Speakers
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.
Chris Bangs
Chris Bangs is manager of the popular VoIP site Telephonation.com as well as the SMBnation.com website. He has served as a sales/marketing educator and motivator to the retail, financial and real estate industries. Through curriculum, seminars, webinars and products, he has trained thousands of salespeople all over the U.S. Since 2007, Bangs has served SMBnation in the business development, Internet marketing and technology departments.
Bob Barnes
Bob Barnes, executive vice president of sales for marketing and business development at CallTower Inc., is responsible for sales, marketing and business development efforts. With CallTower since its inception, Barnes has built and managed the initial sales team, directed the initial regional team rollout and designed and managed the client services and field operations organizations. Barnes has designed, sold and installed converged communications networks for more than 15 years. Prior to CallTower, he spent eight years in two other computer telephony related companies, where he worked in sales, sales engineering and operations. He holds a bachelor's degree from Chico State University.
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.
William Baumgartel
William Baumgartel, director of channel sales for Broadvox LLC, is an accomplished sales and marketing executive with deep telecommunication industry experience. His aptitude with telecom hardware manufacturers built for the SMB and enterprise telecommunication marketplace provides him with a keen understanding that benefits his channel partners. Prior to joining Broadvox, Baumgartel held senior management positions with Samsung, Panasonic and Iwatsu America where he developed and managed single as well as multiple-tier North American distribution networks.
Jonathan Bergman
Jonathan Bergman is the CEO of Sell Well Now, a retail/business consulting firm for the business owner. A graduate of the University of San Diego, Jonathan 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 independent retailers must overcome in this new era of operating business profitably. Bergman is also a member of WiBOC's (Wireless Business Owners Consortium) faculty and training staff.
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.
Harry Brelsford
Harry Brelsford, CEO of SMB Nation, is a long-time SMB channel partner who has served customers and mentored other partners. He oversees SMB Nation worldwide events including webinars, workshops and multi-day conferences and is the publisher of SMB Partner Community magazine. His 20 years of SMB technology experience have been supplemented by more than 12 years of teaching at night as an adjunct professor at Seattle Pacific University and other higher learning institutions. Brelsford serves as the dean of the School of Technology for Aspen University and is the co-founder of the Pocket MBA program.
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.
Rick Endres
Rick Endres is president of The Washington Network Inc., headquartered in Alexandria, Va. Founded in 1987, the firm provides computer network support and telephone systems for DC-area business. Endres’ diverse 30-year career has spanned the federal government and the Washington, D.C., business community in jobs that apply technology to business challenges. He has served as CIO of the U.S. House of Representatives, deputy assistant secretary for technology policy at the U.S. Department of Commerce and director of corporate development for Transpace Carriers Inc., which was organized to commercialize NASA’s Delta rocket system.
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.
Gary Gordon
Gary Gordon, portfolio manager for Core Solutions at NEC Corporation of America, manages all facets of the UC product line including NEC’s software-based solution, UNIVERGE Sphericall. He has been with NEC since 2004. Gordon has more than 18 years’ experience working with emerging technologies, including presence-based applications, service-oriented architecture (SOA) and communication enabled business processes (CEBP), all foundation technologies for UC. He has more than seven years’ experience in managing PC and Web-based applications on a large IP network. Gordon brings strong knowledge and management skill in presence-based applications and has additional expertise in sales and marketing.
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.
Steve Hilton
Steve Hilton is the lead analyst for Analysys Mason's Enterprise research program. His primary areas of specialization, which focus on large and small enterprises, include cloud services, mobility, IT and communications products and sales channels. Hilton has 17 years' experience in technology and communications marketing. Prior to joining Analysys Mason, he managed the Enterprise and SMB team at Yankee Group. He has also held senior positions at Lucent Technologies, TDS and Cambridge Strategic Management Group (CSMG).
Dan Hoban
Dan Hoban is the director of business development at Nuspire Networks, a state-of-the-science managed network security service provider with more than a decade of industry experience providing services for some of the largest and most distinctive companies in the world. Nuspire provides a comprehensive suite of services focused to meet the needs of organizations with a geographically diverse footprint. Since 2003, Hoban’s primary responsibility has been managing Nuspire’s business growth for managed network services around the globe. Under his direction, the sales organization has provided solutions for many of the world’s largest organizations.
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.
Brian Law
Brian Law is vice president of indirect sales at XO Communications. In this role, he oversees company’s indirect sales, support and operations through its national network of XO business partners and agents. Previously, Law was regional vice president of sales for the central region at XO Communications. In this role, he oversaw business and enterprise sales for the company in ten major metropolitan markets across seven states. Law joined XO in 1999 and has served as sales manager in the Nashville, Tenn., sales office and general manager of the sales offices in Memphis and Nashville, Tenn., and St. Louis.
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.
Vic Levinson
In 1993, Prime Telecommunications, Inc., founded by Vic Levinson, started its journey to become a provider of complete telecommunications sales and services. Since our company's inception, Prime Telecommunications Inc. has continued to grow and has established an outstanding reputation as a superior service provider. We are proud to be a one-stop shop for any technical need; we provide repairs, troubleshooting, training, sales support and day-to-day support for our customers and business partners.
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.
Kieren McCobb
Kieren McCobb has been in telecommunications for 29 years. For the last 15 years he has run TeleConfusion Removal Inc., a consulting firm that offers advisory services to end-user clients as well as being a master agent. Along with complete telecom services TeleConfusion Removal specializes in call centers and the hospital/health care verticals. McCobb has made the transition away from strictly telecom and with his partner, John J. Gallagher of Commonsense Technologies, is actively engaged in getting the message out that agents need to embrace VoIP, unified communications, hosted and managed services specifically and SaaS in general.
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.
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.
Ronda Perry
Ronda Perry is commissions and process manager at CPI Communications. She joined the company in 2005, bringing PROCESS PRO experience from John Deere Credit where she completed Six Sigma training and assisted in creating, implementing and managing a new department within John Deere Credit. At CPI, Perry has implemented and modified a software program that gathers, tracks, and monitors information from the prospect stage, through the order stage and into commissioning. She is responsible for monitoring commissions, creating commission schedules and handling disputes in a timely manner, as well as software training.
Greg Praske
Greg Praske is co-founder and CEO of ARG Inc., a master agency based in the Washington, D.C., area. He provides the agency’s strategic vision which is built around ARG’s mission to be the most respected telecom consulting agency in the country. Praske is passionate about leading a company committed to doing business the right way and delivering huge value to our clients and partners. ARG has teamed with premier companies and Advantage Communications Group to develop a comprehensive agency operating system to manage the entire life cycle of a customer from lead gen all the way through ongoing support and retention.
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.
Remington Reynolds
Remington Reynolds is CEO and president of the Cost Management Group. He is responsible for the overall vision and strategic leadership of the company, with an emphasis on corporate and business development, marketing and sales operations. Prior to his role at CMG, Reynolds founded PartnerTEL (a wholly owned subsidiary of CMG), which focuses on telecom expense management, audit, procurement, call center optimization and cloud computing.
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.
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.
Tom Shinners
Tom Shinners has spent more than 14 years with a principal focus on the SMB market providing IT solutions and enterprise type communications via local and national partnerships. He serves as the GM of Denver/Dir. Hosted VOIP Sales for PRO OnCall Technologies. He focuses on managing existing partners and internal sales teams to sell PBfleX, their hosted VOIP system, as an alternative to their other premise based phone system offerings, with the ability to bundle in other hosted or premised based voice/IT/carrier services to their customers and prospects.
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.
Paul Vick
Paul Vick serves as the director of channel sales covering the Americas and Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) for ACT Conferencing, a global provider of audio, Web and video conferencing services. Vick carries with him more than 25 years of international technology sales and marketing experience spanning software, IT security and telecommunications sectors. Prior to joining ACT, Vick was the vice president of channel sales for Perimeter eSecurity, vice president of global sales for AEP Networks and held managerial channel sales roles with Fiberlink Communications and Lucent Technologies.
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.
Matt Wass de Czege
Matt Wass de Czege is the marketing manager for Cisco Systems’ Seattle-based small business voice solutions. He is a veteran sales and marketing professional who has specialized in VoIP technologies while working for Nortel, AT&T and Cisco. Wass de Czege started his career as a systems engineer for Nortel, giving him a solid technical foundation that he feels is essential to selling. Over the last four years he has helped build Cisco’s small business practice, by consulting with new partners on how to build a successful voice strategy. He is now leveraging his knowledge in Cisco’s small business corporate marketing organization.
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.
Jay Weiss
Jay Weiss is the founder of ComputerHMO. An early adopter of VoIP, he has the scars to prove it. Weiss has been actively involved in the VoIP space for the past six years, consulting with other VoIP providers and installing varied VoIP solutions. His 20 years of SMB experience is supplemented by 30 years as a magician, making him more than qualified to show you the magic of VoIP.
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.
Daniel Williams
Daniel Williams, founder of Xpedeus Inc. and PinnaCall Technologies LLC, has spent 22 years being a technology and process change evangelist. As a member of the advanced IT staff at General Motors in 1988, he learned that true productivity gains from technology use comes through the refinement of business processes that use the technology. In 2001, he founded Xpedeus Inc., a Microsoft Certified IT consulting firm that developed and implemented a VoIP strategy to market to its IT consulting clients. In 2009 Williams co-founded PinnaCall Technologies to specifically market and sell business VoIP solutions.
Matt Wilson
Matt Wilson, director of agent programs at New Global Telecom (NGT), brings more than 14 years of telecommunication and product management experience to his role. He has been a key player in the development of NGT's agent program for SIP trunking and hosted PBX VoIP services. Prior to joining NGT, Wilson was a member of Intrado's product management team where he led the VoIP 911 product deployment and helped develop new strategies for the future. He has also held senior positions in product management and product development for Level 3 Communications, Qwest and Sprint.
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.
Tem Wu
Tem Wu has been the wireless manager at World Telecom Group for the last few years. He has been in the wireless industry since 1996 and has sold wireless/mobility services and equipment from all carriers. Prior to joining WTG, he worked directly for Sprint. Wu is largely responsible for WTG Wireless winning the TA's Members Choice for Mobility for the last three years in a row.
Clem Wyman
Clem Wyman is CEO and a partner at ValuLink Technology Solutions a Louisville, Ky.-based telecom consultancy and brokerage. He is a former journalist, corporate communication executive and consulting and training company owner. Founded in 2001, ValuLink is a limited master agency supporting agents selling traditional CLEC services. It is also the parent of newly launched T1Town.com. A FOCUS VoIP technology panel expert, Wyman recently led an AT&T-sponsored nationwide webinar on IP-based services as a third-party independent consultant. He is ValuLink's in-house authority on SIP and hosted services and handles those sales personally. He has sold SIP-based services since 2004.
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