Accelerate Delivery

Jeffery Payne has led Coveros since its inception in 2008. Under his guidance, the company has become a recognized market leader in secure agile software development. Mr. Payne is a popular keynote and featured speaker at technology conferences and has testified before Congress on technology issues such as intellectual property rights and cyber-terrorism. Prior to Coveros, he was co-founder, CEO, and Chairman of the Board of Cigital, where he led the startup and growth of the company for 16 years. Mr. Payne is a former ACM National Lecturer and the co-founder of the Northern Virginia Chapter of the IEEE Computer Society. He holds a B.S. in Computer Science from Allegheny College and an M.S. in Computer Science from The College of William and Mary.

Dave Burke brings over 24 years of leadership and full life cycle software development experience to Coveros. His experience includes work across various markets including: Telecommunications, Media, Logistics, Transportation, and Financial Services. Prior to Coveros, Dave was the COO for Command Information/Digital Focus, an industry leader in agile software development and held leadership roles at Verizon Communications. Additionally, he served 7 years as an officer in the United States Army. Dave earned his Master’s Degree in the Management of Information Technology from the University of Virginia and Bachelors in Economics from Providence College.

Tom Stiehm is a 20 year veteran of the Information Technology industry. He has spent the past 10 years managing, designing and implementing software products and applications using agile software development methods. Prior to Coveros, Tom held a variety of CTO and architect positions at software development companies. Tom is a member of the northern Virginia BEA users group and the northern Virginia Java users group. Tom holds a B.S. degree in Computer Science from George Mason University.

Alison Wade is an accomplished executive dedicated to the business of software. For the past twenty years, she has worked with industry leaders developing programs for software development and testing professionals. Alison has been instrumental in building Techwell, a company with an outstanding reputation for delivering high-quality services, publications, events, and partnerships. She is the Program Chair for the EPIC Experience, STAREAST, and STARWEST conferences and a past Program Chair of the Mobile Dev + Test and IoT Dev + Test conferences, and she plays a pivotal role in the development of Agile + DevOps Conferences. Alison strives to increase awareness of diversity in the software industry concerning both the workforce and the role of software beyond commercial products and IT departments. In 2015, Alison launched Women Who Test, a program dedicated to women in software testing. Additionally, she is a Certified ScrumMaster and Product Owner.

Alexa Angell has been working in the software industry since the late '90s when she wrote a 300-page software documentation using MS Word. At Coveros, Alexa coordinates the details and logistics for live virtual, on-site, and public training and also serves as a host for our live virtual courses. Still a lover of all things related to technical writing, she jumps at the chance to serve as an editor for anyone who asks. Alexa holds a B.A. in English - Concentration in Technical Writing and a M.A. in English - Professional and Technical Communication.

Angela Cadle brings over 15 years of experience to Coveros as its Accountant. Her expertise lies in general ledger Accounting, Operations & HR Management.  Angela’s past experience includes being the Controller for an education SAAS company, Sr. Accountant for a bio-tech startup in Southern California and, prior to that, the Controller and General Manager for a Property Management/Real Estate/Construction company in Georgia.

She received a BA in Liberal Arts from West Virginia University and a BBA in Accounting from Savannah State University, from which she graduated summa cum laude.

Jenna Charlton has been a software tester for nearly a decade. In that time she’s focused on manual testing, taking a particular interest in web accessibility and usability. Jenna’s experience in testing runs the gamut from lone tester on a Scrum team to test lead on an enterprise-level project. Jenna’s primary areas of expertise are in agile testing methodologies, risk based testing, accessibility testing, and test leadership. She is a regular speaker at conferences, covering a variety of testing topics and team collaboration. Jenna is passionate about making testing concepts accessible and relevant.

Sarah has been a professional meetings and events planner for more than 18 years. After leaving a career in Social Work, she found a passion for events and dedicated herself to this field. Experienced with catering and social events, exhibiting, trade show management, executive-level meetings, and conferences ranging from 150 to 1500 attendees, Sarah is knowledgeable and skillful across many areas of the events industry. She especially appreciates the relationship-building and negotiations of contracting events.

George has been working as a Java Selenium Automation Engineer and is currently working as a consultant with a main focus on Web, Android and IOS app testing. He has domain knowledge in Telecommunication and Broadband Service industries and been working with both Agile and Waterfall environments . He has assisted in creating frameworks using Page Object Model structure and management tools like Cucumber and Maven. George took part in creating a web application based on GIS (Geographic Information System). In his free time he enjoys reading, skateboarding and producing music.

Chao Din is an application security engineer. Before joining Coveros, he led the application security team of a large IT company, where he handled more than 150 applications deployed to the world in various programming languages. He also provided application security training to the company and to the application security team. Before changing his career to security, he had 30 years of software development experience as a full stack developer working for U.S. Marine Corps, U.S. Census Bureau, Environmental Protection Agency, American Chemical Society, and the intelligence community. He has a Ph. D. degree in Information Technology, and his dissertation utilizes natural language processing and machine learning technologies.

As a client advocate for more than ten years, Stephanie Fender's motivation to exceed student's expectations is her focus. Stephanie's passion is helping the customer with their learning journeys by listening to current challenges and suggesting the right solutions. There isn't a team too small or enterprise too large for Stephanie and her team of software engineers to help organizations reach their goals of producing high-value and high-quality software.

Bob Foster is a Technical Manager with over 20 years experience as a senior software engineer and team lead. Bob has proven experience in all aspects of software development and delivery (including DevOps, CI/CD, and infrastructure as code). He is a firm believer in the benefits gained by software teams when following Agile, CI/CD, and DevOps methodologies and has been successful in helping drive Agile/DevOps cultural shifts in both individual teams and organizations. Bob feels strongly that feedback is crucial to the success of a project and following the disciplines of Agile, CI/CD and DevOps will help provide visibility and feedback early and often throughout the entirety of a project, improving its chance for success.

Failure is Feedback and Feedback is the Breakfast of Champions!

Mitch graduated from The University of Virginia with a double major in Computer Science and Physics. His career fascinations lie in development and security, while in his spare time he enjoys programming simulations and puzzles. Outside of work, he trains in Judo and hones his skills as an amateur chef.

Brian is a software engineer, development manager, and technical architect with over 15 years of hands-on experience designing and developing software using core Java, web services, and related technologies in both the commercial and public sectors. He is a SAFe® 4 Program Consultant and also a certified Scrum Master and has experience implementing agile processes, leading agile teams and implementing dev ops solutions. At Coveros he is responsible for supporting software development consulting and training engagements, focusing on delivery of training courses across the United States.

Developer. Engineer. Architect. DevOps practitioner and advocate. Justin Hollingsworth is all of the above, with 15 years experience in US Federal Government software development, including 10 years as a Department of Defense (DoD) Civilian. He has a B.S. in Computer Science and an M.S. in Software Engineering. Justin has heavily focused on hands-on web application development, with vast experience in many programming languages and methodologies. Strong experience in implementing and following agile and DevOps practices in environments with heavy regulation and security oversight.

With over 10 years devoted to client advocacy, Samantha Jeantel has contributed to the Coveros team as a highly motivated and experienced professional. With the opportunity to serve clients while attending conference engagements as well as assisting those seeking training development via our virtual platform, she remains committed to first class service. As well, she has played an integral role in the technical support for our products and performs as a key player working across multiple lines of business. Sam holds a B.S. degree from the University of Central Florida.

Jonathan is an experienced consultant who has worked on both large scale Agile development projects for commercial clients and public sector innovative research and development projects. Jonathan has also been actively involved in company-building initiatives such as SecureCI, the Coveros open source continuous integration solution. During recent projects he has focused on front-end development by leveraging technologies such as JavaScript, HTML/CSS, and Velocity, while at Allegheny College he performed software testing research. Jonathan first developed strong communication skills while working as a Teaching Assistant at Allegheny, and he continues to refine those skills as he works with Coveros' clients. Outside of work Jonathan enjoys activities such as exercise, reading, and playing the piano.

Rachel graduated in from Christopher Newport University with a degree in Computer Science and a minor in Information Sciences. She enjoys mobile development and database management, and has recently gotten into automation testing. She hopes to continue to learn more about developing software and explore new technology.

Richard Mills has more than 25 years of experience in software engineering with a concentration on pragmatic software process and tools. Rich has a specific focus in Agile development methods and is passionate about DevOps, Continuous Integration, and Continuous Delivery. As the Solution Architect for DevOps at Coveros, Rich is dedicated to helping customers build software better, faster, and more securely by coaching and mentoring in Agile development methodologies, automating software delivery (builds, tests, and deployments) and integrating strong security measures into development practices. He has spent his career working in the areas of static and dynamic software analysis tools, configuration management, and automated software delivery. Rich currently works as a Sr. DevOps Architect with Coveros and has been with the company since 2010, spending most of his time engaged with customers. He is an alumnus of Bucknell University where he earned a BSEG in Computer Engineering.

Pam has been working in and around software since the great Windows 95 migration as an end-user trainer, documentation specialist, product marketer, and more. As the marketing manager for our training line of business, she works furiously to stay abreast of the changing topics modern software professionals are curious about. A graduate of the University of Florida, Pam relishes every opportunity she has to say “Go Gators!”

Jeff Pierce is a Managing Consultant with Coveros, Inc., a software company that helps organizations accelerate the delivery of secure, reliable software. Jeff is a leader with over twenty years experience in information technology (IT) program/project management. Jeff is a SAFe® 4 Program Consultant, a certified Scrum Master, and is also a Project Management Professional (PMP). He has proven technical excellence in development and deployment of strategic web-based enterprise information systems utilizing cloud computing and continuous integration technologies. Jeff's experience also includes an extensive Software Quality Assurance (SQA) and test engineering background including building and managing test teams and test automation implementation across a variety of platforms, technologies, and industries. Jeff manages Coveros Training, and is a professional instructor, delivering Agile and Software Quality related courses nationwide. 

Jona Qorri is a member of the Agile Solution Delivery Team at Coveros and an accomplished software and test automation engineer with experience working in large Agile programs. She has worked with a variety of Test Automation and DevOps technologies to automate containerized CI/CD pipelines for both commercial and federal clients. Jona's work with Agile teams has sparked her interest in furthering her career in leading teams to understand and implement the Agile process so that they may be able to produce solutions that can contribute to technical innovation. She is a Certified Scrum Master, ICAgile Certified Professional in Agile Fundamentals and the Foundation of DevOps. In her free time, she enjoys spending time outdoors and in the kitchen improving her skills as an amateur baker.

Hugo Sanchez is a Managing Consultant with Coveros, Inc., a software company that helps organizations build, test, and deliver secure, reliable software applications using agile methods. Hugo has over 20 years of software development, software assurance, project management, and product management experience with a wide range of software products and applications. He is an accomplished Product Management & Project Delivery professional with successful track record of providing complete lifecycle management of “whole” products, families of products and infrastructure projects. Hugo has experience running Agile teams and delivering project on time and budget in the face of organizational challenges and market dynamic

Rustam is a seasoned, dynamic, and result-oriented professional with extensive experience in agile and DevOps software delivery. He worked closely with development teams in SaaS, finance, and insurance organizations to build automated QA test suites, guiding projects from concept to launch. Passionate about solving challenges and delivering solutions to contribute to technical innovation, Rustam is certified Scrum Master and has shown the ability to work with diverse stakeholders to drive results. In his free time Rustam enjoys outdoor activities, such as hiking and fishing.

Mike Sowers has more than twenty-five years of practical experience as a global leader of internationally distributed test teams across multiple industries. Mike is a senior leader, skilled in working with both large and small organizations to improve their software development, testing, and delivery approaches. He has worked with companies—including Fidelity Investments, PepsiCo, FedEx, Southwest Airlines, Wells Fargo, ADP, and Lockheed—to improve development approaches, increase software quality, reduce time to market, and decrease costs. With his passion for helping teams deliver software faster, better, and cheaper, Mike has mentored and coached senior software leaders, small teams, and direct contributors worldwide.

Matthew Taylor is an accomplished full-stack Developer and DevSecOps engineer with experience working in large agile programs for both commercial and federal clients. His broad range of skills includes designing, implementing, and maintaining DevSecOps (CI/CD) pipelines including containerization technologies like Kubernetes, Data Science, Machine Learning, security testing, and test automation. He is an ICAgile Certified Professional in Agile Fundamentals and the Foundations of DevOps.