2026 Programme Committee
Welcome to 2026 Programme Committee. This is the Third year of running The Testing Peers Conference and as tradition some of our Founding peers and Testing Peers Co-hosts are chairing and we’ve invited some of our fellow peers to join us.
Programme Co-Chair
Simon Prior
Simon has been in the Quality Engineering world since 2010. He is passionate about making products and teams better. He loves coaching and building teams while helping to bring on the next generation of our industry. One of the OG Testing Peers and a regular conference speaker, he is keen to give back to the Testing/ Quality community.
Programme Co-Chair
David maynard
David Maynard is an experienced Test Department Lead and passionate advocate for quality-first cultures, with a proven track record of building and mentoring high-performing test teams. He brings his deep industry insight and community spirit to create inclusive, engaging spaces for testers to learn, connect, and grow. A regular conference speaker and co-host of the Testing Peers podcast, David is dedicated to elevating the craft of testing through collaboration and shared experience.
Suman Bala
Suman Bala is an award-winning Quality Advocate who genuinely gets excited about quality—it’s what drives her every day! What really lights her up is that lightbulb moment when teams realize quality belongs to everyone, not just testers. When this mindset shifts, teams become both more effective and happier.
Suman is passionate about mentoring and coaching others. She’s spoken at national conferences, co-created the “Software Testing Bootcamp” with the West Yorkshire Combined Authority, and co-authored “Testing Stories” and “How Can I Test This?” ebooks.
www.linkedin.com/in/sumanbala
rita avota
Rita officially started her career in testing in 2014, though she’s been unofficially testing the world around her for much longer. She approaches quality with a context-specific lens, she’s passionate about exploring, understanding and improving the entire ecosystem—from user experience and team collaboration to underlying technologies and business goals.
Beth Marshall
Beth has worked in the quality engineering space for over 15 years. She has a passion for teaching and training, and has developed and delivered several many courses both internally and for the software testing community.
Dan ashby
Dan is an seasoned engineering leader, coach, and strategist, deeply committed to fostering growth and excellence in people, processes, and software products and services, both within the organisations he works with and across the broader communities.