Alison Butterill
Alison Butterill was, until her retirement in 2024, the offering manager for IBM i. She owned the responsibility for the IBM i business, including defining and guiding future directions and strategies. She worked with the IBM i sales, marketing, and development teams as well as clients and partners to ensure that the IBM i operating system and associated products reflect their requirements. Alison had worked in the mid-range area for more than 30 years and has held a wide variety of positions at IBM, primarily with midrange servers and software. She was also a speaker at a wide variety of events, including industry and technical conferences around the world.
Alison was honoured for her continual and committed support to the IBM i community throughout her tenure.
Waldemar Puk
Waldemar Puk (Waldek) was the president of both Common Poland and Common Europe, was also a member of the Common Executive Committee and the Common Europe Advisory Council (CEAC) and when he wasn’t doing voluntary work he had his day job running some of the largest systems in Poland for The National Health fund.
Waldek Puk was one of the unsung heroes of the IBM i Community, he loved the platform and all the users of it and he was proud of the work he did. The award was given posthumously.
Giovanni B Perotti
In July 1997, Giovanni B. Perotti, at that time working for IBM Italy, founded the site Easy400.ibm.it to allow AS/400 developers to know and how to use the WEB RPG enabler named CGIDEV (the original name of CGIDEV2).
In the following eight years, Giovanni added to the site a number of other Public_Source utilities.
When in July 2005 Giovanni was forced by country laws to retire from IBM against his will, he started his new personal site, this one, Easy400.net, which has been continuously enhanced with new Public_Source tools. Giovanni spent most of his time in providing support to the IBM i community.
This award was presented posthumously in recognition of Giovanni’s contribution to the community.
Scott Klement
Scott Klement is an American computer scientist, author, and speaker recognized as a top evangelist for IBM i on IBM Power Systems computers. For twenty-eight years, Scott served as the IT Director of family owned Klement’s Sausage, which was sold to Altamont Capital Partners in 2014. In 2012 he left to work for Profound Logic Corporation.
Scott is a member of the Strategic Education Team (SET) and a Subject Matter Expert (SME) at COMMON (North America), the largest association of users of IBM compatible technology in the world. He has developed numerous frameworks and other open-source development tools, often works that make other technology accessible to the IBM i technology directly from RPG. Many developments by others, including Thomas Raddatz as well as IBM itself, make use of Klement’s software in products of their own.
His work in developing tools which open the i is widely quoted by others, including sockets and other tools in the book Hacking iSeries, and UNIXCMD, which allows PHP to access UNIX commands from a script. In addition, Klement was a frequent contributor to various Penton Media trade magazines.
Shrirang “Ranga” Deshpande
Shrirang “Ranga” Deshpande, a visionary in healthcare, stands out for his pioneering work at Institut Jules Bordet, a Comprehensive Cancer Centre at the University of Brussels. His journey epitomizes technological mastery and a lasting legacy. Ranga’s expertise harnessed advanced platforms, delivering results that go beyond the norm.
Beyond technical prowess, he designed a groundbreaking Hospital Information System from scratch, notable for its human-centered approach. Doctors, nurses, administrative staff, and management seamlessly embraced this transformative system, fundamentally enhancing patient care, streamlining operations, and elevating the entire healthcare experience.
Ranga’s role as an IBM Champion since 2012 underscores his significant influence in technology that was further crowned as Lifetime Achievement Award from the CIO Executive Circle, Belgium. Leading as President of COMMON Europe from 2016 to 2022 and Vice-President of COMMON Belgium from 2001, Ranga embodies the spirit of collaborative excellence, fostering a culture of innovation and growth through networking. To recognize his merit, Common Europe inducted him in Common Europe Hall of Fame, the very first edition in 2023.
Ranga’s contributions to the Common Europe Advisory Council from 1991 to 2022 have left a lasting mark on IBM i’s evolution. As a Senior Advisor at the CIO Executive Circle, his insights shape executive thought in the ever-evolving tech landscape.
With a doctorate in Biology, his multidisciplinary perspective enriches his expertise. Ranga’s passion for using informatics to improve lives highlights his unwavering commitment to progress. Throughout his life and work, Ranga’s constant pursuit remains enhancing the quality of life through technology.