Speakers
Curt Allen
Curt Allen is president of X4 Solutions (formerly X4 Communications), a nationwide master agency. Allen has nearly 15 years of telecommunications sales and sales management experience in both the direct and indirect channels. Before joining X4 Solutions in the summer of 2005, he held positions at AT&T and InterCall. In his current role, Allen is responsible for all aspects of the day-to-day business, as well as carrier relationships and the strategic development and execution of X4's business plan.
Rudain Arafeh
Rudain Arafeh is the founder, president and CEO of Configure Inc. Arafeh established Configure in 1996 after leaving AT&T to assist clients with complex telecommunication networks design, contracting and billing matters. Configure has grown rapidly and services many large clients, including IGT, DHL, Texas Farm Bureau, Finisar, Actel, Coit and Circle K. Arafeh served on the AT&T advisory council for many years and has numerous publications. He is generally regarded as a subject matter expert in the field of telecommunications. Prior to joining AT&T, Arafeh worked for SPL World Group, a large consulting firm serving customers on highly complex projects.
Moe Arnaiz
Moe Arnaiz, CEO of eMOBUS, co-founded the company in 2005 to bring stability to the fragmented world of mobility management. Under his direction, eMOBUS has grown from an idea into a rapidly growing cloud computing company providing Web services and licensing its platform to VARs and consulting companies. Arnaiz helps define the corporate strategy and ensures that the operating groups execute against the company revenue, customer satisfaction and profitability targets. eMOBUS is the only mobility management platform to take a preventative cost containment approach, which has earned the respect of industry leaders such as NetSuite, Johnny Rockets, Master Halco and TRC Solutions.
Clark Atwood
Clark Atwood currently serves as the vice president of technical sales for Tempe, Ariz.based Concierge Communications, a master agent for more than 40 communications providers. A 19-year veteran of the computer and communication industries, Atwood has been a VAR business owner and has served as the chairman of the Novell Gold and Small Business Councils. He also has worked in sales and management for VARs that focused on local area networks, storage area networks, clustered firewalls, security, software development and more. Atwood has obtained many technical sales certifications, notably as an IVR/ACD engineer.
Nate Atwater
Nate Atwater has been an independent telecom agent and channel manager for the past four years working primarily with both PBX VARs and small IT organizations within both direct and indirect sales capacities. Currently, in addition to his own independent agency, he also manages more than 40 subagents that work with him for his support capabilities. Beyond his own customer base, Atwater has also become “sticky” for his agent community as well. He has a unique understanding of both sales and operational sides and the corporate culture differences in between.
Jason Baker
Jason Baker, CTO for ReliaCloud, has more than 15 years of experience working with Internet and telecommunications organizations. Prior to ReliaCloud, he co-founded Digital North and was the technology leader within the organization. He helped Digital North expand into multiple datacenters serving thousands of customers. Before founding Digital North, Baker was a key technology driver at iPares, a multinational dot-com consultancy.
Dan Baldwin
A voice, data and marketing consultant since 1990, Dan Baldwin is an independent subagent for ATEL Communications in San Diego. He specializes in working with the owners and IT managers of multilocation businesses to help them set up or optimize their data, Internet, phone and wireless networks. Baldwin also helps his customers maximize sales to existing customers and prospects by creating and maintaining his clients’ online marketing elements including interactive blogs, social media and e-mail marketing.
Joe Basili
Joe Basili is president and research director of Network Trends Now. He is a recognized thought leader has conducted research and benchmarks, writing extensively on topics that include telecom expense management (TEM), wireless mobility management, unified communications and network performance management. He is a keynote speaker at conferences and a contributor to publications for IT, finance and procurement professionals. Basili holds a bachelor’s degree in economics and political science from Vanderbilt University.
Jonathan Bergman
Jonathan Bergman is the vice president of Wireless Experts Group, a retail consulting firm for the wireless business owner. Bergman has been in retail sales and marketing for more than 20 years. From snowboards to radio advertising, he has trained countless sales reps to “sell well.” He successfully led 40 cellular operations and their sales teams to increasing revenues and profits every year. He understands the many pitfalls, challenges and mistakes wireless operators must overcome in this new era of the wireless industry.
Vince Bradley
Vince Bradley is the founder, president and CEO of Commerce Consulting Corporation. One of its DBAs, World Telecom Group (WTG), is one of the largest master agencies in the United States. Bradley entered the telecommunications industry in 1993 as a sales representative for the Los Angeles-based Addtel Communications before founding WTG in 1996. Another of Commerce Consulting’s DBAs, Energent, is an energy division founded in 2008 in response to the economic downturn that occurred. Bradley has served or is currently serving on advisory boards for the PHONE+ Channel Partners Conference &Expo, AboveNet, ACC Business, Level 3 Communications, MegaPath, Mpower Communications, New Edge Networks, TelePacific Communications and XO Communications among others.
Andrew Brynczka
Andrew Brynczka, one of the founders of Qudex, is currently the vice president of sales and one of the key visionaries behind the development of the platform and the company. With nearly 20 years of telecommunications and financial experience, Brynczka has served in executive management roles at companies including Qwest, MCI, UUnet(MFS) and DLJ-Pershing Securities. He has held positions regarding integration processes, rolling-out new products, system upgrades and direct sales interface to assure alignment with operations, product development and marketing. He holds a master’s degree in business administration from Fairleigh Dickinson University.
William Bumbernick
William Bumbernick, CEO of Alteva, has more than 12 years of senior management and entrepreneurial experience in telecommunications, IT and managed services. Since 1994, he has been involved at executive levels of leadership and boards of directors within the technology and telecommunication sectors. Since 2003, Bumbernick has been focused on emerging VoIP technologies with the success and tremendous growth of Alteva. He has been recognized by Smart Business Magazine as an expert in the emerging technology of VoIP and is also a recognized presenter at leading trade shows.
Robert Bye
As executive vice president and general manager of nGenX Corporation, Robert Bye focuses on building brand awareness and business development for nGenX’s cloud computing solutions, while setting the overall vision for the company. Bye has become a national advocate for cloud computing, speaking at numerous conferences and writing articles on the topic. Previously he held the position of vice president and general counsel for company affiliate, Cinergy Communications, where he was recognized as a national expert on telecom regulation and competition. Bye earned a bachelor’s degree from Texas Tech University and graduated cum laude from Washburn University School of Law.
Bruce A. Chatterley
Bruce Chatterley is president of business markets, where he leads the teams responsible for sales, marketing, customer operations and product management. Chatterley joins the new MegaPath company from Speakeasy, where as its CEO, he doubled the company’s size and led the business in exciting new directions, including its purchase by Best Buy in 2007. Chatterley earned his bachelor’s degree in business administration from Central Michigan University and his master’s degree in business administration from Kogod College of Business Administration at American University.
Natasha Royer Coons
Natasha Royer Coons is the founder of TeraNova Consulting Group, the single source for the adoption, deployment and ongoing management of network convergence across the global enterprise. TeraNova consults with channel partners nationwide on delivering mobility solutions. Before starting TeraNova, Natasha had a distinguished 10-year career at Sprint, where she was instrumental in building and managing a high-powered, national data support organization in the indirect channel. She has a master’s degree in international business and speaks fluent Mandarin and Cantonese. She is based in San Diego.
Jim Delis
Jim Delis is vice president, national sales in Commercial Services for Time Warner Cable. A 21-year veteran of the telecommunications industry, Delis most recently spent 12 years with XO Communications where he held several positions at the senior executive level. During his tenure as president of sales for Business Services, sales rep productivity grew 15%. He also served as president, business partner channel, and produced double digit sales and revenue growth for three year in a row. He has also held vice president level positions in sales and business operations and in channel marketing.
Colombo DiSalvatore
In 2001, Colombo DiSalvatore founded C4 Communications, a full-service telecommunications agency and consulting firm, where he is responsible for new business development and managing a small staff focused on serving its Northeast based clientele. He has 12 years of telecommunications sales experience which was preceded by several years of experience working in his family’s marketing business.
Jason D. Ellis
Jason D. Ellis is the general manager of Tele-Plus Corp., a leading telephony equipment and knowledge base provider. Ellis joined Tele-Plus in 2006. He worked in the field to gain product knowledge and was promoted to vice president and general manager in June 2008. Since then, Ellis’ leadership and industry knowledge have been pivotal in helping local companies take advantage of new technology converging their data and communications needs into a single platform saving them money and time.
Neil Ende
Neil Ende, an A/V-rated attorney with the Technology Law Group, is a nationally recognized expert on telecommunications transactional, litigation and regulatory issues. He has served as counsel to many of the nation's largest telecommunications resellers and agents, payphone service providers and numerous other companies involved in leading edge technology applications. Ende has negotiated hundreds of carrier and agency agreements, including agreements with major telecommunications carriers, and has successfully litigated complex telecommunications cases against each of the major long-distance carriers and most of the regional Bell operating companies.
James Foxall
James Foxall, president of Tigerpaw Software, has been involved in commercial software development for more than 20 years and was instrumental in the development and creation of Tigerpaw’s award-winning product, Tigerpaw, which has more than 25,000 users in 28 countries. In his more than 20 years with Tigerpaw, Foxall has helped transform it from a small “garage” business to one that employs more than 44 people and produces business automation software servicing the IT/networking, telecommunications, and systems integrator industries. In his current role, Foxall provides the vision and management to keep Tigerpaw focused on its customers and properly serving its markets.
Jeff Fraser
Jeff Fraser is president of Salestream Software, maker of the popular hosted back-office automation system MasterStream. Prior to co-founding Salestream in 2005, Fraser spent the eight years in the telecom industry’s alternate channel, beginning with the launch of Mpower Communications’ agent channel shortly after deregulation in 1998. As regional agent manager at Mpower, Fraser designed a first of its kind online ordering system for his agents. In 2000 he co-founded TruChoice Communications where he oversaw the development of the industry’s first online multi-provider instant quoting system.
Louis A. Frate
Frate is CEO of energy broker Patriot Energy Group Inc. and manager of Mint Energy LLC, an energy supply company. His responsibilities include product development, marketing and customer service. Frate has extensive experience in deregulated energy markets. Previously, Frate was a vice president of sales for a publicly held telecommunications provider where he grew successful sales organizations in several regions of the United States targeting small and medium business customers. He has a bachelor’s degree in business management from Merrimack College.
Mark Giannini
Mark Gianinni is the CEO at Accel Networks. He provides the vision and innovation that is the engine of Accel’s success. His ability to recognize market needs and deliver solutions has been evident throughout his career, with more than 25 years in the RF engineering community. Gianinni recognized that a wireless data communication network was a natural and necessary progression for retail, where the use of multiple dial-up lines for various countertop point-of-sale devices and back office applications is the rule. He went on to develop the concept for Accel Networks, which he co-founded in 2002.
William Hiatt
William Hiatt is the co-founder and chief technology officer of RapidScale Inc., a leading cloud hosting provider that offers cutting-edge infrastructure, disaster recovery and desktop as a service. Prior to founding RapidScale, Hiatt served in numerous roles at technology solution providers, building business practices and responsible for solution delivery. Most recently, he developed, built and managed a cloud-based computing platform that allows small and medium businesses to outsource their IT infrastructure in a cost-efficient way.
Greg Howard
Greg Howard is co-founder of US Telecom Group, a telecom agency that offers a full portfolio of voice, data, Internet services and wholesale electric. The company focuses on government, non-profit, educational and enterprise accounts and specializes in managing multilocation, multibill, multicarrier accounts. Prior to co-founding US Telecom Group in 2005, Howard spent 15 years in various positions in the telecom industry. He started his telecom career with CTC selling RBOC products nationwide, then held both sales and management positions with Network Plus before running Nextel’s Government Sector as a senior government sales manager in the New York market.
Irwin Lazar
Irwin Lazar is the vice president for communications and collaboration research at Nemertes Research, where he develops and manages research projects, develops cost models, conducts strategic seminars and advises clients. Lazar is responsible for benchmarking the adoption and use of emerging technologies in the enterprise in areas including VoIP, unified communications, video conferencing, social computing, collaboration and advanced network services.
Heather K. Margolis
Heather Margolis is an entrepreneur and founder of Channel Maven Consulting. She has led channel programs for companies like EMC, EqualLogic and Dell. She helps channel organizations build smarter channel programs, manage channel relationships to find added value and engage their communities through social and traditional media. She is passionate about relationships and lends this passion to channel programs. A proud alumna of Babson College’s MBA program, Margolis grew up in Massachusetts. She is a six-time Pan-Mass Challenge cyclist who enjoys biking, hiking or attempting to ski.
Troy McCracken
Troy McCracken is the CEO of Spectrum Inc., which he founded in 1999 with the vision of delivering unparalleled telecommunications management services to small and medium sized businesses within southwestern Ohio. Since then, Spectrum has expanded its geographic market on a national level and has added large enterprises to its growing clientele base. After 10 years of significant growth under Troy's leadership, Spectrum has evolved into a nationally-recognized telecommunications life cycle management (TLM) company that develops and implements telecommunications expense management (TEM) solutions.
Brian Miller
Brian Miller is president at Mach Four and has been in telecommunications since 1991. He worked with major carriers, including MCI and AT&T, before starting his own telecommunications agency and consulting firm. He has numerous certifications and more than 18 years of experience helping clients find telecommunications products and solutions that are cost-effective and efficient. Headquartered in West Chester, Ohio, Mach Four's telecommunications team serves its clients in all 50 states as an independent consultant offering knowledge, guidance and cost saving solutions to small, mid-sized and Fortune 1000 businesses.
Barry Morris
Industry veteran Barry Morris joined Polycom as vice president of federal systems in 2003, bringing more than 20 years of experience in networking and government sales to the company. His primary responsibilities include leading Polycom’s federal government strategy and growing that market for the company. Morris joined Polycom from Force10 Networks where he was vice president of federal and high performance computing sales. Prior to that, Morris was the head of federal systems at Nortel Networks following his position as vice president for the acquired Bay Networks FederalSystems. During his tenure at Nortel, Morris grew federal sales from $4.5 million to over $300 million.
Jade Ohlhauser
As vice president of technology at RPM Software, Jade Ohlhauser has been the head of software design and development of the RPM application since its inception in 2001. Prior to RPM, he worked in computer programming and military telecommunications. Ohlhauser works closely with RPM customers to plan the development of AGENT, powered by RPM. He has published a software development case study with the IEEE and presented before various programming groups including the 2008 Agile Alliance Conference in Toronto.
Frank Ohlhorst
Frank Ohlhorst is an award winning technology journalist, professional speaker and IT business consultant with more than 25 years of experience in the technology arena. Ohlhorst has written for several leading technology publications including ComputerWorld, TechTarget, PCWorld, ExtremeTech and Toms Hardware. He has also contributed to business publications including Entrepreneur and BNET, multiple technology books and has written several white papers, case studies, reviewer’s guides and channel guides for leading technology vendors.
Jim Ortbals
Jim Ortbals is Cisco’s manager for partner operations for U.S. service providers. He has an extensive service provider channel background, having worked with many of the top service providers worldwide , helping them bring a variety of solutions to market over the years. Ortbals is currently responsible for Cisco’s small business strategy and execution through U.S. service providers, working with them to develop and deploy Cisco-based managed services targeted to the small business segment. Prior to Cisco, Ortbals worked in a variety of sales and product positions with Sylantro, Nortel and Sprint.
Brandon Peccoralo
Brandon Peccoralo is a sourcing consultant, working with COLOTRAQ’s global network of more than 400 colocation, managed hosting, and cloud computing service providers with a footprint across 160 countries. He helps companies and institutions deploy their IT and telecom infrastructure through the efficient sourcing of best-of-breed colocation, managed hosting and cloud computing services. Peccoralo specializes in large scale multi-million dollar, multi-site projects. Among his recent accomplishments are projects with VMware, Deloitte, Fidelity, Bloomberg, Morningstar and the U.S. Department of Veterans Administration. Peccoralo holds a bachelor’s degree in information technology and informatics from Rutgers University.
Andrew Pryfogle
Andrew Pryfogle is the founder, president and CEO of Terrapin Solutions, a master agency headquartered in San Francisco’s East Bay. Pryfogle started Terrapin to address the growing demand for cloud services such as hosted VoIP, cloud computing and cloud infrastructure. He has been in the telecommunications industry for 22 years and has held senior sales leadership positions with carriers such as AT&T, MCI and WorldCom. In 2001 Pryfogle helped start GoBeam Communications, a pioneer in hosted IP telephony that was sold in 2004 to Covad Communications where Pryfogle spent three years running the channel.
Kevin Quay
Kevin Quay, director of market development at BlueStar Energy, is responsible for exploring new energy and cost reducing opportunities for BlueStar customers in electricity, demand side management and energy curtailment. His duties include staff development, market intelligence management and quality control. Quay has been with BlueStar since its inception and plays an integral role in product development and strategic research. He holds a bachelor’s degree in finance from the University of Dayton.
Michael Robinson
Michael Robinson is director, CEO and president of Broadview Networks, responsible for all operations and strategy for the company. He came to Broadview from US LEC Corp., where he served as executive vice president and CFO for seven years. Prior to that, he spent 10 years in various management positions with the telecommunications division of Alcatel, including executive vice president and CFO of Alcatel Data Networks and the worldwide financial operations of the enterprise and data networking division of Alcatel. Robinson holds a master’s degree in business administration from Wake Forest University.
Ken Rowen
Ken Rowen is vice president of PAETEC Energy, a division of PAETEC, founded in 2004 to address the parallel between telecom and emerging competitive energy markets. Throughout 2010, PAETEC Energy will be expanding its presence in many of the restructured energy markets in the U.S. Rowen has held management and executive positions in sales, marketing, business development and operations for nearly 25 years in the telecom and energy industries. Rowen has a bachelor’s degree from Buffalo State College and a Telecommunications Management Certificate from the State University of New York at Buffalo.
Jim Safran
Jim Safran is president of GreenAppX, founded in 2008 to streamline the channel’s entry into selling cloud services. GreenAppX builds private labeled WebStores for their channel partners that are backed by a unique multitenant, unified distribution platform. Before joining GreenAppX, Safran managed the channel sales program at US LEC and was responsible for business development for the alternate sales channel at PAETEC. He has 20 years of technology sales and marketing expertise including executive positions with Progress Telecom, Digital Island and Like Television, a pioneer in delivery of video entertainment over the Internet. Safran received his bachelor’s degree from California State University Northridge.
Craig Schlagbaum
Craig Schlagbaum manages the indirect channel team for Level 3 Communications which includes all sales, marketing, operations and sales engineering functions. Schlagbaum and his team built the Level 3 Business Partner Program, an indirect channel program for agent and VAR partners selling to downstream business customers. The program, which has received significant industry press and recognition, has six national master agents, 100 direct agents and thousands of subagents across the United States. Partners sell multiple services including IP, voice, data and other managed services offered by Level 3. Schlagbaum has spent more than 20 years in indirect channel positions.
Mike Schmidtmann
Mike Schmidtmann has been involved with IT sales management and sales training for more than 20 years. As a member of 4-Profit, Schmidtmann works with solution providers nationwide on management practices to improve sales, margins and profitability. He spent 10 years at Inacom and in 1998 founded Strategic Products and Services, a highly successful Avaya solution provider, where he spent a decade leading the mid-Atlantic sales region. He grew the organization to a $30 million business with 56 employees in five states. Schmidtmann is a certified trainer for the Dale Carnegie Sales Course.
Lane Smith
Lane Smith is CEO and president of Do IT Smarter, a leader in transitioning VARs to MSPs — the path taken by Do IT Smarter, which is now a master MSP. Through programs and initiatives that Do IT Smarter brings to market, Smith is influential in the managed services industry. He currently sits on the board of several technology companies as well as the MSP Alliance board of advisors. Prior to his role in founding Do IT Smarter, Smith was an enterprise solutions consultant for a large VAR, where he managed enterprise deployments of Microsoft-based e-mail messaging solutions.
Hannah Smitterberg
Hannah Smitterberg is a co-founder of Cost Effective Technologies (CET), an industry-leading technology services company that has pioneered the use of cloud computing environments for small and mid-sized organizations. CET has built the most comprehensive cloud computing marketplace available. CET is a subsidiary of Nelnet, where Smitterberg headed up the capital markets area prior to her current role. She previously was an investment banker at RBC Capital Markets and was a Peace Corps volunteer. Multi-lingual, Smitterberg has a master’s degree in business administration from Thunderbird School of Global Management.
Jim Tarantino
Jim Tarantino spent 20 years in the telecom industry, rising up the corporate ladder from entry level sales rep to senior vice president of sales. He helped take three telecom companies public and trained and motivated hundreds of sales people. After retiring from the telecom industry, Tarantino founded SuccessLink, a company devoted to helping telecom people and companies become more successful via various speaking, coaching, and training programs.
Dan Vidal
Dan Vidal is a co-founder and the managing director of Telecom Advisors Inc., an independent agency that specializes in advising companies on the procurement of voice and data telecom services. With more than 10 years of telecom experience, eight of those years at Telecom Advisors, Vidal brings a wealth of knowledge to the table from both a telecom perspective as well as a business executive management role including all aspects of running a successful telecom agent business. Telecom Advisors continues to enjoy double-digit growth year over year and currently serves customers with an average annual telecom spend between $500,000 and $1 million.
Charles Weaver
Charles Weaver is the co-founder and president of the MSPAlliance (International Association of Managed Service Providers), a professional association of more than 10,000 managed service providers worldwide. In addition to running the organization’s daily operations, he writes and speaks extensively on the managed services industry. His latest book is "The Art of Managed Services.” Prior to starting the MSPAlliance, Weaver was an editor for one of the largest Web sites at internet.com. Named one of the 50 Most Influential People in Business IT by Baseline magazine, Weaver has a bachelor’s degree in political science from Arizona State University and a doctorate in law from Texas Wesleyan University School of Law.
Blake Wetzel
Blake Wetzel has been vice president of sales for the Qwest Business Markets Group (BMG) since August 2009. In this role he oversees the Qwest Business Partner Program (QBPP), an industry-leading sales channel within Qwest comprised of more than 200 partners who have thousands of agents and sub-agents offering Qwest’s high-quality voice, data and IP services to business customers across the country. Wetzel previously served as the director of national customer care and sales support for Qwest BMG and before that, as chief financial officer. Prior to joining Qwest in 1999, he worked for MCI Communications.
James Whitemore
James Whitemore, chief marketing officer at Smoothstone, brings a wealth of experience in marketing, sales and general management to his position, where he is responsible for all aspects of product management and corporate marketing. Prior to Smoothstone, he was the chief marketing officer at Savvis, a leading provider of IT infrastructure services and cloud-based computing, network and security services. Whitemore started his career in Europe, with Standard Telephones and Cables (STC), and has held a variety of sales and marketing positions in Europe, Asia and the U.S. James holds a bachelor’s degree in business from Newcastle University in the U.K.
Jeff Wissing
Jeff Wissing, senior product manager, unified communications, for ADTRAN’s Enterprise Networks Division, has an extensive career in the telecommunications industry. Prior to joining ADTRAN in 2009, he was with Objectworld, where as as director of product management and systems engineering he was responsible for bridging the gap between enterprise telephone systems and computer telephony applications, and Nokia, where he was responsible for defining next-generation IP voice networks for both enterprise and service provider customers. Wissing’s experience gives him a broad knowledge of networking technologies and telecom applications including telecom platforms, messaging solutions, call center applications, personal productivity tools and wireless technologies.
Mark Worster
Mark Worster is the president and CEO at Unitel Inc., a Boston-based technology solutions provider that delivers IT and telephony services. Worster is a business leader with strong success in identifying, winning and leveraging key client relationships in highly competitive environments. He is an entrepreneur who has employed superior problem solving ability, revenue generating skills and broad organizational expertise to grow existing business and help launch new ventures.
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