Here Are the New IBM i Champions for Power
January 25, 2021 Alex Woodie
It’s the beginning of a new year, which means it’s time for IBM to roll out its new crop of Champions. For 2021, there are 95 individuals who can claim to be IBM Champions for Power, including 26 folks who have been named a Champion for the first time.
Here are the 13 newly named IBM Champions for Power who have a connection with the IBM i:
Marco Riva, a senior developer with Sirio, a business partner based in Italy. Riva is also a member and a blogger at FAQ400, an online community of IBM i professionals in Italy.
Amneris Teruel, a senior consultant for security, automation, and monitoring tools for HelpSystems, the Eden Prairie, Minnesota, IBM i software company. Teruel, who is based in Buenos Aires, Argentina, has been working with in the IBM i marketplace since 1988.
Andrea Ribuoli, an IBM i senior developer and consultant with ITPASS (Italian Power Association), an organization founded in 2012 to help promote IBM i concepts and education in Italy.
Andy Youens, a consultant and instructor with FormaServe Systems, a London-based consultancy that provides IBM i software utilities as well as training and support. The Royal Navy veteran is active in the IBM i community and is also has written stories for PowerWire.eu and spoken at conferences for i-UG, a user group based in the UK.
Ash Giddings, a pre-sales engineer with Halcyon, a HelpSystems subsidiary based in Peterborough, UK. Giddings has worked on the IBM midrange system since at least 1993, including 10 years at Halcyon and several IBM i shops before that.
Heidi Schmidt, the CEO of PKS Software GmbH, an ISV based in Germany that focuses on providing tools and solutions for modernizing legacy IBM i code. Schmidt started her IT career at Hewlett-Packard in 1996 and joined PKS in 2003.
Mark Wyllie, the CEO of Flagship Solutions Group, an IBM business partner based in Florida that sells Power Systems servers and provides IBM i expertise.
Michael Bisignani, the lead enterprise architect for cloud with Converge Technology Solutions, an IT services firm based in New York City. Bisignani specializes in modernizing and cloud-enabling legacy apps running on IBM i and IBM mainframe.
Piotr Tkaczyk, the founder and owner of ASpartner, an IBM business partner based in Poland. Tkaczyk specialists in technical and sales around IBM i and AIX systems.
Simon Hutchinson, the IBM i DevOps manager for Farm Credit Bank of Texas. Hutchinson perhaps is best known for his blog at RPGPGM.com where Hutchinson offers “advice about programming, operations, communications, and anything else I can think of.”
Taylor Holloway, the CTO of Advent One, an IBM business partner in Australia that sells IBM Power servers and offers IT services.
Tim Hill, a senior director and distinguish engineer at Rocket Software, the Massachusetts software vendor. Hill is the product manager for PowerSC, the security and compliance tool from IBM.
Erwin Earley, a senior solutions consultant with Perforce Software, the Minnesota based ISV that owns Zend and its PHP for IBM i offerings. Earley started his career as a developer with the National Security Agency before joining IBM and working out of its Rochester campus in 2001.
In addition to these new IBM i-centric Champions for Power, IBM welcomes back a number of its existing IBM Champions for Power who have links to the IBM i community. This list includes:
Liam Allan, Torbjorn Appehl, Nathanaël Bonnet, Larry Bolhuis, Steve Bradshaw, Jim Buck, Koen Decorte, Roberto De Pedrini, Shirang “Ranga” Deshpande, Susan Gantner, Bart Grabowski, Kim Greene, Charlie Guarino, Josh Hall, Ted Holt, Tom Huntington, Mats Lidström, Niels Liisberg, Michael Karasienski, Scott Klement, Christian Massé, Pete Massiello, Bastien Boudot de la Motte, Jesper Hemmet Omer; Jon Paris, Mike Pavlak, Stephanie Rabbani, Michael Ryan, Alan Seiden, Robin Tatum, Paul Tuohy, Laura Ubelhor, Rudi Van Helvoirt, Dave Waddell, Dave Wiseman, Steve Wolk, Carol Woodbury, and Jeff Yanoviak.
Several IBM i folks (or folks who work at firms involved with the IBM i server, at least) who we featured in our 2020 story on IBM Champions for Power were not listed this year, including Anant Pendse, Trevor Perry, and Pascal Polverini.
Birgitta Hauser, an IBM i database expert at Fresche who was previously an IBM Champion for Power, was named an IBM Champion for Developer. And Aaron Magid, who is the vice president of open source technologies at Eradani, a provider of application integration tools for IBM i, was also named an IBM Champion for Developer.
All told, in 2021 there are more than 735 IBM Champions across the range of Champion categories. In addition to Power, IBM recognizes Champions in AI Apps, Cloud, Data & AI, Developer, IBM Z, Storage, Security, and the IBM Partner Ecosystem.
“Each of you have shown a tremendous amount of advocacy for IBM. It is an honor to work with you through the IBM Champions program,” says Program Manager for IBM Champions for Power Systems, in a blog post on Friday that lists all 95 Champions for Power. “We value your contributions to our IBM Power Systems community and are pleased to recognize, reward, and catalyze your activities through this program.”
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