Syed Balkhi is an award winning entrepreneur and CEO of Awesome Motive Inc, the parent company of WPBeginner (the largest free WordPress resource site), List25, OptinMonster, Soliloquy, EnviraGallery, ThemeLab, and several more. His sites have millions of subscribers and quarter billion video views. Syed’s work has been featured in Forbes, Inc, Fox Business, Entrepreneur Magazine, Wired Magazine, and countless other well-reputed online magazines.

Justin Sainton is the founder of Zao, an agency based near Portland, Oregon. As a core contributor to WordPress and lead developer for the WP eCommerce project, Justin believes passionately in the philosophy of open source software. Working exclusively with WordPress and an array of other open-source technologies, Justin and Zao have provided creative and effective solutions for a wide variety of companies and associations ranging from Amazon to PayPal to Pitney Bowes. When not building the Zao empire or spending time with his beautiful wife and three incredible kids, Justin can be found enjoying the best espresso in Portland.

Doug is a 15-plus-year-veteran of the IT industry, a long-time Linux user and has been using WordPress since version 1.0. He had to be dragged, kicking and screaming into using a Mac in 2006 or so and might even admit that it’s probably for the best if you catch him on the right day. He has a passion for systems and for getting the most out of WordPress and has applied his skills in the commercial, government contracting, healthcare, and general IT spheres.

Hailing from just outside Philadelphia, PA, Doug is currently an IT Whisperer (aka Senior Systems Engineer) for 10up and can be found co-organizing the monthly Philadelphia WordPress Meetup and WordCamp Philadelphia when he’s not working diligently behind the scenes. You can find him on Twitter @zamoose.