I started attending WordCamps as a Cloudways representative back in 2019 when the company first sponsored WordCamp EU. Since then, I’ve been a regular and thoroughly love the WordCamp experiences!
WordCamps are special to me. For several reasons.
I meet customers who fill me in with insights for improvements and what we can do to serve them better. I meet contributors and speakers who keep me updated with the WordPress pulse and share their years’ worth of knowledge.
I also get to meet amazing friends who know how to bring life and business together and give me cherishable memories.
In this regard, 2023 was really special. I was fortunate to attend the three major WordCamps – Asia, Europe, and the US.
And my journey back from WordCamp USA inspired this article. While returning, I thought, why not produce a content piece highlighting the WordPress fraternity’s key influencers? 💡
I thought deeper and decided that the WordCamp speakers were the REAL WordPress influencers. Why?
- These people passed the rigorous selection criteria of WordCamps.
- They travel miles to attend WordCamps and contribute to the community. This shows their commitment and love for the community.
- They are courageous enough to bring their ideas to the community. They propel the community forward.
- Some speakers are active advocates of inclusivity, positivity, and better mental health of the community members.
So, without delays, my team and I started working on the idea. The goal is to celebrate and honor the love and dedication these influencers have for the WordPress community. And here we are with a list of WordPress influencers that you must follow in 2023.
Let’s GO!
List of the Top WordPress Influencers
So, here’s the meat of the article. These people are the true gems of the WordPress community and definitely worth their salt. Be it speeding up your WP sites, optimizing them for better rankings, or effectively managing the sites for your clients, you can learn a lot from them.
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Note: Some speakers spoke at two or all three of these WordCamps. Those have been covered once.
Speakers of WordCamp Asia 2023
WordCamp Asia took place in Bangkok, Thailand, this year. The dates for the event were 17-19 February 2023. Let’s now have a look at the speakers of the event.
Adam Silverstein | |
WordPress Core committer and image component maintainer – Adam has played a great role in the platform’s progress over the years. He currently serves as a Developer Relations Engineer at Google.
He’s been in the WordPress development scene for over a decade now and definitely dropped some awesome nuggets of wisdom at the WordCamp. |
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Aditya Shah | |
Aditya – a prominent name in the Indian WordPress community. The guy is a WordPress evangelist who’s organized several WordPress meetups in different locations in his country.
Currently, he manages the Hosting Support team at WPMUDEV. |
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Ajit Bohra | |
Another prominent name in the Indian WordPress scene, Ajit has had a love affair with WordPress for over 12 years now. He started off by setting basic theme websites for his clients but couldn’t just stay there.
Currently, he runs a boutique agency called LUBUS. |
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Alain Schlesser | |
He’s a big name in the WordPress scene – maintainer of WP-CLI, the command-line interface for WordPress, and works on WordPress Core itself as a contributor and component maintainer. He’s a software engineer by profession and works freelance. | |
Alberto Medina | |
Another Google guy with lots of experience in the tech scene. He was born in Venezuela and currently lives in the US. Professionally, he’s a part of the Creator Relations team at Google.
He gave some solid perspective on the relationship between WordPress and the creator economy in WCAsia. |
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Allie Nimmons | |
Got her first interaction with WordPress on her first internship back in 2015; Allie became a self-taught WordPress evangelist over the years. She’s got loads of valuable experience with WordPress and currently runs Beedia Productions LLC and also works part-time as the Digital Producer for MasterWP. | |
Amir Arabnezhad | |
Amir is all about codes. He explores the technical side of WordPress and currently works as a Tier 3 WordPress Technical Support Engineer at Barn2.com.
JS and its frameworks are what excite him the most.
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Amit Bajracharya | |
If you are about beautiful WordPress sites, then you must explore the works of Amit Bajracharya. He’s a UI/UX guy with 12+ years of experience.
Any project he takes, he works with the vision of making an impact. He was a part of a panel discussion at the event and gave some interesting insights on WordPress and its communities. |
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Angela Jin | |
Professionally, she heads the Programs and Contributor Experience division at Automattic. Angela also occasionally volunteers and loves exploring new books and food. She’s also a WordPress core contributor. | |
Benjamin Evans | |
Benjamin’s journey with WordPress is almost 8 years long now. He actively creates content for learn.wordpress.org and helps people get better at using the platform. He’s been a WordPress customer support agent as well, so he very well understands the pain points to address to make people friendlier with WordPress.
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Bhavesh Radadiya | |
Bhavesh runs a digital agency – Dzine Interact. He also founded a WordPress theme template company called Templatic. He also has vast experience in offering design and development solutions to entrepreneurs, agencies, and SaaS businesses.
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Birgit Pauli-Haack | |
Birgit is a notable name in the WordPress game. She’s been a core contributor since 2014. She also runs an online WordPress magazine called Gutenberg Times. She’s also pretty active on YouTube and hosts a podcast called Gutenberg Changelog.
If you want to ask her something, you can join one of her regular Live Q&As. Definitely someone to keep on your radar if you want to explore WordPress deeply. |
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Carl Alberto | |
Carl has a pretty solid experience with WordPress, but it’s not limited there. He aces with Mac, Unix, Rose, and Kali. He’s also a core contributor and has worked with the development of themes and plugins as well. Currently, he’s a WordPress Solutions Architect at Pantheon Systems. | |
Carl Alexander | |
This Canadian guy makes regular efforts to give back to the WordPress community. He regularly publishes WordPress content on his website and also gives talks to the community. Not only that, he’s been a WP Montreal organizer since 2010. | |
Carole Olinger | |
From a government admin to a WP champ, Carole has had an amazing journey with regards ti the platform. She entered the community in 2016 and has quickly risen to become a prominent figure.
She works hard to advocate for positive mental health in the WP community. |
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Chakkrisn Talawat | |
This guy built a dream life with WP. He’s been among the early adopters of the platform – he started using WP in 2005. He’s built agencies, enjoyed remote work life from the mountains of Pai, traveled around, and basically done amazing work.
He also has a solid grasp of the platform and knows how to deliver top-notch work.
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Chris David Miles | |
Chris’s affiliation with WP is from 2011. He’s built countless WP sites for his clients and non-profits. Currently, Chris is a Product Manager for Bluehost in Salt Lake City. | |
Dario Jazbec Hrvatin | |
Dario is a WordCamp regular. He loves building websites using WP and its associated technologies.
Freelancing, NGOs, and Marketing agencies – Dario has had diverse experiences throughout his career. Currently, he works as a Content Manager for OnTheGoSystems. |
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Edmund Chan | |
Edmund loves to create fusions of WordPress and React. Currently, he works at XWP, and his efforts are directed toward building a better web at an enterprise scale.
He’s also a core contributor to the platform. |
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Francesca Marano | |
Francesca is the Director of Engineering at XWP. She’s been involved with computers since the age of 8 and is now a big name in the community. She also runs a blog where she helps and interacts with Italian creative female entrepreneurs.
She’s also a core team member of WordPress and also a core contributor to the platform.
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Hajime Ogushi | |
Hajime started his WordPress journey back in 2008 and hasn’t looked back since. One thing that stands out about him? He’s almost exclusively focused on WP. So, his experience holds so much value for the other members of the WP community.
Currently, he’s the Representative director of mgn, Inc.
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Hannah Del Porto | |
Hannah’s been into web development for 22 years now. Phew, that’s even before WordPress was launched. So, she’s seen the platform evolve and definitely has valuable insights for the WordPress community.
She’s also spoken at several conferences around the world, even at DrupalCon in the US and Australia.
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Hidekazu Ishikawa | |
Hidekazu is a WP core contributor. His understanding of the platform is formidable. Plugins, custom coding, themes – he’s basically dipped his hands in all things WordPress.
Hidekazu is an active community member and actively participates and presents at WordPress community events in Japan and Hong Kong.
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Isabel Brison | |
A core contributor and a test contributor – Isabel is an active member of the WP community. She’s also had her contributions as a theme developer.
Currently, she’s working as a front-end engineer at Automattic. Besides that, she’s also a plant enthusiast and enjoys art as well. |
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Jonathan Desrosiers | |
Another WP OG – Jonathan Desrosiers has been a WordPress user since 2007. He’s worked on small and large projects of all sorts and built several websites using WP.
He became a core contributor in 2013 and became a core committer in 2018. He’s pretty popular in the WP circles and well-appreciated for his work for WP. |
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Jonathan Wold | |
Jonathan Wold is a core contributor who’s been associated with WordPress since 2004. His journey started with creating a blog for a client, and now he’s grown to become a big name in the WP fraternity.
He generally works as a consultant for WooCommerce stores and WP sites. Even agencies. |
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K. Adam White | |
He likes being called KAdam – remember this if you ever meet him, haha. He started his journey with WordPress back in 2007.
Currently, K. is a Principal Engineer at Human Made and a core contributor to the WordPress platform. |
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Karim Marucchi | |
Karim has had an interesting career progression. He’s built and worked on several startups and is currently the CEO of Crowd Favourite – A Digital Strategy and Engineering firm.
He’s a big fan of open source and loves supporting business leaders. He also serves as the BOD for the Captain Planet Foundation. He’s also a plugin developer for WP. |
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Kel Santiago-Pilarski | |
Kel has an interesting story with WP. She was a nurse and a tattoo artist before she got associated with the platform.
She’s been a WP member since 2014 and now works as a Happiness Engineer at Automattic. Cool fact? She met her husband in a WordCamp! |
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Kin Ko | |
Kin Ko has been a WP member since 2009 and has served the platform as a plugin developer. He’s a writer and a blockchain enthusiast. He runs a WP-powered blog for over 15 years now. Definitely an interesting chap in the WP community. | |
Laura Byrne | |
WordPress attracted Laura back in 2006. She built a site to discuss the Twilight series, and the site then took off to receive millions of visitors per day. Her expertise isn’t just WP. She’s also pretty experienced with SEO, social media strategy, and even event management. | |
Le-an Lai Lacaba | |
CEO and co-founder of 2xYou – Le-an has had a pretty unique career journey. She has made a great impact on her community and aims to help 10,000 entrepreneurs and a million Filipinos work remotely.
She’s an accomplished international speaker and also runs a YouTube channel where she trains virtual assistants to work from home.
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M Asif Rahman | |
Asif is a WP enthusiast and a serial entrepreneur. He’s also a core contributor to WordPress.
He got in touch with WordPress in 2004 as a blogger and, since then, explored the platform deeply. He’s been an influential name in the WP community and has spoken at more than 25 WordCamps across the world. |
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Mashhood Rastgar | |
Mashhood leads the engineering team at Sastaticket and also serves as a Google Developer Expert. His development skills are well-commended in the WP community, and people often look to him for advice with Core Web Vitals.
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Matt Mullenweg | |
Matt Mullenweg is THE MAN to follow!
He’s the founder of Automattic – the company that built WordPress. His talk at the WordCamp was an Ask Matt Anything – AMA. Being a founding member, there’s hardly anyone who knows WP better than him. He’s a regular speaker at WordCamps, and if you ever find a chance to attend his session, don’t miss it! Oh, and BTW – He’s also a core contributor and a core team member of WordPress. And did you know he’s a blogger as well. Just recently, he posted a blog on his love for WordCamps. Do check it out: I Love WordCamps! |
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Matthias Held | |
Matthias is a web professional and has served the field for about 2.5 decades now. He’s hopped on several platforms, such as Joomla, Drupal, and Typo3, before settling with WP. He contributes to the CLI, core, and hosing teams for WP. | |
Michelle Frechette | |
Michelle’s decorated journey with WP truly shows her dedication to the platform. Besides being a core contributor, she’s ardently works for the betterment of the WP community. She’s served as an organizer and a Lead for several WordCamps at different locations.
Currently, she’s the Director of Community Engagement at StellarWP. |
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Milana Cap | |
Milana is a WordPress engineer at XWP. She’s also in the core team of WP and is a core contributor. Her experience with WordPress is well-respected in the WP community. She’s been a pivotal force in organizing some great WP events, such as WordCamp Europe 2018 and 2019. | |
Miriam Schwab | |
Miriam is the Head of WordPress Relations at Elementor. According to her – WordPress was a love at first sight for her and this happened back in 2007.
Miriam is a regular at WordPress WordCamps, and her activities are directed at helping people build better WP communities! |
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Nirav Mehta | |
Nirav is a man of many talents – a geek, entrepreneur, storyteller, and mentor. He excels at WP and particularly at WooCommerce. He successfully authored 3 books and is currently working on several businesses simultaneously.
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Nuno Morgadinho | |
Nuno is a core contributor to WordPress and currently serves as the CEO of Widgilabs. He has worked on the launch of the biggest media installations in Portugal, Observador, and ECO.
Nuno excels at helping startups grow, and he’s successfully worked with hundreds of clients across various industries. |
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Okamoto Hidetaka | |
Online payments and WordPress is the sweet spot for Hide. He’s currently working with Stripe as a Developer Advocate. Hide’s contributions to the platform are many. Besides being a core contributor, he’s also a regular WordCamp speaker and has also worked as an organizer for several events. | |
Petya Raykovska |
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Petya is an active contributor to the WordPress community. She’s worn different hats over the 15 years of experience in the software development industry, such as product marketer, event manager, product developer, etc.
She’s also a core contributor to the platform and made several other significant contributions to WordPress. |
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Piccia Neri |
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Piccia’s expertise lies in UX and UI. Currently, she’s the UX and UI lead for an Italian museum, the Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria.
Interestingly, she also served as a proud Cloudways maverick from 2019 to 2022. |
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Prasad Nevase | |
With over a decade of experience, Prasad has managed to make a decent name in the WP community. He has spoken at local WordCamps as well in his country. Prasad is also a core contributor to WordPress and currently works as Director of Client Delivery at rtCamp Solutions Pvt. Ltd. | |
Rahi Prajapati | |
Rahi is currently working as an Engineering Manager at rtCamp. He got associated with WordPress in 2018 and in a very short period managed to become a core contributor to the platform. | |
Rahul D Sarker | |
SEO, branding, digital marketing – that’s all Rahul’s game!
He’s a very active guy in the WP community and is also on the organizing team of the WP Kolkata community and WooCommerce Community. |
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Raushan Jaiswal | |
Raushan’s expertise lies in marketing and building businesses. Currently, he’s the CEO of Codewing Solutions. He also runs a YT channel and successfully uses it as a marketing funnel.
He’s also an expert in lead generation. |
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Sabirah | |
She’s all things content marketing. Started her career as a freelance writer on UpWork, Sabirah now champions digital marketing with a flair in SEO, improving CTR, using GA and Search Console, etc. | |
Saif Hassan | |
“What are we trying to do?” is the question that leads to Saif’s professional actions. He loves helping people and is a co-founder of a half-million+ member Facebook community in Bangladesh.
He’s got really interesting takes on WordPress and its technologies and loves building products that people would love to use. |
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Sekander Badsha | |
Sekandar has been a WP member since 2012. He’s an all-rounder in the digital media industry with expertise in SEO, digital marketing, content creation, etc.
He’s currently working with LifterLMS as the head of Growth Marketing. |
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Shilpa Shah | |
Shilpa’s journey is one to look at. She had a well-settled corporate job from which she switched to a startup and dabbled with WP. She’s proud of the choice she made.
She co-founded Hummingbird Web Solutions and has also started a WP blog quite recently. |
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Subhasis Chatterjee | |
Subhasis is a renowned name in the Indian WP community, especially in Kolkata. He is super interested in content development, personal branding, and digital marketing.
He’s the founder and the CEO of Connect India. |
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Sunita Rai | |
Sunita is a core content marketer at heart. She closely understands WordPress and has worked with several WP companies such as WPBeginner, ThemeGrill, Access Keys, etc.
Currently, she’s a freelance writer and also trains others in the field.
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Tanvirul Haque | |
Tanvirul Haque is a WP core contributor and a true WP enthusiast. He loves to connect with people who have the same interests as himself. He’s got a solid experience in design and themes, and that was also his topic of discussion in the WordCamp. | |
Tarun Sikder | |
Tarun Sikder is a freelance content marketer and has a vast experience of over 5 years in the field. He’s also a WordPress enthusiast and loves to use the platform for his creative endeavors. | |
Thijs de Valk | |
Thjis is a behavioral scientist and a big name in the SEO world. He served as the CEO of Yoast from Nov 2021 till April 2023. His interests lie in analyzing people and their interaction with products and services.
His session at the WordCamp also revolved around focusing on the right things and avoiding the wrong ones! |
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Topher DeRosia | |
Topher has a pretty impressive profile with regard to WordPress. He’s a core contributor and a BuddyPress contributor. His contributions to the community are remarkable. Topher has attended more than 80 WordCamps, and he loves to make any contribution that can help WP grow as a platform. | |
Warat Wongmaneekit | |
Warat is a web developer and talked about WordPress and Web Apps in his WordCamp session.
Currently, he’s working as a Chief Product Officer at #WISESIGHT. |
Speakers of WordCamp Europe 2023
WordCamp Europe took place in Athens, Greece. The dates for the events were 8 – 10 June 2023. Let’s go over the speakers of the event.
Aaron Reimann | |
Aaron was introduced to WordPress in 2005. He is deep in the development game. He’s built several sites of different sizes using the platform.
Currently, he owns ClockworkWP, where he also works as a Web Developer. |
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AAfshana Diya | |
Afshana is a WordPress core contributor. She’s been pretty active with WordCamps for the last 5 years. Currently, she’s serving as the CMO for WPDeveloper.com – a company that powers up over 5 million WordPress websites. | |
Ahmed Kabir Chaion | |
Ahmed’s experience with WordPress is a truly astonishing one. He’s a core team member and a core contributor to the platform. He’s also a part of the WordPress Training Team Faculty and a WordPress Photo Directory Moderator. | |
Alice Orrù | |
Alice became a part of the WordPress community in 2015. She’s a polyglot and loves to translate content and make it accessible to people of different languages.
She’s also co-authored a book in Italian about writing for the web. |
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Amy Kamala | |
Amy is a core contributor. She’s a big advocate of Women getting into tech, and that’s what her WordCamp session was centered around.
She discovered WordPress when she was working as a technical support at a web hosting service. She stuck with the platform ever since! |
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Ana Cirujano | |
Ana is a core contributor to WordPress. She’s been super active with WordCamps since 2017. For a couple of years, she even attended 13 camps per year in different locations around the world.
She’s got 15+ years of experience in web design and branding. |
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Andrija Radojev | |
Andrija has taken different flavors in the IT field – websites, video games, information systems, etc. He’s been involved with WP for 6 years now and has experience in developing sites in different niches.
His specialty is WooCommerce development. |
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Anna Moragli | |
Anna is a founder of Search Magic and an SEO Consultant. Her expertise lies in SEO, so naturally, she’s more focused on WP performance and optimization.
She’s got extensive experience with ECommerce and working with SMBs. In October 2022, Anna was included in the Forbes 30 Under 30 GR list.
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Anne McCarthy | |
Anne is a Product Wrangler at Automattic. She speaks about diversity and inclusivity in the WordPress community, and that’s what her session was centered around in the WordCamp.
She’s also been the co-release coordinator and co-core editor for several WordPress versions. |
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Ant Miller | |
Ant’s web development career spans over 23 years. For 8 years, he’s been using WordPress. He’s worked on websites of varied sizes and delivered several successful projects. Currently, he’s the Director of Client Engagement at Crowd Favorite. | |
Ben May | |
Ben May is the Managing Director of The Code Company. It’s a WordPress agency. Besides that, Ben is a WordPress enthusiast and is also a core contributor to the platform. He also offers consulting services. | |
Bernhard Kau | |
Bernhard jumped into the WordPress scene in 2009. Since then, he’s been an active member of the community. He’s a core contributor and currently works as a Senior Full Stack WordPress Developer at Inpsyde GmbH
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Birgit Olzem | |
Birgit adds to the energetic aura of the WordPress community. She’s been using WP since its conception and has seen the platform evolve over time. Currently, she’s self-employed and offers consultation services as a WordPress specialist. | |
Bud Kraus | |
Bud has been teaching web design since 1998. He’s got students in more than 80 countries in the world. WOW!
Being a traditional coder, he was reluctant to try WordPress initially. But now, he’s a master when it comes to this platform. He’s very active in educating people about WordPress and also got featured as a Person of WordPress on wordpress.org in 2022. |
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Carolina Nymark | |
Carolina is a core team member and a core contributor to the platform. She got involved with WordPress back in 2008 and has made significant contributions ever since.
Currently, she’s working at Yoast as a WordPress Contributor. |
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Carrie Dils | |
Carrie has 2 decades of web development experience rolled up her sleeves. She’s worked on a variety of WP projects, some even for Fortune 500 companies.
She teaches people about WordPress via LinkedIn and her blogs. Currently, she’s a freelancer. |
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Cathi Bosco | |
Cathi is a WordPress core contributor. She’s big on the UX and UI side of things and loves all things web designing.
Currently, she’s working at Pantheon as a Senior Manager of UX Research/Design. |
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Chaya Oosterbroek | |
Chaya is presently the COO at Yoast. She’s advocates for equality and inclusiveness in the WordPress community. She also made adjustments to the Yoasts’ HR guidelines to make them more inclusive. | |
Chris Lubkert |
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Chris loves WordPress. He’s a core contributor to the platform. Chris was formerly working with Atomattic, where he invested in WP businesses on behalf of the company.
Now, he works with Extendify – A company he co-founded. |
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Constanze Kratel | |
Constanze works as the Senior Developer Relations Manager at BigCommerce. Her area of focus remains on using WP for Ecommerce. She’s also big on keeping up with the technologies.
Interestingly, her WordCamp session also revolved around WordPress and AI.
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Daniel Kanchev | |
Daniel is a WP enthusiast and a core contributor to the platform.
Currently, he’s working at SiteGround as a Director of Product Development and is leading the company’s AI initiatives. |
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David Artiss | |
David is an active member of the WordPress community for 12 years. He’s also a core contributor and has volunteered at various WordCamps.
David is also a musician. Currently, he works as a Lead for the WordPress VIP Customer Success Support Team (EMEA) at Automattic. |
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Dawid Urbański | |
Dawid is a full-stack developer who’s been making websites since 2010. He’s a certified Codeable Expert.
He’s a WP enthusiast. A fan, if you may. |
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Fellyph Cintra | |
Fellyph got into the WordPress game in 2008. He’s got extensive experience working for agencies. Also, he’s a core contributor to the platform.
Currently, he’s working as a Front-end Lead at Digitale Methode.
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Gabriella Laster | |
Gabriella is a WordPress enthusiast and works as the Senior Product Marketer at Elementor. She’s excited about covering Elementor and talked about the role of AI in WordPress at the WordCamp.
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Giulia Laco | |
Optimizing websites is her game!
Giulia Laco has been in the web development scene since the mid-‘90s. Eventually, she specialized into web typography and web fonts. She works as a freelance developer and designer. |
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Hristo Pandjarov | |
Hristo is all about SEO, themes, and plugins. He’s also a WordPress core contributor. He’s also developed some award-winning WP plugins.
Currently, he works as the Manager of WordPress Initiatives at SiteGround.com. He loves sharing his WP knowledge and regularly speaks at WordCamps. |
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Ivan Popov | |
Ivan got into building websites back in 2003. He excels at HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP and MySQL.
He’s worked on several WordPress projects. Currently, he’s the CEO of Vipe Studio and works there under the title of WordPress Magician. |
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Ivo Oltmans | |
Ivo champions the art of selling and has vast experience in B2B SaaS.
He’s currently working as the Head of Sales & Business Development Head of Sales & Business Development at Quaderno. |
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James Dominy | |
James has an interesting personality and a unique career path. From teaching English in Taiwan to joining WPEngine, the journey is interesting.
He’s also worked at Amazon. He loves to share his knowledge and loves to tell people to worry less and live more. |
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James Giroux | |
James has an experience of over 15 years with WordPress. He’s a true WP enthusiast who loves sharing his knowledge and experience with others.
He’s the cofounder of TeamWP. |
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Jamie Madden | |
James is a passionate WP expert. He’s an active member of the community and also helps people via different Slack channels.
He’s building on WordPress since the time when plugins and themes were a pretty new concept. His expertise lies with online marketplaces. He’s the founder of WC Vendors Marketplace. |
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Javier Salinas | |
Javier has given more than 2 solid decades of his life to designing. He’s all about visual arts and UI/UX with a flair for design, photography, cinema, etc.
At the WordCamp, he talked about using WP to build immersive experiences for the metaverse, which is an interesting dimension to look at!
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Jessica Lyschik | |
Jessica started building on WordPress in around 2005. She’s a core team member and a core contributor to the platform. Jessica is currently working as a Frontend & WordPress Developer at Extendify.
She also loves practicing piano and taking walks in nature. |
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Jonas Andrijauskas | |
Jonas is passionate about software development. He’s an active community member and has also assisted with organizing WordCamps.
He works as a Senior Software Engineering Manager at GoDaddy. |
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Jonathan Bossenger | |
Jonathan is a core team member and a core contributor to the platform. His “can do” attitude is why people love him in the community. Jonathan has a passion for WordPress.
Since 2022, he has been a full-time member of the WordPress Training Team. The team is sponsored by Automattic. |
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José Ramón “Moncho” Padrón García | |
Jose takes a keen look at the WordPress landscape. He’s a Country Manager for SiteGround (Spain).
He’s also a sci-fi addict and enjoys horse riding and metal music. |
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Josepha Haden Chomphosy | |
Josepha has a stellar WP profile. She’s a core contributor and a core team member for the platform. She has led the WordPress project as an Executive Director since 2019.
Her current job title at Automattic is Division Lead. |
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Junko Nukaga | |
Junko is a core contributor to WordPress. She has an interesting life – she lives away from the hustle and bustle of the city on a small secluded island in Japan.
She’s a freelance web designer and a director of a non-profit library. She’s also assisted with organizing several WordCamps around Japan. |
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Laura Elizabeth | |
Laura is a designer by profession. She loves helping businesses improve their workflows and designs. She’s founded 3 digital products.
Laura is an active member of the community, and in this WordCamp, she talked about how freelancers can better the client onboarding process.
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Lazar Bulatovic | |
Lazar is a public speaker and runs a public speaking and presentation skills agency. He’s blind, but that doesn’t get in his way to make a mark on the WP community.
Lazar had his share of hardships, but he crushed the barriers and paved his path to success. He also provides accessibility consulting services for websites and software solutions through user testing. |
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Lesley Molecke | |
Lesley is a WordPress enthusiast. She runs a WordPress agency that exclusively works with non-profits in the United States.
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Louise Towler | |
Louise is someone to follow in the digital marketing scene. She’s the owner and founder of a WordPress agency that also offers technical SEO and performance solutions for clients.
She’s got more than 30 years of experience with website and software development. |
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Lovro Mrsic | |
Lovro is a high school student with a drive to do something big. He’s working on projects that foster customer collaborations.
He regularly speaks at various conferences and is also a columnist for several business publications. |
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Luigi Teschio | |
Luigi is a strong supporter of open source and loves to share his knowledge with the community.
One of his areas of expertise includes using site editors to transform the ecommerce experiences of customers. Currently, Luigi serves as the Software craftsman at Automattic.
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Luis Herranz | |
Luis is a WordPress core contributor. He’s had an interesting career trajectory – initially worked at recording studios, then got into open-source in 2014. In 2015, he co-founded Frontity – a framework to build WordPress themes using React.
Currently, he works at Automattic as a Code Wrangler. |
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Maestro Stevens | |
He’s a marketer by profession. Maestro loves digital marketing and champions various areas of the field, such as marketing strategy, branding strategy, web development, etc.
He’s got 8+ years of experience in the field. |
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Mainul Kabir Aion | |
Kabir is a data storyteller and marketing strategist. He’s got a solid love for the WordPress community and never leaves any opportunity to make a contribution.
He regularly organizes meetups in Dhaka since 2017. He’s also been active with different WordCamps. Currently, he serves as the CMO at Staff Asia. |
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Marco Berrocal | |
Marco is a superbly talented WP developer and never misses the opportunity to share whatever he’s learned.
He’s always enthusiastic about WordCamps and delivers priceless information when he’s on the stage. |
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Matias Ventura | |
Matias is a core team member and a core contributor to WordPress. His contributions to the platform are many. For example, his work on the Gutenberg editor allows people to do wonders with content creation and offers a stunning editing experience.
Matias is truly a gem that the WP community dearly cherishes! |
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Merary Alvarado | |
She’s an accessibility evangelist. Merary is also a podcaster, speaker, and pet lover. She’s got more than 12 years of experience in executing, developing, and leading Accessibility processes in multiple digital industries.
She’s the subject matter expert on Accessibility! |
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Michael Burridge | |
Michael is a Developer Relations Wrangler at Automattic. He’s also the core contributor to the WP platform. He’s had a long career in web development and now plays a key role in guiding and mentoring other developers.
He’s an active member of the community and also helps with organizing local WordCamps. |
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Mitchell Leber | |
Mitchell is a digital designer by profession. He currently works at Level Level.
He’s big on the UX and makes all designs, keeping that aspect in mind. He believes in creating magical designs that connect with the users. |
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Myles Lagolago-Craig | |
Myles 3-decade-long career. There’s something for everyone in the community that they can learn from his experience.
Currently, he is the CEO of XWP – an enterprise-oriented WordPress agency.
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Nahuai Badiola | |
Nahuai Badiola is a WordPress developer who believes in giving back to the community. He’s been regularly involved with WordCamps, either as a speaker or an attendee. Besides WP, he’s interested in Travel, Podcasting, Neuroscience, and TV Shows. |
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Niels Lange | |
Niels is a core contributor to the WP platform. He’s been using WordPress since 2005. He works as the JavaScript Padawan in Automattic and loves to contribute to the WordPress community.
He’s been putting in regular contributions at different WordCamps since 2015. |
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Nora Ferreiros | |
Nora is a Barcelona-based UX/UI designer. She works freelance for the most part and is a prominent part of the WP community. She’s also offered her design services for several WordCamps.
She works hard to strengthen the WordPress communities, and that was also the main theme of her talk at the WordCamp. |
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Oliver Sild | |
Oliver is the CEO and co-founder of Patchstack. He’s an active member of the community.
As a hobby and to keep the local tech scene alive, Oliver regularly organizes cyber security competitions (CTFs). He’s also opened a hackerspace in his hometown. |
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Patricia Brun Torre | |
Patricia has been a co-organizer of WordPress meetups in Geneva since 2013. She’s also actively involved with the WordCamps. She loves to give back to the WordPress community and misses no chance to make a contribution.
She talks a lot about being a part of the WP community, even if you don’t know how to code. |
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Patrick Posner | |
Patrick’s WP expertise lies in plugin development and using tools to get work done. He’s a WP enthusiast with a solid grasp on PHP and the typical frontend stack. | |
Pedro Crespo | |
Pedro is a web developer and an active member of the WP community. He’s experimented with different platforms before he settled for WordPress.
He’s spoken at several WordCamps and shared his valuable learnings. Currently, he’s working as a Developer at Mowomo. |
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Petya Petkova | |
Petya is passionate about WP. Or as she puts it – “WordPress is in my blood, and my DNA is a full-stack developer ever since 2013.”
She loves to solve problems using WP and likes to build unique websites using the platform. Petya also teaches at SoftAcademy, which is the oldest software institute in Bulgaria. |
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Rahul Bansal | |
Rahul’s journey with WP started back in 2007 when he used the platform to start blogging. Since then, he’s been loving it and has used it to create several websites.
He’s the founder and the CEO of rtCamp. |
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Rian Rietveld | |
Rian is a core contributor to the platform. She is an accessibility specialist and a web developer. She never misses a chance to share her knowledge at different WordCamps.
She’s also a gardening enthusiast. Currently, she’s working as a Web accessibility specialist at Level Level. |
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Robert Richardson | |
Robert has a rich career in the tech scene. Before he founded PeakZebra in 2020, he worked at director levels in the tech security scene.
Now, he leads PeakZebra, where he builds tools for WordPress sites. |
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Rocío Valdivia | |
Rocio is a core contributor to WordPress. She loves open source and is also a Buddypress developer.
Currently, she working as Community Wrangler at Automattic. Her quote for everyone to learn – “Future is cooperation, not competition.” |
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Roger Rosweide | |
Roger is a big believer in the WordPress platform. He’s an agency expert with years of experience rolling up his sleeves.
At the WordCamp, he spoke primarily to the agency owners and how they should approach the future for better growth and results. |
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Roslyn Lavery | |
Roslyn became a part of the WP ecosystem back in 2009. She’s got extensive knowledge of WP and loves to share it with people around her. She’s been working on WooCommerce partnerships for a couple of years now.
Besides open source, she loves skiing, rowing, and playing strategy board games. |
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Sarah Galantini | |
Sarah’s experience with WordPress is almost a decade long. She’s a creative coder and loves to experiment with the platform.
Currently, she’s working as the lead Frontend Developer at Gnist Design.
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Shane Pearlman | |
Shane’s relationship with the WP community is almost two decades long now. He’s worked with some of the largest brands in the world and spoken at several conferences around the world.
Currently, he’s the CEO, Product Manager, and Project Manager at Modern Tribe Inc. |
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Silvio Endruhn | |
Silvio is a core contributor to the platform and has a really technical background. He’s a freelance developer and website designer. His expertise spans a lot of techs, such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Vue.js, React, TypeScript, Node.js, etc.
He also offers SEA and SEO services to his clients.
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Siobhan McKeown | |
She’s basically one of the founding members of WordCamp Europe. She’s also a long-term contributor to the WP project.
Siobhan is the COO of Human Made – a WordPress agency. She’s also an active member of the community and actively advocates for digital life and remote work. |
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Sujay Pawar | |
Sujay Pawar is the CEO and co-founder of Brainstorm Force. He’s the guy behind several popular WP products, such as the Astra theme, Starter templates, CartFlows, etc.
Sujay also works with Automattic as an advisor. |
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Taeke Reijenga | |
Taeke’s love for WP makes him wear many hats all at once. He’s a very active member of the community and helps others at any opportunity that he gets.
He’s also the founder and the CRO of Level Level. |
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Tess Coughlan-Allen | |
Tess is a creative person with mastery over content writing and strategy. She specializes in WordPress and WooCommerce.
Currently, Tess is working as the Head of Growth at Atomic Smash. |
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Thelma Mutete | |
Thelma is a core contributor and a core team member for WordPress. She’s been volunteering and organizing WordCamps for the past 5 years. She loves to talk about inclusivity in the community and actively advocates for that in the community.
Currently, she’s working at Automattic. |
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Thierry Muller | |
Thierry is a core contributor to the WP platform and a true WP enthusiast. He’s built WP products and open-source projects for a great chunk of his career.
Currently, he’s working as a Staff Software Engineering Manager at Google. |
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Thijs Buijs | |
Thjis lives a pretty balanced life. He talks a lot about building sustainable WP communities, and that’s what his session at the WordCamp was about.
He’s the founder of Yellowline. |
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Thomas Roberts | |
Thomas is a WP core contributor and an active member of the WP community. He loves JS and works as a JavaScript engineer for Automattic.
He’s been working with WP since 2013. |
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Tim Nash | |
Tim is a core contributor to the platform and a WordPress security expert. He’s been using WP for more than 15 years now.
He also runs a blog where he shares a lot about security and WP. Also, his humorous personality is well reflected in his writings! |
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Tor-Björn Fjellner | |
Tor-Björn Fjellner is a core contributor to the platform. He’s a WP enthusiast and is always looking to collaborate with people to give back to the WP community.
He’s got vast experience in the tech scene, and there’s surely something for everyone to learn from him. |
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Tycho de Valk | |
Tycho is just 16 and has already bagged 3 years of experience as a WordPress support engineer.
He’s still a high school student but is already running a web development agency – Filius. |
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Vassilena Valchanova | |
Vassilena is a digital marketer and strategist with 15 years of experience in the field. She also loves to share her experience via her blog.
Currently, she’s working as a Digital Strategist for Enhancv. |
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Vikas Singhal | |
Vikas is a programmer and an entrepreneur. He jumped into the WP ecosystem 5 years back and has been an active member since. He’s done extensive work with plugin development.
He’s also worked on plugin and theme projects backed by the WP parent company – Automattic. |
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Viola Gruner | |
Viola is a marketing enthusiast and loves what she does. She’s is on the more creative side of the WP platform.
Currently, she’s working for Inpsyde as Head of Marketing. |
Catch Up With the Activities of 2023 Wordcamps →→ Here’s a List of the Wordcamp Speakers With Links to Their Sessions!
Speakers of WordCamp US 2023
WordCamp US took place in National Harbor, Maryland, August 24-26th. Let’s see who attended the event as a speaker!
Abby Bowman | |
Abby has had an interesting career progression. She works at NASA as a Web Modernization Lead and looks out for their digital endeavors. Abby is also actively involved in several UX/UI and open-source communities.
She’s always on the lookout for opportunities through which she can give back to the WP and other digital communities.
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Aida Correa-Jackson | |
Aida is big on creativity and loves to share her creative side with the WordPress ecosystem. You know how she got into WordPress?
“True Story – I originally had my website on a different platform and one morning, as I was waking from my sleep, I heard: “Move your website to WordPress” She’s a regular at WordCamps around the world and is currently working at LoveBuilt Life. |
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Andrea Silas | |
Andrea is the VP of Technical Support for DreamHost. She’s an active advocate of getting women into tech leadership.
Her experience spans over a vast period of 20 years, and she loves to be a productive member of the WordPress community.
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Andrew Nacin | |
Andrew is an active member of the community and mentors many of the community leaders. He has a technical background and extensive experience in the field.
He has also served as a Lead Developer of WordPress. |
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Helen Hou-Sandí | |
Helen is an impactful member of the community. She’s very sound with technical WP knowledge and has also served as a Lead Developer for WordPress.
She’s very active with her WP endeavors and never misses an opportunity to help members of the community. |
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Antonio Sejas | |
Antonio is a software engineer and a WP enthusiast. He’s done his Masters in AI and worked on reputable projects such as the Vimeo plugin.
Currently, he’s working for Automattic. |
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Aurooba Ahmed | |
Aurooba Ahmed is a web developer and a core contributor to the platform. She works with several technologies, such as PHP, JS, React, HTML, CSS, etc.
She also loves to be an active contributor to the community and leaves no opportunity that can help her make a positive impact. |
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Courtney Patubo Kranzke | |
Courtney has been involved with WP since 2004, when it was just a year-old baby. She’s an active contributor to the platform and loves to work with open source.
Currently, she’s working as a Community Education Manager at Automattic. |
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Danielle Zarcaro | |
Danielle holds a web development experience of over a decade. He loves to play around with WordPress tech and get new things done. He’s the founder of Kinetic Iris, a company he created in 2012. He also works as a web developer there.
Danielle is an active advocate of inclusivity in the community. He also supports learning and is always ready to help whenever someone needs it. |
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David Dashifen Kees | |
David is a full-stack developer at Georgetown University. They are an active community member and have been involved with WP since its version 3.0.
David has been primarily focused on plugin development for a significant chunk of their career.
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Destiny Kanno | |
Destiny is the Community Education Manager at Automattic. She became a part of the community around 5 years back but has been an active member since.
She loves to collaborate with members of the community and is pretty in several online communities. |
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Dmitry Mayorov | |
Dmitry is an expert front-end engineer. He’s a core contributor to the platform and loves to build themes and plugins.
Currently, he’s working as a Designer at ThemePatio. |
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Femi Lewis | |
Femi is a content marketer by profession. She’s the owner of Femi Writes – a content marketing company.
She’s been writing professionally for 20 years now. She’s also well-versed in SEO concepts! |
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Femy Praseeth | |
Femy is a core contributor and a core WP member. She set up her blog in 2015 and has been working on it ever since. She’s a self-taught HTML & CSS programmer as well.
Besides her technical work, she loves singing, reading and photography. |
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Gary McPherson | |
Gary loves technology and has a 2-decade long career in the field. He’s delivered solid work for a wide array of projects.
He is truly passionate about WP and the tech scene and works hard to help the members of the African diaspora grow their tech careers. He also offers consultation services for several Black tech communities. |
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Gen Herres | |
Gen is a very active member of the WP scene. She’s always engaging in online communities and always offers encouragement to designers and developers when they need it.
She’s the organizer of the Baltimore WP meetup group and owns Anphira LLC.
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George H. Woodard III | |
George is a marketing consultant and a WP developer. This unique combination allows him to be on the technical and creative side of things all at once.
He’s worked and supported a massive number of 3000 websites all through his work journey. George believes in living a balanced life, and when away from the screen, he enjoys cooking, reading, and occasionally a cigar.
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Hari Shanker | |
Hari simply loves WordPress. He’s a man of many talents and his interests include music, writing, reading, blogging, etc.
Open source really excites him, and he believes that the open web can contribute to the world becoming a better place. Hari currently works as an Open Source Program Manager at Automattic. |
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Henri Helvetica | |
Henri is a developer by procession. Over time, he swayed his interests into performance engineering and user experience. He’s involved in several meetups throughout the year or working for a conference.
He’s big on leading a healthy life and also enjoys running. |
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J.J. Toothman | |
J.J. Toothman is a well-known name in the digital landscape. He’s had a flavor of many things in the digital scene – developing PWAs, mobile apps, project management, etc.
He founded Lone Rock Point in 2016. His agency specializes in working with the govt. Sector. |
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Jeffrey Paul | |
Jeffrey is a core team member and a core contributor to the platform. He entered the WP ecosystem in 2007 and absolutely loved the platform. Since then, he’s been an ardent fan!
Currently, he works as the Director of Open Source at 10up. |
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Jo Minney | |
Jo is a talented WP developer from Australia. She loves WordPress because of its community and because it’s open source. She feels well belonged to the community as well.
She currently works with House Digital as their Digital Happiness Manager. Jo also offers consultancy to small Australian businesses under the Australian Small Business Advisory Service Digital Solutions Program. |
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Justin Kopepasah | |
Justin WordPress’s journey began in 2008. Besides being impressed by the platform, he also loved the community (which was still developing), and that attracted him. He is proficient with JS, TypeScript, PHP, etc.
Justin is a core contributor to the platform and is always ready to help the community in any way possible. He’s also a big fan of AI. Currently, he works as a Lead Software Engineer at LendEDU. |
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Ken Liu | |
Ken is an American author. His career transition is interesting to look at. He was a corporate lawyer, a litigation consultant and also worked as a software engineer. Now, he’s a full-time writer.
His vast experience gave him so much knowledge, which he’s always ready to share with the community. Some interesting topics that he talks about are the mathematics of origami, futurism, and machine-augmented creativity.
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Kurtis Shaner | |
Kurtis is a full-stack developer and serves as the Technical Director at WDG. He worked on a variety of projects in the WP domain. Kurtis loves designing as well and is big on UI/UX.
He also has expertise in API integration and Databases. |
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Michelle Schulp Hunt | |
Michelle is a core contributor to the platform. She loves building websites for her clients and also depicts data and analytics to them via presentations.
She’s an active member of the WP community. You can expect to find her quite regularly at WordCamps. She owns Marktime Media and works there as a Graphic Designer. |
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Peter Wilson | |
Peter is a core team member and a core contributor to WordPress. He loves the community and doesn’t miss opportunities to catch up with his WP colleagues.
Currently, he’s working at 10up as a Lead Engineer. Off the screen, he’s a big fan of musical theater. |
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Ray Mitchell | |
Ray owns a marketing agency. He works there as a Marketing Consultant, mostly for local small and medium businesses and non-profit organizations. He also puts in the effort to help elevate the Black professionals and get them involved in the WP scene.
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Ross Minney | |
Ross is a passionate techie who’s got a solid grasp on WordPress. He’s also the founder of House Technology Group. His company is a core contributor to the platform.
Ross is an active advocate for mental health and inclusivity in the WP community.
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Ryan Smith | |
Ryan got into WordPress in 2005. He loves the platform and is pretty enthusiastic about contributing to the community.
He primarily works with PHP. Ryan is also an active member of The Motley Fool.
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Sean Blakeley | |
Sean got into the WP sean in 2006. She started building pretty basic sites using WP but with time he honed his skills and delivered some enterprise-level projects. He’s got super valuable experience with WordPress.
Currently, he’s working as the Technical Director at American Eagle. |
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Shambi Broome | |
Shambi is a web developer and an ardent WP fan. She loves to code and deliver great work to the clients. She is super active in the community. In fact, she also motivates students to go for computer scientist and identifies new opportunities for them.
She founded JMB Designs in 2004. |
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Simon Willison | |
Simson is the data and SQL guy. He loves open source and uses the tech to build data tools.
Interesting fact – he’s also a co-creator of the Django Web Framework. |
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Steve Jones | |
Steve loves WP. He is the owner and CTO of Equalize Digital and specializes in delivering all sorts of custom websites to clients.
He also keeps experimenting with the platform and tries to find better ways to get things done! |
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Sumner Davenport | |
Sumner has been a website designer since 1997. She got her hands on WordPress in 2008 and hasn’t lost touch since then.
Besides the WP community, she’s also an active member and supporter of several disability organizations. Currently, she works as a Specialist in Web Accessibility at Sumner M Davenport & Assoc, LLC. |
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Tammie Lister | |
Tammie is a core team member and a core contributor to WordPress. Her career trajectory is a mix and match of design, development, and even psychology.
She has a burning passion for open source and actively helps people in the community grow. |
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Vajaah E Parker | |
Vajaah shares a passion for web design and development. She has honed her craft over time and uses self-learned strategies to launch digital networks for enterprise organizations.
She currently works as the Executive Vice President at WDG. |
The Impact of These WordPress Influencers
These influencers are contributing to the community in one way or another. Each of them is pushing the community forward in their own capacity.
On the one hand, we have technical members who contribute to the core and develop themes and plugins. On the other hand, we’ve got people who work hard for the better mental health of community members and advocate for inclusivity.
So, the contributions of these influencers are many. They are practically driving the WordPress scene. In any capacity that they can.
As a result, the WordPress ecosystem is HUGE!!!
Here are some stats to give you an idea of the magnitude of the platform:
- WordPress holds a 63.2% share of the CMS market.
- WordPress has more than 60,000 plugins.
- WordPress websites dominate SERPs the most.
Interesting right? WordPress is growing as both – a platform and a community. If you want to be a part of it, all that’s needed is for you to get started!
How to Connect with WordPress Influencers
There are several ways to connect with these influencers.
1. WordCamps: Many of the above-mentioned influencers are regulars at WordCamps. You can just look out at the list of upcoming WC speakers and look for specific speakers.
2. Social Media: Almost all the influencers are present on social media and quite active there. You can reach out to them there. I’ve also attached links to their social media accounts to make things easier for you.
3. Email: You can definitely leave emails to your favorite influencers and connect with them via that route.
Summary
WordCamps and its influencers are a significant part of the WordPress community.
Many of them have literally dedicated decades to the platform, and there’s so much you can learn from their journeys. So, keep these people on your radar if you want to improve your WordPress skills or even if you want to become a part of the community.
Connecting with these people will definitely be helpful for your WordPress journeys!
Saad Khan
Muhammad Saad Khan is a Director of Product Marketing at Cloudways (by DigitalOcean), a Growth Hacker extraordinaire, and a force to be reckoned with on the table tennis court. He's spent a decade building innovative customer-led growth strategies that helped Cloudways grow from 0 to 89,000 customers & is a regular at WordCamp events worldwide.