Yulia Ovchinnikova

Bringing people together around technology, enabling startups.

Yulia - OpenHub’s Founder and President

Yulia Ovchinnikova, PhD is a growth and business development professional, tech entrepreneur, and innovation strategist. As a thought leader, educator, consultant, and a community manager – primarily working with the information technology industry – she strongly feels that the best way to support her community is to offer high-quality training in high-demand and emerging digital skills. 

A recognized innovator and impactful leader, Yulia was the first woman elected to the Russian Internet Council (governing the .RU country domain), and the first woman elected president of the Russian Foundation of Open Source Software. She started as a web developer in 1995 and has led software-development teams throughout career, including at publishing platforms for telecoms (IKS-Media), IT consulting (KPMG), startups (Rosa Lab, iTrend, OpenHub), applying her project management and tech experience to a multitude of complex challenges.

In 2015 she won a Google Hackathon’s audience award as a team leader, which led her to implementing the idea of matching similarly minded people in tech together for personal and professional growth. She became the key driving force for the professional tech and startups network in the Hudson Valley. Utilizing her experience, skills, and knowledge she founded OpenHub Corp, a technology think tank and training center in the Hudson Valley. 

Today Yulia is a key connector for Hudson Valley tech entrepreneurs and a recognized tech community leader. She continues to build the Hudson Valley tech community by participating in and contributing to many local organizations including the HVTM (3,000+ members), the Google Developer Group HV (1000+), running HV Startups meetup and business workshops (500+). She is the founder of the local Coding Club (1000+) and has spearheaded the #HudsonValleyCanCode initiative since 2016. She has organized the annual Hudson Valley Tech Festival and Hackathon (HVTechFest / DevFests) since 2019, and has judged the Congressional App Challenge since 2022.

She holds a PhD in Economics from the Russian Academy of Science and an MA in Applied Mathematics & Computer Science from Moscow State Technical University of Electronics & Mathematics. She has multiple certifications and recognitions including Hudson Valley Digital Navigator, IT Support Professional by Google, and a certificate of Congressional Recognition. 

Yulia Ovchinnikova, OpenHub’s President 

Yulia Ovchinnikova, PhD is a growth and business development professional, tech entrepreneur, and innovation strategist. As a thought leader, educator, consultant, and a community manager – primarily working with the information technology industry – she strongly feels that the best way to support her community is to offer high-quality training in high-demand and emerging digital skills. 

A recognized innovator and impactful leader, Yulia was the first woman elected to the Russian Internet Council (governing the .RU country domain), and the first woman elected president of the Russian Foundation of Open Source Software. She started as a web developer in 1995 and has led software-development teams throughout career, including at publishing platforms for telecoms (IKS-Media), IT consulting (KPMG), startups (Rosa Lab, iTrend, OpenHub), applying her project management and tech experience to a multitude of complex challenges.

In 2015 she won a Google Hackathon’s audience award as a team leader, which led her to implementing the idea of matching similarly minded people in tech together for personal and professional growth. She became the key driving force for the professional tech and startups network in the Hudson Valley. Utilizing her experience, skills, and knowledge she founded OpenHub Corp, a technology think tank and training center in the Hudson Valley. 

Today Yulia is a key connector for Hudson Valley tech entrepreneurs and a recognized tech community leader. She continues to build the Hudson Valley tech community by participating in and contributing to many local organizations including the HVTM (3,000+ members), the Google Developer Group HV (1000+), running HV Startups meetup and business workshops (500+). She is the founder of the local Coding Club (1000+) and has spearheaded the #HudsonValleyCanCode initiative since 2016. She has organized the annual Hudson Valley Tech Festival and Hackathon (HVTechFest / DevFests) since 2019, and has judged the Congressional App Challenge since 2022.

She holds a PhD in Economics from the Russian Academy of Science and an MA in Applied Mathematics & Computer Science from Moscow State Technical University of Electronics & Mathematics. She has multiple certifications and recognitions including Hudson Valley Digital Navigator, IT Support Professional by Google, and a certificate of Congressional Recognition, and she is a proud speaker at HOPE 2020 7/28/2020 with Launching the Cyrillic IDN TLD as the first Internationalized Domain Name in the World talk

Shannah White

ADA compliant / SEO efficient web development

Shannah is an active Website Developer supporting local businesses in the Hudson Valley from local professionals and craftsmen to web agencies and mid-size businesses. She began her journey into World Wide Web technologies in 1998. She is versed in HTML, CSS, PHP, MySQL, and Photoshop. In Content Management Systems, she has fallen in love with Drupal, but also has experience in WordPress, Zen Cart, Shopify, and Squarespace. She has written a custom ecommerce CMS from scratch, and maintains other custom CMSs for some of her client base.

In addition to her technical skills, Shannah has always been passionate about understanding the human experience and achieving clear and kind communication in all manner of relationships. This passion has found satisfaction both in marketing and in teaching. Shannah has found increasing pleasure in analyzing the user experience aspect of website development, and how best to design for optimum honest and effective communication of a business' message to its niche market. She finds teaching at OpenHub rewarding because she enjoys empowering people to gain important skills for their personal business goals and livelihoods.

John Sturman

John Sturman has been working in and around software for more than 30 years as a technical writer, instructor, and project manager. He is a ScrumAlliance Certified Scrum Master as well as trained to facilitate groups with Liberating Structures, and has used his knowledge to train his students in a variety of courses.  

John has been teaching a popular project-based Computer Science course at RPI for more than 20 years to juniors, seniors and graduate students. John has also been teaching programming in a variety of settings including online and in-person classes to all ages, from elementary school to college-level to adults looking to change their career paths or just learn new technical skills.  

As a life-long learner, John has never shied away from trying and learning new technologies and loves to share his learning process with everyone. John lives on an old dairy farm in the Catskills and keeps honeybees.  When he is not playing with his computer (or his ukulele), he is often found skiing or boating. He is known by "Stay Calm and Play Ukulele!" - it means you can play ukulele together!

Dmitry Pavlov

Dmitry Pavlov, tech entrepreneur and software engineer with 30+ year of experience in developing Enterprise Imaging IT systems. His software installed in thousands of hospitals worldwide. Dmitry designed, developed, deployed software from small applications to large scale IT systems. In 2000 he joined a tech startup Dynamic Imaging where he designed and led the product that was rated #1 in the industry for multiple years. Later the company was acquired by GE Healthcare. Since then he worked at different positions with GE Healthcare Digital, developing and deploying IT systems for hospitals worldwide.

Now he is working at AWS as Solution Architect for Education and Healthcare

  • Programming Languages: C, C++, Java, JavaScript, Perl
  • OS: Windows, Linux, Solaris
  • Databases: SQL – MySQL, MS SQL, Sybase, Oracle, Informix
  • Author of 3 US patents
    Dmitry has MSc in Electrical Engineering from Moscow State Institute of Radio Engineering & Electronics, and Innovation and design training course at Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA.
Lis Hubert

As an accomplished researcher of human needs, user-centered product manager, workshop trainer/facilitator, and consultant, Lis Hubert empowers businesses to create people-centric products, services, and internal systems that their customers and employees will love. Lis is Founding Partner of CX by Design, a management consulting firm focused on customer experience strategy and design that partners almost exclusively with curious and innovative decision-makers in B2B and B2C companies. Her work is focused on the Retail & E-Commerce, Lifestyle, and Consumer Goods & Services industries. She has spent over a decade delivering exceptional products and strategies, while speaking, facilitating, and participating at top digital events worldwide.

Ari M. Weinstein

Ari Weinstein is a multi-fauceted talent. Career Coach, Author, Speaker Specializing in Personal Branding for Professionals Personal branding expert, coach, and mentor. He combines experience from two long careers in financial services and commercial branding to teach professionals and executives critical soft skills, including step-by-step career & leadership development. Trains and guides people to make a great impression on colleagues and customers, aligned to their audience’s vision. Author of the book Personal Branding at Work (Bookboon Learning, 2022); a step-by step guide to developing a personal brand that leads to career connections and opportunities.

  • PERSONAL BRANDING
  • RÉSUMÉ REVIEWING & EDITING
  • INTERVIEW COACHING
  • JOB SEARCH PLANNING
  • PROFESSIONAL NETWORKING
  • CAREER MOBILITY GUIDANCE
Jack Lobianco

Jack possesses over 20 years of proven leadership in the information technology (IT) sector, covering roles in Integration Engineering, product management, and development of Windows tools and automation in financial services.

Jack has been a Delivery Manager for enterprise-wide financial services; he is successful managing customer and vendor relationships, leading extremely productive and motivated people and projects.

He has a stellar reputation, experienced in Agile and DevOps models reducing costs, improving efficiency, and increasing productivity managing developers that create desktop monitoring and tooling solutions for global IT clients.

He manages, designs, and supports end user-technology in a fast-paced, regulatory environment.

Jack has long standing experience working with customers of diverse cultures and organizational backgrounds to satisfy their needs and provide utmost satisfaction.

He has a stellar reputation as an employee who can break down complex, technical concepts into simple language that laypersons could easily understand.

He is a strategic thinker able to take on challenges across different technical disciplines, and deliver successful outcomes aligned with the needs of the business.

Skills, Programming Languages, Frameworks, and Web Tools:

  • Data Analytics: Python, R, SQL, Excel. Anaconda, Jupyter, GitHub, Tableau, Power BI. Certifications from LinkedIn Learning and OpenHub.
  • Industry experience developing using SSRS, SSIS.
  • PowerShell scripting.
  • Expert Level: PC and Mac, Productivity software (Office 365)
  • Content Management experience using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, Github, BitBucket, Jira, Jive, YAML.
Tom Morel

Tom is a 26-year Army Veteran, having retired from active duty in 2008. He culminated his military career at the United States Military Academy at West Point, NY where he taught in the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department from 2000-2006 and also served as the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for the Corps of Cadets from 2006-2007.

For the past 10 years, Tom has been the Director of Technology for the Center for the  Advancement of Leader Development and Organizational Learning (CALDOL) at the United States Military Academy at West Point, NY.  His main focus these days is the building, customizing, and maintaining of a number of WordPress sites.

Tom has a Masters degree in Computer Science from the University of Illinois.  His technical credentials include being a Certified Information System Security Professional (CISSP), a Microsoft Certified System Engineer (MCSE:Security), and most recently completed the Certified Ethical Hacker certification.

 

Brandon Weygant

Brandon Weygant is a web developer & software engineer by trade, but really a person of many interests. In addition to dabbling in new tech whenever possible, he has also co-written & produced an independent comic, started a podcast (including all the audio set up & editing), and has a history in political activism. With a passion for all things tech, a history of taking on leadership roles wherever he goes, and a deep seeded passion for growth (both for himself and others) Brandon uses his desire to learn as fuel to help those around him grow as well.

Programming Languages, Frameworks, and Web Tools: Ruby on Rails, JavaScript, React, Redux, HTML, CSS, PostgreSQL, Wordpress, Divi, Heroku, Github

Other Tech: Power User with Windows/Mac/Linux, Bash, Zsh, Powershell, Audio/Video, RPGMaker, Ren’Py, PC repair, and dabbled in many more.

Roman Jaquez

Roman Jaquez is a Google Developer Expert in Flutter / Dart, as well as a Google Certified Cloud Architect who loves sharing his passion for Flutter with the wider developer community.

He is also lead organizer at GDG Lawrence, as well as a GDG Mentor for the Northeast in the USA, with 10+ years of experience as a software engineer, currently in the medical field.

He enjoys spreading the word about best practices in the industry ranging from mobile, web and cloud. He is also a dad and husband, who loves to draw as a hobby.

Maria Reyf

UI/UX master
​​

Maria spent 20 years in the Web Design and Development realm. From notepad to complex wireframe design she made the journey with technology and standards as they developed. She possesses a full stack design skill range from marketing strategy, through UX/UI design up to front end development and is passionate in every step. Maria currently works for a major telecommunication company as a full stack designer, but comes from humble beginnings of being a freelancer and working with small and mid size Web design and marketing agencies and start ups. Her main passion is to be the users advocate in every step of the design and development process, but also to provide customer service to people and teams that she interfaces with, whether itÕs the business or development team.  

Maria has a degree in Information System Management, experienced in Agile and DevOps models, big proponent of lean UX and intimately familiar with modern, front end coding languages, frameworks and tools. 

Dana Pylayeva

Unleashing leadership potential in individuals and organizations

Dana is a multifaceted agilist who excels at navigating complexity, creating learning communities, and unleashing leadership potential in those she coaches.

She holds a Certified Enterprise Coach (CEC) designation from Scrum Alliance as well as Certified Professional Co-Active Coach (CPCC) certification from Co-Active Training Institute.

Dana’s coaching range includes individuals, teams, leadership as well as a Business Agility transformation coaching across a diverse span of industries: legal publishing, automotive, digital marketing, retail, fintech, music streaming, non-profits etc.

Dana brings a unique blend of the diverse technical background (as a former Java Developer, a DBA Manager, an Application Architect), her 20 + years of Agile/ DevOps Coaching experience (with clients in US, UK, Canada, India, Japan, Russia, Ireland) as well as her strong professional coaching skills (rooted in Co-Active and ORSC).

Dana is passionate about growing others and giving back to the Agile/Scrum community. Through the years, she has been involved in various roles as a volunteer, reviewer, track chair, program chair and conference chair at Agile Alliance and Scrum Alliance organizations.

Dana is an author, trainer and speaker, who has delivered her workshops at over 60 conferences in 15 countries.

She is the founder of Big Apple Scrum Day conference in NYC as well as a co-organizer of several user groups: NYC Scrum User Group, Voice of Scrum Alliance in Russia, and NYC Liberating Structures group.

Dana’s books, articles and Agile/DevOps games:

Wayne Bianchetta

Wayne is currently on a journey to specialize in vulnerability assessments and penetration testing. Through rigorous self-study and online training courses, he has gained a comprehensive understanding of various security frameworks, tools, and methodologies utilized in the field. He has completed several hands-on projects, conducting vulnerability assessments and performing basic penetration testing on simulated environments. These experiences allowed him to gain practical insights into identifying weaknesses, analyzing risks, and recommending mitigations.

Melea Seward

With nearly two decades of experience in organizational development, publishing, and content strategy, Melea is responsible for client management, recruiting operations, training and development at The Hired Guns. 

For a decade before joining The Hired Guns, Melea was a strategy consultant helping organizations build and reach specific audiences, deploying her expertise in business development, content creation, and marketing communications to create unique and unexpected campaigns, tactics, and solutions. She brought that strategic marketing lens to talent recruiting, helping organizations meet the moment to find surprising but well-suited talent while putting an outsized effort into enhancing the candidate experience. During her tenure, The Hired Guns has placed senior leaders across social impact organizations, media, e-commerce, health-tech startups, and more. 

Melea has lectured on strategic decision-making, building teams, growing audience through strategy, and cultivating surprising partnerships at Sarah Lawrence College, Columbia University, the New Museum, King's College, the Rockefeller Brothers Foundation, Fordham University, the Freelancers Union, NY Cares, the American Society of Journalist and Authors, the Levin Institute-SUNY, NYU-Tisch, In Good Company Workplaces, TedX, and the Jerome Robbins Foundation.

She has previously served on the board of directors of the North Star Fund and is currently on the board of the Obie Award-winning organization, The Secret City.

mseward@thehiredguns.com
n>646-225-1171 
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Tyler Walker

Tyler Walker is an app developer, composer, and sound designer in the Hudson Valley.  In 2016, after 15 years working professionally writing music, he wrote the sound and music for a mobile video game.  The developer let him peek behind the curtain to see how it all worked, and he was instantly smitten with the process. This triggered an unexpected career shift focused heavily on app development.  He has worked on three apps currently in the app store, and is close to releasing his first solo video game.  He is still making music.

Sean Jones

Sean Jones, a dynamic entrepreneur, embarked on his business journey at the age of 17, establishing and successfully selling multiple ventures since then. While pursuing his education at Marist College, Sean concurrently nurtured his second business, comprising a chain of Verizon Wireless stores. 

His foray into cutting-edge technologies led him to collaborate with the Department of Defense, where he not only explored emerging technologies but also conducted workshops with major institutions. Sean's expertise further flourished as he joined a robotics startup backed by Tony Robbins, playing a pivotal role in team building, establishing manufacturing facilities, and bringing innovative products to the North American market and Ukraine. 

During his tenure, Sean significantly contributed to the business including support to raise nearly $6M in funding, launching TrueLimb (prosthetic arm) in North America, and securing contracts within the VA for wearable tech dedicated to PTSD therapy. Today, as the co-founder of Garden Creative, a strategic marketing firm, Sean focuses on ensuring companies garner attention online and at events. His approach extends beyond visibility, emphasizing the critical steps that follow—increasing sales and fostering ongoing communication with valued customers.