The AWS Heroes program recognizes outstanding individuals who are making meaningful contributions within the AWS community. These technical experts generously share their insights, best practices, and innovative solutions to help others create efficiencies and build faster on AWS. Heroes are thought leaders who have demonstrated a commitment to empowering the broader AWS community through their significant contributions and leadership.

Meet our newest cohort of AWS Heroes!

Faye Ellis – London, United Kingdom

Community Hero Faye Ellis is a Principal Training Architect at Pluralsight, where she specializes in helping organizations and individuals to develop their AWS skills, and has taught AWS to millions of people worldwide. She is also committed to make a rewarding cloud career achievable for people all around the world. With over a decade of experience in the IT industry, she uses her expertise in designing and supporting mission critical systems to help explain cloud technology in a way that is accessible and easy to understand.

Ilanchezhian Ganesamurthy – Chennai, India

Community Hero Ilanchezhian Ganesamurthy is currently the Director – Generative AI (GenAI) and Conversational AI (CAI) at Tietoevry, a leading Nordic IT services company. Since 2015, he has been actively involved with the AWS User Group India, and in 2018, he took on the role of co-organizer for the AWS User Group Chennai, which has grown to 4,800 members. Ilan champions diversity and inclusion, recognizing the importance of fostering the next generation of cloud experts. He is a strong supporter of AWS Cloud Clubs, leveraging his industry connections to help the Chennai chapter organize events and networking to empower aspiring cloud professionals.

Jaehyun Shin – Seoul, Korea

Community Hero Jaehyun Shin is a Site Reliability Engineer at MUSINSA, a Korean online fashion retailer. In 2017, he joined the AWS Korea User Group (AWSKRUG), where he has since served as a co-owner of the AWSKRUG Serverless and Seongsu Groups. During this time, Jaehyun was an AWS Community Builder, leveraging his expertise to mentor and nurture new Korea User Group leaders. He has also been an active event organizer for AWS Community Days and hands-on labs, further strengthening the AWS community in Korea.

Jimmy Dahlqvist – Malmö, Sweden

Serverless Hero Jimmy Dahlqvist is a Lead Cloud Architect and Advisor at Sigma Technology Cloud, an AWS Advanced Tier Services Partner and one of Sweden’s major consulting companies. In 2024, he started Serverless-Handbook as the home base of all his serverless adventures. Jimmy is also an AWS Certification Subject Matter Expert, and regularly participates in workshops ensuring AWS Certifications are fair for everyone.

Lee Gilmore – Newcastle, United Kingdom

Serverless Hero Lee Gilmore is a Principal Solutions Architect at Leighton, an AWS Consulting Partner based in Newcastle, North East England. With over two decades of experience in the tech industry, he has spent the past ten years specializing in serverless and cloud-native technologies. Lee is passionate about domain-driven design and event-driven architectures, which are central to his work. Additionally, he regularly authors in-depth articles on serverlessadvocate.com, shares open-source full solutions on GitHub, and frequently speaks at both local and international events.

Maciej Walkowiak – Berlin, Germany

DevTools Hero Maciej Walkowiak is an independent Java consultant based in Berlin, Germany. For nearly two decades, he has been helping companies ranging from startups to enterprises in architecting and developing fast, scalable, and easy-to-maintain Java applications. The great majority of these applications are based on the Spring Framework and Spring Boot, which are his favorite tools for building software. Since 2015, he has been deeply involved in the Spring ecosystem, and leads the Spring Cloud AWS project on GitHub—the bridge between AWS APIs and the Spring programming model.

Minoru Onda – Tokyo, Japan

Community Hero Minoru Onda is a Technology Evangelist at KDDI Agile Development Center Corporation (KAG). He joined the Japan AWS User Group (JAWS-UG) in 2021 and now leads the operations of three communities: the Tokyo chapter, the SRE chapter, and NW-JAWS. In recent years, he has been focusing on utilizing Generative AI on AWS, and co-authored an introductory technical book on Amazon Bedrock with community members, which was published in Japan.

Learn More

Visit the AWS Heroes website if you’d like to learn more about the AWS Heroes program or to connect with a Hero near you.

— Taylor