Get to know our 2026 Merge speakers
Josh Penzell
Coe Lacy
David Crawford
Drew Colthorp
J.R. Innes
John Fazzaro
Chris Woodruff
Rachael McQuater
Rex Rainey
Sandhya Subramani
Scott Carroll
Josh Penzell
Managing Director, AI Innovation & Strategy, Imagination Applied
Josh Penzell directs for a living — and not just on stage. As Founder and AI Transformation Strategist at Imagination Applied, he draws on an MFA in Theater Directing and an MBA to help leaders do what great directors do: get a room full of different people moving together toward something real. His proprietary methodologies — TheaterThink® and Human CaffeineTM — are built on the idea that AI adoption is less a technology challenge than a performance one. His book Artistic Intelligence: A Manifesto is forthcoming, and he still believes the most powerful technology in any room is a person who genuinely means it.
Coe Lacy
Art Director, BizStream
"Coe Lacy is a 4th-generation marketer—something he never planned to carry on but has found fulfillment in nonetheless. With a strong background in the arts, he has developed a career as a self-taught, multi-hyphenate design professional. In his current role as Art Director at BizStream, Coe enjoys getting to know each client and how their business works, digging to uncover the narratives that connect them to their customers in meaningful ways. Outside of work he continues to pursue art and music, teaching drawing classes and pursuing mentorships with world-class artists."
David is a Partner at Michigan Software Labs, and helps companies solve their biggest problems through technology. He engages early to uncover where solutions can create the most value, then leads teams to get the job done right. Having worked as a developer in many product development industries, and for several consulting firms, he understands how to deliver from both sides of the table.
David Crawford
Lead Software Engineer, Michigan Software Labs
Drew Colthorp is a seasoned software development leader with nearly two decades of experience at Atomic Object, a consultancy that crafts innovative software products. As the Practice Lead of Development, Drew empowers Atomic's developers to deliver exceptional results for clients while fostering rewarding careers. His leadership philosophy centers on equipping people with the tools and skills to analyze, take ownership, and thrive in their roles. Throughout his tenure at Atomic Object, Drew has worn many hats, from hands-on development and technical leadership to architecture and consulting. He actively contributes to shaping Atomic's technical practice, collaborating with senior makers on consulting, technical leadership, and design. Drew is particularly excited about the potential for AI to transform how we build software and solve complex problems.
Drew Colthorp
Software Development Practice Lead, Atomic Object
John “J.R.” Innes is a Senior UX Designer at Jewelry Television (JTV), where he focuses on high-volume transactional UX—spanning checkout, returns, navigation, and more. He works to make complex systems frictionless for diverse users, collaborating closely with engineering, product, and executive teams.
His career includes award-winning work in graphic design, infographics, map design, and place-based media. For two decades, he has remained deeply interested in how multidisciplinary teams understand, shape, and refine public-facing products. That curiosity has carried into his active use of AI, both professionally and personally. One of his key insights is how differently people in various roles think, decide, and create.
J.R. lives near the Great Smoky Mountains in Tennessee and remains endlessly curious about people and ideas.
John “J.R.” Innes
Senior UX Designer, Jewelry Television
Jon is a Product Engineering Leader, Coach, Intrapreneur, and Benevolent Cage-Rattler. He has been a software professional for over twenty years and holds a few certifications, but prefers books. The Coaching Habit, When Will it be Done, and Working Effectively with Legacy Code are a few that keep coming in handy. These days, Jon is a Staff Engineer at OpenSesame, helping them to become the best product engineering organization in the world.
Jon Fazzaro
Staff Software Engineer, OpenSesame
Chris "Woody" Woodruff is a Senior Solution Architect and Software Engineer with 25+ years of experience designing and delivering enterprise-scale cloud systems. A Microsoft MVP and .NET Foundation Board Member, he brings a pragmatic approach to solution design — from object-oriented foundations to distributed, event-driven architectures built for reliability and business continuity at scale.
Woody has led engineering teams and architecture practices at companies including Rocket Homes, Rocket Mortgage, and Real Time Technologies, and has consulted for clients ranging from Microsoft and MLB Advanced Media to Fortune 500 enterprises. He is an active mentor, a veteran conference speaker, having presented at NDC, Microsoft TechEd, QCon, and CodeMash among others, and a longtime contributor to the .NET open-source community.
Based in West Michigan, he is currently exploring the frontier of agentic AI and Multi-Agent Systems as tools for accelerating software engineering and architecture workflows.
Chris "Woody" Woodruff
Independent Consultant, Woody Technology Studio LLC
Rachael McQuater is an engineer focused on building clear, resilient software that maps human understanding to hard problems.
Rachael McQuater
Senior Software Engineer, Hightouch
Rex is the Creative Lead at BizStream, a leading digital agency dedicated to enhancing brands, websites, and online products. Rex loves all things design but specializes in branding, UI/UX, web design, and illustration. He’s worked professionally as a designer, art director, and creative lead, at various interactive and branding agencies, since the mid-2000s.
Rex Rainey
Creative Director, BizStream
Sandhya Subramani is a Sr. Developer Advocate with 8+ years of experience in Applied AI Research, specializing in Large Language Models and agentic AI systems. She has developed and deployed AI solutions at organizations including Amazon, Warner Bros, and Fidelity Investments. Her work centers on turning cutting edge research into practical applications, and she is passionate about helping developers build intelligent systems that solve complex problems at scale.
Sandhya Subramani
Sr. Developer Advocate, Generative AI, Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Scott Carroll is a Senior Software Engineer at Cypris.ai with 20+ years in distributed systems. He gravitates toward the hardest technical problems he can find—the kind tangled up in other problems nobody's even identified yet. He's built control planes for Alexa, robotic orchestration systems for vertical farms, and platforms for autonomous AI agents. He builds indie games on the side and reads cognitive science papers recreationally.
Born in Michigan, he spent a decade in the Upper Peninsula, a stint on the coasts, and came back to settle in Clare County. He and his wife keep a small homestead with chickens, polydactyl cats, and a hydroponic garden they eat out of year-round. Even off the clock, he can't stop building systems that keep things alive.
Scott is at Merge because he wants to meet you. He's building a network and looking for ways to help more people in Michigan make things that matter.
Scott Carroll
Senior Software Engineer, Cyrpris
Principal Systems Architect, Rippleroot Labs