Firebase Summit | Speakers

Home
Firebase Summit
Speakers

Stay organized with collections Save and categorize content based on your preferences.

Speakers

Francis Ma

Director, Product Management

Francis Ma

Director, Product Management

Francis leads the Firebase product management and design teams. Prior to his current role, he was a PM lead on Android, focusing on building the Android developer ecosystem. Before joining Google in 2011, Francis was an entrepreneur and tech startup co-founder. Prior to that, he was a professional software developer. Outside of building Firebase, Francis loves playing ice hockey, spending time with his family and aspires to be a chef someday!

Derek Phillips

Engineering Lead, Firebase

Derek Phillips

Engineering Lead, Firebase

Derek has worked for Google in Canada for over 13 years. As part of a team of two, he helped found the effort that would become Firebase at Google and has been deeply involved ever since, managing teams in every part of Firebase around the world. Before Firebase, he developed for, and managed, many teams in mobile including Gmail, Google Maps, and Shopping. Outside of Firebase, he leads Google's efforts for STEM education in Canada. He also has 3 wonderful kids (aged 9, 7 and 4) who occupy all of his free time.

Tali Sason

Engineering Manager

Tali Sason

Engineering Manager

Tali is a software engineering leader at Google, where she coaches the talented teams of engineers building Firebase app quality and growth products. She also serves as the Google Cambridge site lead, helping ensure the office is a respectful and inclusive place. Before joining Google via acquisition, Tali worked on Crashlytics at Twitter where she helped create Twitter Women. Prior to that, Tali was a senior engineering manager at Wayfair where she founded Wayfair Labs. When she's not working with and for developers, you might find Tali spending time with her family, playing with her two dogs or eating way too much candy.

David East

Developer Advocate

David East

Developer Advocate

David has been a Developer Advocate at Firebase for 6 years. He's big fan of web development, design, and coffee.

Frank van Puffelen

Firebase Engineer

Frank van Puffelen

Firebase Engineer

Frank (or Puf) is an engineer for Firebase at Google, and has been the host of the Firebase Summit for the past 5 years. He helps developers build extraordinary apps that use Firebase as their back-end. If you've ever asked a Firebase question on StackOverflow, you've probably met Frank already.

Melissa Lopez

Software Engineer

Melissa Lopez

Software Engineer

Melissa is a software engineer working on Firebase Performance Monitoring. Before joining Firebase, she worked on Daydream to develop augmented reality experiences. This summer, she was a teacher for Google's Computer Science Summer Institute, an introduction to computer science for graduating high school seniors — especially students from historically underrepresented groups in the field. She enjoys baking big batches of cookies from her small New York City apartment.

Megha Bangalore

Engineering Manager

Megha Bangalore

Engineering Manager

Megha is an engineering lead at Google working on making Firebase awesome. Her career has been focused on backend engineering, from building a highly distributed log management and SIEM platform at Sumo Logic, to working on distributed systems at Twitter and then Google. Her number one focus is to help Firebase developers securely engage with their end-users.

Todd Hansen

Software Engineer

Todd Hansen

Software Engineer

Todd has been working on Firebase Cloud Messaging for the past 11 years focusing on performance, reliability, and scalability. Before Google, Todd helped build a county scale high performance wireless network. He enjoys spending time with his family, hiking, woodworking, and amateur radio.

Ke Deng

Product Manager

Ke Deng

Product Manager

Ke is a product manager on Firebase working on various products, including Firebase Hosting. Outside of work, she enjoys making art, tending to her plants, and aspiring to be a trapeze artist.

Michael Bleigh

Engineering Manager

Michael Bleigh

Engineering Manager

Michael is an engineer and entrepreneur who currently leads teams for Firebase Hosting, Firebase Extensions, and Cloud Functions for Firebase. Michael has been deeply engaged in the developer space for more than a decade, from creating open source projects like OmniAuth to founding developer-focused startup Divshot. He is passionate about the web platform and making developers' lives easier each and every day.

Jon Skrip

Software Engineer

Jon Skrip

Software Engineer

Jon is a software engineer on Firebase's Growth platform, with a specific focus on A/B Testing and Remote Config services. His career before Google consisted primarily of backend and systems engineering work, with an emphasis on cloud computing and distributed architecture. Jon has a passion for learning, and is currently studying Information Security topics in his free time. Outside of work, Jon likes to hike, ski, and generally wander aimlessly through nature.

Rachel Myers

Developer Programs Engineer

Rachel Myers

Developer Programs Engineer

Rachel is an engineer on Firebase Security Rules, Cloud Eventing, and Cloud Policy. At Firebase she focuses on helping developers build secure systems that protect users' privacy. On Google Cloud, she contributes to the CloudEvents Specification. Before joining Google, Rachel founded Opsolutely, was an engineer at GitHub, and was an engineer at online retailer ModCloth. In her free time she enjoys backpacking and board games.

James Daniels

Developer Programs Engineer

James Daniels

Developer Programs Engineer

James is a full-stack developer with a passion for Open Source. He works on Firebase at Google where he helps with Developer Relations, documentation, workshops, and maintenance of the Firebase SDKs.

Minko Gechev

Developer Programs Engineer

Minko Gechev

Developer Programs Engineer

Minko is an engineer in the Angular team at Google. For the past years, he has been building open source tools for static analysis, libraries, and frameworks. Before joining Google, he was a co-founder and CTO at the EdTech company Rhyme.com, which in 2019 was acquired by Coursera.

Malcolm Deck

Software Engineer

Malcolm Deck

Software Engineer

Malcolm is a software engineer on the Firebase Access team. He's been working on Firebase Auth since just after its launch in 2016, primarily on the Android SDK. In his free time, Malcolm plays video games, chess, and Ultimate.

Sam Olsen

Software Engineer

Sam Olsen

Software Engineer

Sam is a software engineer on the Firebase Access team. He's been at Firebase for three years and has worked on a range of projects including the Firebase Console, the Realtime Database, and Firebase Rules. When not at his desk job, Sam enjoys hiking, golfing, and reading when he can't go outside.

Yuchen Shi

Software Engineer

Yuchen Shi

Software Engineer

Yuchen works on Firebase Emulator Suite and is passionate about local-first Firebase development. Outside of work, Yuchen works on open source projects, plays the piano, and cooks delicious food like curry and pasta.

Todd Kerpelman

Developer Advocate

Todd Kerpelman

Developer Advocate

Todd is a Developer Advocate at Google, which means he primarily spends his time making YouTube videos and has somehow convinced Google to pay him for it. Todd recently completed a 500-day streak in solving the New York Times crossword puzzle, which is a pretty good sign he needs to get out of the house more often.

Yuri Grinshteyn

Site Reliability Engineer, CRE

Yuri Grinshteyn

Site Reliability Engineer, CRE

Yuri works with Google Cloud Platform customers to help them design, architect, build, and operate reliable applications and services and advocates for SRE principles and practices. He occasionally writes code in Node.js, Python, and Go and likes to play video games on the train ride to work.

Rachel Saunders

Technical Writer

Rachel Saunders

Technical Writer

Rachel is a tech writer for Firebase, primarily focusesd on Firebase Android SDKs, Hosting, Performance Monitoring, and AdMob, as well as getting started with Firebase. Rachel comes from a teaching background and loves to help folks succeed at new endeavours!

Sumit Chandel

Developer Advocate

Sumit Chandel

Developer Advocate

Sumit works as a Senior Developer Advocate on Firebase, focusing on developer outreach both digitally and in-person by presenting at conferences and meetups globally. Previously, Sumit managed the AdWords API advocacy team, worked on Android Wear and Google Play Instant, and was a Developer Programs Engineer on the Google Web Toolkit. Prior to joining Google, Sumit was a Software Engineer at Motorola, Optimal Payments and Westfield Insurance Group.

Ibrahim Ulukaya

Developer Programs Engineer

Ibrahim Ulukaya

Developer Programs Engineer

Ibrahim helps developers make great apps with Firebase ML and AppQuality tools. He is passionate about iOS development and has published multiple apps. He's been working on Firebase for the past 5 years and previously worked on YouTube. Prior to that he was a Big Data Engineer and founded multiple startups. If not at work, you'll find him on a bike, kiteboard or playing beach volleyball.

Maple Kuo

Senior UX Designer

Maple Kuo

Senior UX Designer

Maple is a Senior UX Designer and has worked on various Firebase products including Crashlytics, Performance Monitoring, and App Distribution. She previously worked at Twitter, where she was part of the Fabric team. Outside of improving user experiences, Maple enjoys cooking, walking around Boston, and other activities that don't require her to stare at a screen.

Paul Ruiz

Developer Programs Engineer

Paul Ruiz

Developer Programs Engineer

Paul has a background in Android and IoT development. Outside of work he makes movie props as a hobby, and is a member of a Star Wars costuming charity where he volunteers at events as various movie characters including an Imperial Snowtrooper, X-Wing Pilot, or Tusken Raider. Before getting into tech Paul was a zookeeper, so feel free to ask any giraffe-related questions.

Patrick Martin

Developer Advocate

Patrick Martin

Developer Advocate

Patrick is a Developer Advocate on Firebase with a focus on the needs of game developers. He has over a decade of experience shipping phone and tablet games and robotic toys, and now spends his time helping game developers build connected dynamic games.

Sam Stern

Developer Program Engineer

Sam Stern

Developer Program Engineer

Sam helps developers make great apps using Firebase and Google APIs. He is particularly passionate about Android development and has published multiple Android apps. Sam maintains a number of open-source libraries and sample applications on Github to help teach best practices and speed up development. He's been working on Firebase for the past two years and previously worked on Google Sign In, Google Play Games, Project Tango, and more.

Karen Zeng

Software Engineer

Karen Zeng

Software Engineer

Karen is a Software Engineer working on Firebase Growth products, primarily Firebase Remote Config. Prior to Firebase she worked on building advertiser tools at Instagram. Outside of work she enjoys traveling and photography, and can often be found exploring the streets of San Francisco on her skateboard.

Steve Wilber

Engineering Manager

Steve Wilber

Engineering Manager

Steve is an engineer working on Firebase Remote Config and A/B Testing. He was previously at Twitter where he worked on Crashlytics and was part of the team that launched Fabric. He is originally from Santa Cruz, CA where he developed a love for surfing and mountain biking. He also started his career there, working at Borland Software and building an early Java IDE called JBuilder.

Kevin Lam

Product Manager

Kevin Lam

Product Manager

Kevin is a Product Manager for Google Analytics with a focus on app measurement and enabling Firebase engagement products. He has a background in business intelligence and spends his free time hiking and climbing.