About the Veeam Community Hackathon
In February 2023, Maurice Kevenaar shared a new idea with Jonah May. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, many Veeam User Groups struggled to regain in-person momentum. At the same time, Maurice wanted to give more people a taste of what made the Veeam Vanguard community special: direct collaboration with Veeam Product Management, Product Strategy, and technical community leaders from around the world.
The idea was simple:
Create a community-driven hackathon that would bring together developers, architects, admins, automation engineers, students, and technology enthusiasts to collaborate on real-world projects and innovative ideas for the Veeam ecosystem.
From dashboards and integrations to AI assistants and automation tools, the hackathon brings people together to collaborate, learn, and create real-world solutions for the Veeam ecosystem.
And so, the Veeam Community Hackathon was born.
Today, the event runs annually with support from organizers, mentors, sponsors, and Executive Sponsors from Veeam, helping connect the global community through innovation, collaboration, and hands-on experimentation.
Founders
Jonah May
Co-Founder & Automation Desk LeaderJonah is a Product Architect and Product Engineering Manager at CyberFortress, a platinum Veeam Cloud & Service Provider (VCSP). He is also a co-founder of the Veeam Community Hackathon, a Veeam Certified Architect, a VCSP Technical Ambassador, a co-host of the Rebel Devs podcast, an Object First Ace, and a leader of the Texas and Automation Desk Veeam User Groups. Prior to working at CyberFortress, Jonah worked at another VCSP, Global Data Vault. In his spare time, Jonah is a Scout leader, having earned his Eagle Scout as a youth.
Maurice Kevenaar
Co-Founder & Automation Desk LeaderMaurice Kevenaar is a Senior Cloud Engineer at Integra Cloud Solutions B.V., located in Uithoorn, NL. Package maintainer and moderator for the Chocolatey Community Repository (CCR), and contributor to OSS projects. Creator of Veeam Chocolatey packages and BoxStarter scripts. Veeam Vanguard 2020-2025, Veeam Legend 2023-2024, Object First Ace 2024-2025, Leader of the Automation Desk and Veeam Usergroup Netherlands and Co-founder of the Veeam Community Hackathon.
Organizers
Jos Maliepaard
Organizer – Sponsorships and SWAG ProcurementJos Maliepaard is a consultant, located in the Netherlands, with a strong focus on Data protection, disaster recovery and virtualization. He likes projects from the presales\designing phase till the handover to the customer. Next to the VMCE\VMCA certifications, he is a Veeam Vanguard, Object First Ace, and Veeam User Group Netherlands leader.
Tom May
Organizer – Leadership DevelopmentThomas May is an experienced IT professional who has held key positions in several companies, including Global Data Vault and Baker Botts. He designed Baker Botts’ disaster recovery plan and played a critical role in growing Global Data Vault as a Veaam Cloud and Service Provider during his second stint as CIO. Today, Thomas is the founder and CEO of Different Dev, a company that provides business continuity and disaster recovery solutions. He is also a Veeam Vanguard and Object First Ace, recognized for his exceptional expertise in Veeam products and solutions.
Executive Sponsors
Madalina Cristil
Principal Community Operations & Strategy Manager, Veeam SoftwareMadalina Cristil is a Technical Analyst and Community Coordinator on the Product Strategy team for Veeam Software based in Bucharest, Romania. Madalina is leading the Veeam User Groups community program, alongside with NFR program.
Safiya Mohamed
Community Manager, Veeam SoftwareSafiya Mohamed is a Community Analyst on the Product Strategy team based in Columbus, Ohio. Her responsibilities include managing the Community Resource Hub, Veeam User Groups, and Legends program.