Mr. Kari Kakkonen has worked in software testing for 30 years and is the ICT Influencer of the Year 2025 in Finland. He co-authored ‘ACT 2 LEAD Software Testing Leadership Handbook’. Kari is the 2021 EuroSTAR Testing Excellence Award winner. He is the CEO of Dragons Out Oy; created a fantasy book to teach software testing to children. Kari works at Gofore as the Service Owner of Customer Expertise Development, running a training business that provides software testing, agile, DevOps, and AI training services across Europe. Kari has volunteered in key roles at ISTQB, TMMi, and FiSTB. Kari is a seasoned speaker and passionate advocate for quality engineering and software testing.

Kari Kakkonen

Service Owner, Customer Expertise Development at Gofore, Finland