IBM Champion Seb Julliand

Meet Sébastien “Seb” Julliand, Tech Lead at ARCAD Software (soon moving to i and me) and an IBM Champion for two years. Seb’s favorite IBM product is IBM i on Power, a platform he has worked on since 2009 and never left. He started out as a developer, grew into an expert, and today still loves the OS for its stability, integration, and surprising depth once you look past its green-screen legacy. For Seb, it’s not just robust, t’s fun to work with, and it continues to inspire his career.

Seb’s advocacy is a mix of open-source contribution and speaking, two passions that let him both build and teach. As one of the main contributors to the Code for IBM i extension, he helps create new features, support users, and collaborate with other developers to push the project forward. That work naturally flows into his speaking sessions at conferences like COMMON PowerUp and COMMON Europe Congress, where he shares updates, explains new ideas, and gets inspired by the feedback and conversations that follow. Seb is proud to be the most active non-IBM contributor on Code for IBM i and part of its Core team, helping to drive the direction of a project that impacts developers around the world. For him, the recognition as an IBM Champion is the cherry on top of a journey fueled by passion and community spirit.

If Seb weren’t working in technology, he says he would probably find himself in a role where he could build or fix things, maybe a mechanic, maybe even a professional Lego builder (but definitely not a gardener, he jokes). To future Champions, his advice is encouraging: “Find something you like and you’re good at, and share it with the community. Speak about it if you can, it’s thrilling to be on stage with a smile talking about what you love. And if public speaking isn’t for you, that’s okay too. There are many ways to contribute, and collaboration is what really makes this community strong.”

Lightning round:

• Superpower: to be able to communicate with animals; it would bring some interesting conversations for sure (and I'd finally be able to ask my dog why he's barking at everything 😅)

• Ice cream or cake: cake - I can take it on a trip, it won't melt.

• Cats or dogs: dogs (Pomeranian dad here).

• Summer or winter: winter - snowy landscape are the best and you can't beat watching a good movie under a blanket while it snows outside.

• Morning or evening: evening - especially if the day was well spent.

• eBook or Paper Book: paper book; nothing beats the feeling of paper and the smell of a new book.

• TV shows or movies: TV shows lately; watch one or ten episodes, it's up to you.

• Night out or night in: a night in, with friends, playing video games or board games, or reading, or coding, or...you get the idea.

• Cannonball or dip a toe in first: cannonball, there is no time to waste!

• Go-to karaoke song: Fly me to the Moon by Franck Sinatra.

• Drive or fly: drive and enjoy the trip.

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