During their work on the netty/netty repository, Faidon Zakkak focused on improving GraalVM native-image compatibility by addressing a critical reflection issue. They delivered a fix that re-enabled reflective field accesses in Netty’s native images, which had previously been blocked by a legacy initialization check. By removing this check, Faidon enabled direct Unsafe-based field access for PlatformDependent0, enhancing runtime compatibility with newer GraalVM versions and reducing initialization failures during deployment. Their work demonstrated a strong command of Java, GraalVM, and native image reflection, providing a targeted solution that addressed a nuanced compatibility challenge within the Netty codebase.