Judging Panel

Bio: Quality Engineering Leader and Automation Architect with 16+ years of QA experience across banking, SaaS, and enterprise-scale domains. Proven expertise in designing and implementing automation frameworks, CI/CD pipelines, performance & security testing, and driving agile test leadership. Strong track record of leading global QA teams, accelerating release cycles, and leveraging AI-driven test optimization strategies. Technical strengths include Java, Selenium, RestAssured, Playwright, JMeter, Jenkins, Spring Boot, GitHub Copilot, and AI/ML.

Bio: Ganesh Practoor is an ardent software quality engineering professional with 25 years of diverse industry and technology expertise in Banking, Financial Trading, Asset & Wealth Management, Insurance, and Financial Crime Risk. He has successfully established and managed a multi-award-winning global centralised testing services function for delivering business outcomes across the organisation, improving quality, resilience, efficiency, and regulatory compliance. Ganesh focuses on people, technology, process excellence, standards, strategy, governance, and risk management frameworks to drive sustainable organisational outcomes.

With more than 20 years of experience in software testing and engineering, I have a proven track record of leading and managing teams across multiple platforms and domains, such as Equinox Media and Ultimate Software. My core competencies include technical decision-making, performance feedback, career guidance, quality program implementation, and stakeholder collaboration. I am also a Certified Scrum Master and a public speaker who has published articles on AI for software testing. My mission is to empower my team and my organization to achieve excellence and innovation in the fast-paced and dynamic field of software engineering.

Bio: I’m Chethan Jayadev, a software testing and automation professional with over 14 years of experience in ensuring quality at scale across complex systems and agile environments. My career has been shaped by a deep passion for delivering high-quality software through robust testing strategies, automation frameworks, and a strong focus on continuous improvement.

As a perpetual learner, Rajkumar not only focuses on his own development but also influences those around him to embrace continuous learning. He has also supervised a PhD thesis, showcasing his interest in research

Michelle Christmas a senior Quality Engineering leader who reframes quality as a strategic driver of trust, risk management, and customer outcomes. A recognised innovator in automation‑first and GenAI‑enabled quality, she brings an insight‑led, evidence‑driven perspective to her role as a judge, guided by the belief that “Quality is built on evidence, evidence that enables leaders to move quickly, manage risk, and deliver with confidence.

Bio: Ishita Gupta is a seasoned Quality Engineering Leader with over 15 years of experience in driving test transformation and strengthening quality cultures in complex technology environments. She currently leads Quality Engineering at Lloyds Banking Group, where she champions innovative testing practices and strategic quality initiatives.

She is active advocate of AI tech usage responsibly. She is also ann active keynote speaker at Women in Tech forums and international conferences, Ishita inspires audiences with her insights on quality excellence, leadership, anddiversity in technology.

My deep expertise, strategic mindset, and passion for empowering others make me an ideal judge for testing awards and industry recognition. I would love to join the judges crew in the QE passionate world!

Bio: My name is Arash Taheri and I’m currently working at Central 1 as the Director of Quality Assurance and Quality Engineering. My role is to define the QA/QE processes and roadmaps, as well as implementing best practices for automation testing on various channels (FE, BE, and Mobile) across Central 1.
Prior to Central 1, I worked as a Senior Engineering Manager at Samsung Research Canada for five years. During this time, I led the development and QA teams in delivering highly secure and scalable B2B software with high performance and quality. I have a master’s degree in Electronics Engineering from Simon Fraser University. My engineering background, combined with my MBA degree and PMP certification has empowered me to take a project management approach to delivering releases that are in scope and on schedule.
I have over 16 years of industry experience including software quality assurance, automation testing, team leadership and project management. Furthermore, to collaborate more effectively with various agile stakeholders, I have obtained various certifications such as ISTQB, CSM, CSPO and A-CSM. My “hands-on” experience with various automation testing tools (JUnit, NUnit, Appium, Java, C#, Postman, JMeter, Selenium, Cucumber, etc.) has empowered me to make critical decisions around tool selection and implementation of automation testing projects in various organizations.

Bio: Rich experience in Quality Assurance and Engineering practice across Insurance and Banking organizations in North America. Spearheaded end-to-end QA delivery for many mission-critical large-scale initiatives such as Centralized QA practice, Digital Transformation, Enterprise Test Data Management, Automation Factory Model, and Enterprise Innovation to name a few. In addition, possess strong experience in standing up organization maturity model, KPI & Metrics, Scorecard with regards to risk, quality, efficiency, time-to-market and cost. A thought and transformational leader who leads by example with authenticity, trust, empathy and care. Emphasizes a lot in coaching and mentoring the team to create a follower-ship and help shape future talents for the organization. A big believer in engaging leadership and embracing change. Always strive for excellence and follows some key shared commitments such as Thinking like a customer, acting like an owner, Innovating with purpose, Executing with speed & impact and Developing our colleague
Possesses a keen interest in music spread across Indian Classical, Rock, Pop, Electronic et al. Play Tabla (Indian twin drums) and have a YouTube channel where I post my tabla cover/renditions of popular Hindi and English songs (Available upon request?). Play ping-pong and is a fitness enthusiast. I love to travel and make memories (my favorite holiday destination is Austria).

Yevheniia Sakovets is a QA Manager and Lead with 13 years of experience in software testing, test automation, and AI-assisted quality engineering. She holds a Master’s degree in Computer Science and is PMP, ISTQB, and SAFe Agilist certified. Her experience spans fintech, healthcare, and e-commerce, leading end-to-end QA strategies, building automation frameworks, and managing cross-functional teams with Agile leadership.