A dedicated professor and open-source advocate, he bridges academia and industry, empowering future tech leaders through education and innovation.
Amy MarrichPrincipal Technical Marketing Manager
Red Hat
Intro
Amy is a Principal Technical Marketing Manager at Red Hat specializing in OpenStack. She currently serves as the Chair of the CentOS Project, as Vice-Chair of the Open Infrastructure Foundation Board of Directors and on the CHAOSS Project Governing Board. In addition she serves on the OpenStack Technical Committee, as chair of the OpenInfra Diversity and Inclusion Working Group, and contributes to several OpenStack projects, and previously served as the chair of the OpenStack User Committee.
Anders TrostenGlobal System Architect
ABB
Intro
Global System Architect at ABB Process Automation, specializing in Industrial IoT and Edge Computing. With extensive experience in architecting and developing ABBs Edgenius and the flagship distributed control system, ABB 800xA, I drive innovation in the domain of process automation
Andrew BlockDistinguished Architect
Red Hat
Intro
Andrew Block is a Distinguished Architect at Red Hat who works with organizations to design and implement solutions leveraging cloud native technologies. He specializes in Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery methodologies with a focus on security to reduce the overall delivery time. Andrew is the author of several publications on solutions within the Kubernetes ecosystem, a maintainer on the Helm, ORAS and SOPS projects, and a contributor to several Open Source projects including Sigstore.
Aubrey MuhlachSenior Manager, Product Marketing
Red Hat

Bernd MalmqvistDirector of Platform Engineering
Worldpay
Intro
With over 25 years of experience, I specialise in distributed systems and PCI-DSS compliant platforms. I lead Kubernetes platform engineering teams, driving microservice strategies and operating multi-region Red Hat OpenShift 4.x environments. My expertise spans platform engineering, cloud architecture and high-availability systems, with a strong focus on self-service automation, GitOps and secure Kubernetes services.
Christophe FargetteProduct Manager
Red Hat
Intro
Christophe Fargette is a Product Manager at Red Hat, specializing in the development and enhancement of the Red Hat Developer Hub. With a passion for empowering developers and optimizing workflows, Christophe leads initiatives to create user-centric solutions that streamline internal development processes. With his extensive expertise in developer experience, Christophe brings a unique blend of technical expertise and strategic vision to his role. He is committed to understanding the diverse needs of developers within the organization and works closely with cross-functional teams to deliver innovative tools and resources that enhance productivity and collaboration.
Kanika GeraSr Product Manager
Adobe
Intro
Product Management at Adobe with 10+ years of industrial experience with strong technical, leadership and product management skills encompassing leading Kubernetes platform, SaaS products, Developer Platforms and Serverless technologies. A strategical thinker and passionate about building great products and platforms that will change the game for customers to build Digital Experiences.
Kirsten NewcomerSr. Director, Security and Core OpenShift Product Management
Red Hat
Intro
Kirsten leads the OpenShift core and security product management teams. These teams drive the delivery of security capabilities in OpenShift, OpenStack and delivery of core Kubernetes functionality for Red Hat’s hybrid platform offerings. Her team is responsible for key initiatives including AI Workloads for OpenShift, Workload Identity and OpenShift Confidential Computing. Kirsten has a background in Kubernetes and container security and works closely with Red Hat’s many security professionals across the Red Hat portfolio of enterprise-ready open source offerings. Kirsten is a diversified software management professional with 20+ years of experience in security, application development and infrastructure solutions. Kirsten has worked as a system admin, quality engineer, release engineer, partner manager and product manager. Prior to joining Red Hat, Kirsten provided strategic direction for Black Duck’s open source security and governance solutions.
Komron IranzadPrincipal Engineer
Wells Fargo

Luis Tomas BolivarPrincipal Software Engineer
Red Hat
Intro
Luis Tomás Bolívar is a Principal Software Engineer at Red Hat, part of the Ecosystem Engineering group. His focus is on AI and helps shape Red Hat’s AI portfolio through collaboration with key partners to expand its capabilities. He holds a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Castilla-La Mancha and has contributed to multiple EU research projects.
Matt SimonsDevelopment Manager Senior
Worldpay
Intro
Matt is a passionate platform engineer with a keen interest in simplifying tools and processes at Worldpay. Matt believes in levelling up the developer experience through implementing and leading api-driven modernisation initiatives.
Michal UmlawskiDevelopment Manager Senior
Worldpay
Intro
I am Michal, originally from Poland. Been working with OpenShift for more than 4 years now. Before that I was working in Network Engineering space for more than 10 years.
Natale VintoTechnical Evangelism Director
Red Hat
Intro
Natale Vinto is a Software Engineer with more than 10 years of expertise on IT and ICT technologies, and a consolidated background on Telecommunications, DevOps and Linux operating systems. As a Solutions Architect with AppDev and DevOps background, he spent some years as EMEA Specialist Solution Architect for OpenShift at Red Hat.
Shawn BradleyPrincipal Engineer
Wells Fargo

Tom KivlinPrincipal Cloud Architect
Vodafone
Intro
Tom, with nearly 20 years of experience in building and operating infrastructure and software within the Telco industry, is passionate about using open source technology and operating practices to deliver real business value. Currently, at Vodafone, he is responsible for defining, communicating and delivering the Telco Cloud Native and Kubernetes strategy and architecture, publishing cloud native guidance, and advocating cloud native principles across Vodafone in particular to support.
Uther LawsonSenior Principal Product Manager - Technical
Red Hat
Intro
Ian is an OpenShift fanatic who is lucky enough to work directly with the Engineers at Red Hat around developer experience and advocacy. After 30+ years of Application writing he is rabidly obsessed with telling people how good OpenShift is in such a way as to make it easy to use.
Valentina Rodriguez SosaPrincipal Technical Marketing Manager
Red Hat
Intro
Valentina Rodriguez is a Principal Architect at Red Hat, focusing on the developer journeys in Kubernetes and emerging technologies. Before this role, she worked with high-profile customers, helping them adopt new technologies, and worked closely with developers and platform engineers. Her background is in software engineering. She built software for 15 years, working in diverse roles from Developer to Tech Lead and Architect, from retail, healthcare, financial, e-commerce, telco, and many other industries. She loves contributing to the community and the industry and has spoken at conferences such as OReilly, KubeCon, Open Source Summit, Red Hat DevNation Day, and others. She is a KCD organizer and a project member of the OpenGitops project.
Vikas MauryaLeading Digital Product Management Expert
ABB
Intro
Vikas Maurya is the Global Product Line Manager at ABB for Industrial Edge and IIoT. Based in Bangalore, Vikas leads the development and management of ABBs digital portfolio, focusing on edge computing and industrial automation. With a strong background in computer science, Vikas has been instrumental in driving advancements in Industry 4.0 and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), revolutionizing industrial automation and data management.
Vip PatelPrincipal Engineer
Wells Fargo
Venue
April 1, 2025 | 9:30 AM–3:30 PM GMT+1
Crowne Plaza Docklands
Royal Victoria Dock, Western Gateway, London E16 1AL, United Kingdom
London, UK