Our Team

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.

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.

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.

As a Sr. Sales Manager for more than ten years, Stephanie Fender's motivation to exceed customer’s expectations and build relationships is her focus. Stephanie's passion is helping organizations with their end-to-end learning goals by listening to current challenges and suggesting the right consulting, training, or coaching solutions. Stephanie and her team of software engineers help enterprises, teams, and individuals produce high-value and high-quality software through Agile & DevOps practices and processes.

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!

Harry Gagnon has a background in web design and development and has worked previously at non-profit and legal organizations. He is experienced in digital marketing with a focus in email, PPC, and e-commerce. At Coveros, he manages media marketing efforts including web seminars, lead generation programs, and e-newsletters.

With more than a decade of experience in web development, Priya is the webmaster and senior web developer for the 12+ websites in the Coveros-TechWell family of companies. She holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Electronics and Communication Engineering, as well as a Master of Business Administration. 

Jason is an experienced network engineer, systems administrator, IT manager, and proven problem solver with more than 20 years experience in the technology industry. He takes pride in providing the best solutions and service for his customers. At Coveros he is responsible for selecting, implementing, and maintaining the best hardware and software to allow the business to function while balancing budget, usability, and security.

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.

Elena loves finding the alignment between candidates and career opportunities that helps individuals and organizations grow and thrive together. She enjoys building and nurturing a strong professional network where she can connect and engage with great talent continuously. Want to learn about Coveros' opportunities? Let her know! In her free time, Elena likes to spend time traveling with her husband, volunteering, gardening, and tackling sudoku and crossword puzzles.

Jennie has more than 25 years of award-winning experience in branding, print, and web design. As an Art Director for a major, DC-based design agency, she was involved in everything from the proposal, content strategy, design, and implementation/production phases. She then branched out on her own, working with diverse clients such as climbing gyms, authors, software companies, and schools. She is passionate about working closely with her team or clients to develop smart, visually engaging design that exceeds the objectives.

Jonathan Kauffman is an experienced consultant who has helped organizations overcome their agile software development and testing challenges. Jonathan has supported both government and commercial clients as they develop and test high-quality applications, and he has gained his experience by working with healthcare, biomedical devices, financial services, security, and research organizations. He leads development of the Coveros Agile Testing solution, organizes a testing and quality assurance Meetup, and both presents at and attends Meetups to help maintain his connection with the software testing community and to stay abreast of recent industry developments. Before joining Coveros, he earned his B.S. in Computer Science from Allegheny College, where he published research on techniques for optimizing regression test suites.

Shanthi Karpurapu has more than 13 years of experience leading, designing, and developing test automation solutions for various platforms across health care, banking, and manufacturing industries using Agile and
Waterfall methodologies. She has vast experience building reusable and extendable automation frameworks for web applications, REST, and SOAP services with the BDD approach. A strong follower of the shift-left testing approach, Shanthi is also a Certified AWS Cloud Practitioner, Machine Learning Specialist.

Rachel is a member of the DevOps Solution team at Coveros and a Certified Kubernetes Administrator. She has worked on a variety of DevOps transformation projects in both the federal and commercial space. Using her range of skills in Docker, AWS, Kubernetes, and others, she has built and maintained CI/CD pipelines using today's best practices and tools. She has pursued her passion for DevOps and software development, striving to provide clients with secure, efficient, and maintainable pipelines and infrastructure.

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 Esparza 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.

Stasi has more than 23 years of experience as a marketing professional. Her background includes varied industry experience, including technology, real estate, utilities, and heavy equipment. At Coveros, Stasi guides the overall corporate marketing strategy as well as works in-depth with our events and media products to ensure we continue to deliver the high quality experiences our customers have come to expect from our organization.

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 a 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 projects on time and on budget in the face of organizational challenges and market dynamics.

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.

Kim is a seasoned, hands-on professional with strong experience in business development, account management, product management, and more. Her role at Coveros is to grow and acquire new partnerships and clients across all our lines of business (consulting, conferences, media, and training) through deepened relationships and a consultative sales approach.

Derrick Roach is a member of the Application Security Team at Coveros and an accomplished information security professional with experience implementing security programs as well as securing enterprise assets. Previously serving in an IT analyst capacity, he swiftly observed the necessity to integrate security into all critical systems and processes, from infrastructure to people. As his awareness grew, Derrick made strategic and tactical moves to lead security initiatives that strengthened the organization’s security posture. Derrick is a Certified Information System Security Professional (CISSP) and is dedicated to advancing security awareness, promoting DevSecOps, and improving application security.

Thomas Pavan brings in 20+ years of IT experience with a strong focus on implementing application security within every aspect of a CI-CD pipeline using DevSecOps. He covered the roles of software QA architect and manager, security technical enablement for a variety of industries including banking, e-sport, insurance, and security software, and leading the digital modernization and security effort for different technology stacks. With this extensive experience on all SDLC phases, he can provide a unique perspective on how to better secure and harden the whole software delivery process. He calls himself a “DevSecOps Fundamentalist” because he's seen the benefits of this practice firsthand. His skillset includes pentesting, SAST, DAST, RASP, IAST, training, coaching, and integrating security solutions with clients' existing processes. As a senior application security consultant, Thomas is charged with assessing client's security posture, technical security debt remediation, and coaching on security best practices.

For over 10 years, Todd has been creating and driving unique digital marketing content strategies for organizations in the federal government, k-12 education, and technology. As senior marketing manager at Coveros, Todd leads content creation and promotional strategy in support of our consulting and training services. Todd is a proud graduate of Penn State University, where he holds a B.A. in communications and George Washington University, where he holds a M.A. in media and public affairs. Todd enjoys spending time with his family, watching Penn State sports, enjoying live music, and exploring the history surrounding his home in northern Virginia. 

Michael Rollins has over 12 years experience providing highly automated DevOps solutions to a wide range of industries. He has focused on designing and building automation for all aspects of infrastructure provisioning as well as the entire build, test and release process for code driven deployments that have drastically improved velocity and agility of teams. He also believes in the power of autonomic solutions for providing event driven actions and remediation, and removing humans from menial computer tasks. His advocacy of Agile practices is driven by his desire to help restore our humanity in a world that is increasingly technology centric. 

Arsalan has a diverse background in software engineering, product management, lead, agile and scaling agile. He has worked as a DevOps coach, enterprise agile coach, and release train engineer. He is certified as a SAFe Program Consultant, Lean Portfolio Manager, and a Scrum @Scale Practitioner. In his free time, Arsalan likes to spend time with his family, working out, swimming, and traveling internationally.

Phil is a software engineer very experienced in working in super fast-paced and agile environments where ambiguity is common and the need to be constantly learning is a requirement. Some of his favorite challenges are tackling difficult tasks that require learning and thought to solve. You can hand Phil a task he knows nothing about and he will learn everything necessary to make sure it gets done.