We are thrilled to announce the 2025 recipients of MongoDB’s prestigious William Zola Award for Community Excellence: Arek Borucki and Kai Yong Lai (Vandyck).
Each year, this award recognizes an outstanding community member who embodies the legacy of William Zola, a Lead Technical Services Engineer at MongoDB who passed away in 2014. William was defined by an unwavering commitment to user success; he believed deeply in understanding the person behind the screen, pairing technical resolution with genuine empathy. His philosophy remains a guiding force for the MongoDB community today. This award comes with a cash prize and travel sponsorship to attend a regional MongoDB.local event.
In recognition of our growing community, we have expanded the award this year to honor two recipients who demonstrate exceptional leadership and a tireless dedication to helping others.
Arek Borucki: A pillar of technical knowledge
Whether he is providing product feedback in our Early Access Programs or writing tutorials to educate the next generation of developers, Arek consistently exceeds expectations. His sincere dedication to helping others grow professionally is a perfect reflection of William Zola’s mission.
Arek has been a foundational member of our community for years. After being named a Community Champion in 2020, he then launched the Munich MongoDB User Group (MUG) in 2022.
In 2023, Arek became a subject matter expert (SME) to help develop and validate MongoDB certifications. His impact was so significant that he has now transitioned into a lead SME role, where he mentors new experts and verifies the technical accuracy of exam questions. Arek’s expertise also extends to being an author; in 2025, he published his first solo book, MongoDB 8.0 in Action, third edition.
Kai Yong Lai (Vandyck): An architect of community growth
.png)
While he’s a newer member of our community, Vandyck’s impact was immediate. In 2023, he founded the Kuala Lumpur MongoDB User Group and joined our MongoDB Community Creators Program, as he is an established leader at local developer events. His passion and high-quality community leadership led to him being named a Community Champion in early 2025.
This past year, Vandyck went above and beyond the standard community leadership role. He launched a series of monthly hands-on workshops in Kuala Lumpur, enabling attendees to earn a new skill badge every month. This required a massive personal time commitment, as he spent hours mastering each curriculum before teaching it to his peers.
Beyond Malaysia, Vandyck continues to write tutorials that reach a global audience. He is a true community leader who doesn’t just share knowledge; he builds the infrastructure for others to succeed.
Q&A with Arek and Vandyck
Here are Arek and Vandyck discussing what the MongoDB community means to them:
Q: Could you tell our readers a little about your day-to-day work?
Arek: As a Machine Learning Platform & Database Engineer at Hugging Face, I work at the intersection of machine learning (ML) infrastructure and data platforms. A key part of my day-to-day responsibilities is designing, operating, and evolving our MongoDB Atlas deployments, which serve as the primary database behind the Hugging Face Hub and a core component of the platform’s data layer. I focus on ensuring that our MongoDB infrastructure is scalable, reliable, and optimized for performance, while supporting a wide range of ML-driven workloads.
Vandyck: Being a full stack engineer means not only writing code but also focusing on how a product is shaped in a fast-paced environment. I work mainly on consumer applications with MongoDB as a core technology.
Q: How does MongoDB support you as a developer?
Arek: MongoDB supports me by providing a flexible and scalable platform that fits well with modern ML and platform-engineering workflows. MongoDB Atlas enables me to focus on building and improving systems rather than managing infrastructure. High-quality documentation and MongoDB University also help me stay up to date with new features and best practices, which is important in a fast-moving technical environment.
Vandyck: From education to acquisition, MongoDB doesn’t only support me from a product perspective but also deepens my understanding of data-related knowledge. The flexible schemas allow for faster iteration when shipping quality products with design in mind. Not to mention the possibility of lifting your career through its AI capabilities.
Q: Why is being a leader in the MongoDB community important to you?
Arek: I’ve been involved with the MongoDB community since the very beginning of the Community Champion program. Over time, that led naturally to becoming a MongoDB User Group leader and a certification SME. I like staying close to how MongoDB is used in practice, discussing real use cases, and exchanging solutions with other engineers. That kind of involvement is something I genuinely enjoy, and it’s why I’ve stayed active for so long.
Vandyck: It’s not about being the face of the local community—it’s the chance it creates to gather together like-minded people who love MongoDB and empower each other within the same circle. Being able to get to know each other while getting our skills sharpened in this space is what matters most.
Q: What has the community taught you?
Arek: Being active in the MongoDB community exposed me to a wide range of real-world use cases and recurring problems, which influenced my work beyond day-to-day engineering. That experience led me to write MongoDB 8.0 in Action and become a coauthor of Mastering MongoDB 7.0, and I’m currently working on a third book. All of this grew directly out of community discussions, feedback, and seeing where engineers consistently need clearer guidance.
Vandyck: The MUG community has taught me that growth doesn’t happen in isolation. It’s also shown me the value of giving back—when you share what you know, it somehow comes back to you tenfold. Most importantly, the community has reminded me that behind every technical problem is a person trying to build something meaningful, and that human connection is what makes this work fulfilling.
Join the MongoDB Community
Congratulations to Arek Borucki and Kai Yong Lai (Vandyck), recipients of the 2025 William Zola Award for Community Excellence. To learn more about all of our MongoDB Community Champions, please visit our Champions homepage.