Alan Myrvold, Test Engineer (Kirkland, WA)
Alan is currently a test engineer on the Google Cloud team.
Previously, he helped test Google advertising platform products,
including Google Display Network Ad Planner and DoubleClick Bid Manager.
Prior to joining Google in 2011, Alan worked at Microsoft, Entrust and Cognos,
focusing on security, automation and performance testing.
His personal opinions on testing can be found at
http://testapprentice.com.
Alan earned a bachelor's and master's in mathematics (statistics)
from the University of Waterloo.
Amar Amte, Test TPM, Apps & Product Infra (Mountain View, CA)
Amar is currently a Test TPM on Apps & Product Infra. Previously Amar worked as a Test TPM for
Google Social team. Prior to joining Google, Amar worked as Test Engineering Manager @ Yahoo &
Kohl's and focused on building Test & Release processes along with building test automation Frameworks.
Amar earned Masters Degree in Computer Science & Maths. Amar's focus is on improving the Test & Release
culture @Google.
Andrea Dawson, Administrative Business Partner (Mountain View, CA)
Andrea is an Administrative Business Partner and has been working with engineering teams across
Google for the past 2 years with several of those teams focusing on testing. She comes to the
committee with an extensive background in event planning and an overall ‘get it done’ work
mentality with a ‘Googley’ nature. In her own words: “I’m super excited to be helping with the
GTAC conference this year and I look forward to welcoming our guests to the Sunnyvale campus on Tuesday!”.
Ankit Mehta, Test Lead and Director (Mountain View, CA)
Ankit joined Google in Dec 2003 lured by free food and an opportunity to play a role in how
Testing evolves @ Google. Over the 12+ year career at Google he has worked in many product areas
and currently leads a few Engineering Productivity teams on Cloud. Ankit is particularly
interested in pushing the limits on the balance between velocity and quality.
Ari Shamash, Troublemaker (New York, NY)
Based in New York, Ari Shamash is part of the Test Engineering / Engineering Productivity
group at Google. Focused on building developer productivity and quality automation tools for
Google's Cloud, he passionately improves product quality through better, faster, more complete,
and more automated testing. Prior to joining Google in 2010, Ari spent 11 years at
Sun Microsystems, in the Java, Utility Computing / Cloud, and Developer Tools arenas.
Prior to Sun, Ari was involved in a couple of startups in the NYC area. Ari was granted an
undergraduate and graduate degree in Computer Science from Columbia University, with a focus
on User Interface Design for Mobile Computers.
Dan Giovannelli, Software Engineer, Tools and Infrastructure (New York, NY)
Dan Giovannelli is a Software Engineer, Tools and Infrastructure at Google, where he focuses on
building test tooling for display ads. He's been a Googler for three years, and prior to that
worked in a Philadelphia-area lab studying the cognitive neuroscience of autism. His particular
area of expertise is iOS, where he enjoys digging in to the minutiae of the platform and
complaining loudly about some of Objective-C's more bizarre edges. When he isn't doing
that (though seriously, four slightly different values for NULL? I mean, really?) he likes
cooking, playing bass (poorly), brewing beer, and exploring Brooklyn.
David Aristizabal, Software Engineer, Tools and Infrastructure (New York, NY)
David joined Google in 2011 and works on Display Ads as a Software Engineer in Tools and Infrastructure,
developing automation frameworks for testing mobile ads. Prior to Google, David was a
Principal Test Engineer at Microchip Technology where he worked on test automation for
PIC Microcontrollers. He has a bachelor's degree in Computer Engineering from
McGill University, Montreal. David enjoys mentoring students who participate in
FIRST Robotics Competitions, snowboarding and macro photography.
Diego Cavalcanti, Software Engineer, Tools and Infrastructure (New York, NY)
Diego joined Google in 2013 and has worked on different teams developing release infrastructure
and testing tools to improve the productivity of engineers at Google. He has a Master's degree
in Computer Science from the Federal University of Campina Grande in Brazil, where he focused
on software evolution and maintenance. On the weekends, Diego works with New York Cares leading
volunteers to help families in need in NYC.
Kathleen Li, Tech Lead & Manager (New York, NY)
Kathleen is the Tech Lead / Manager of a Display Ads Engineering Productivity Team focused on
building frontend automated test, development, and release tools. She joined Google in September
2010 after graduating with a BSE Computer Science from Princeton. She enjoys shopping for
conference swag, artisanal donuts, Physique57 barre classes, and volunteering with the New York
Junior League in her free time.
Lesley Katzen, Test Engineer (Seattle, WA)
Lesley Katzen joined Google in 2008 as a Test Engineer. She worked in travel software out of the
Cambridge office prior to transferring to Seattle in 2013. Since then she's worked on Google's
developers console and now works to integrate Contacts and People APIs for internal clients.
Prior to Google she was a QA Engineer at ITA testing travel software, specifically airline to
airline messaging. In her spare time she's actively a huge music and travel nerd.
Madison Garcia, Software Engineer, Tools and Infrastructure (New York, NY)
Madison joined Google in 2014 and works as a Software Engineer, Tools and Infrastructure (SETI) in
Display Ads, developing automation frameworks for testing mobile ads. She has a BA in Computer
Science and Linguistics from Swarthmore College. In her free time, she enjoys cooking, reading
and swing dancing.
Matthew Halupka, Software Engineer, Tools and Infrastructure (New York, NY)
Matthew joined Google in 2013 as a Software Engineer in Tools and Infrastructure working in
Display Ads. Today, he still works in Display Ads with a focus on integration testing for
reporting systems. Prior to Google he worked for a small Department of Defense contractor as a
Systems Engineer where he developed signal translation systems. He has a BS in Mathematics and
Computer Science from Rutgers University and when not at work can usually be found in a Chipotle
enjoying a burrito bowl.
Matt Lowrie, Test Engineer (Boulder, CO)
Matt originally joined Google in 2006 as a Test Engineer for Google SketchUp in the Boulder, CO office.
Currently he works as a Test Engineer for Google Now on Android. He graduated from Cal Poly,
San Luis Obispo with a BFA in Art and Design. For fun, Matt plays guitar and drums for The Variables,
the Boulder office in-house band.
Sonal Shah, Tech Lead & Manager (New York, NY)
Sonal joined Google in March 2008. Since then she has been part of various
Display Ads teams in New York and is currently engaged with DoubleClick Ad Exchange.
Prior to joining Google, Sonal spent 7 years at various internet advertising companies
including DoubleClick, writing test automation and building testing frameworks.
At Google, Sonal leads teams that build Google wide test infrastructure for Java
frontends and real time auction based ad serving backends.
Travis Ellet, Test Engineer (Boulder, CO)
Travis joined Google in 2011 as a Release Engineer in Payments. After several years as a Release
Engineer in Mountain View, CA, he moved to Boulder, CO and became a Test Engineer in Payments.
He currently owns the Boxed Testing Strategy for our Megablox and frequently engages with Payments’
Integrator’s EngProd teams to reduce Google’s dependance on static test environments.
When not at the office, he is chased around the house by his children and regularly picks up new
hobbies (fly fishing, home brewing, four wheeling, and astrophotography are a few recent ventures).
Yvette Nameth, Test Engineer (Seattle, WA)
Yvette Nameth is a Test Engineer / Manager in the Google Seattle office working on Google Maps.
Since joining Google in 2007, Yvette has also contributed to AdWords, internal testing tools
and Google for Education. Prior to Google, Yvette was a Software Engineer at Amazon and a Computer
Science teacher at an all-girls high school. She’s a graduate of Dartmouth College with a BA in
Computer Science.