CompTIA Community Member Champions

Jason Bystrak

Vice President of Cloud Business Unit, D&H Distributing

Jason Bystrak began his tenure at D&H in 2019 to oversee the distributor’s Cloud Business Unit. He has more than two decades of experience in channel and cloud-based services, including his most recent position as Vice President Of Worldwide Channels & Distribution for Axcient, a frontrunner in cloud based data and storage solutions. He’s also had considerable experience overseeing cloud programs for a major channel distributor. Jason drives D&H’s strategy for cloud and managed services, including both expanding the company’s internal team and building relationships with cloud service providers for the distributor’s evolving digital commerce platform. His expertise in the channel has been in high demand at various panels, roundtables and event appearances throughout the industry. D&H’s Cloud Business Unit is a crucial part of the distributor’s Solutions and Services program, which delivers end-to-end enablement resources to channel partners.

Angus Robertson

CMO, Chief Outsiders

As CMO, Angus is responsible for product, revenue, and digital marketing at Axcient. Axcient provides business continuity solutions serving managed service providers (MSPs) who in turn support small and medium size businesses (SMBs). Previously, Angus was EVP Marketing at Convercent, the leading provider of ethics and compliance software in the cloud, CMO at Hubble by insightsoftware.com, a leader in Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) software, and Vice President Product Marketing at Spirent Communications. At Spirent, Angus was responsible for four product lines and $250M of revenue. During Angus’ tenure at Spirent he built Spirent’s Asia services business from Hong Kong, and managed M&A due diligence and integration for a strategic software acquisition. Angus has more than 20 years’ experience in marketing and technology and he is passionate about how technology can be applied to solve business problems. In his free time, you can find Angus tearing up a squash court or perusing his twitter feed for industry updates.

Sue Krautbauer

Senior Vice President, Sales and Marketing, Techadox

Susan serves as Senior Vice President Sales and Marketing at Techadox, a network of top technology professionals that provide scalable, on-demand solutions for your technology service needs. A 23-year global service executive in the Information Technology (IT) industry, Susan excels in solving complex service and business challenges by tapping into her broad experience in supply chain logistics, supplier and vertical business development, electronics manufacturing, field technical consultants, trade compliance and biometric data capture markets.

Widely known as an industry expert in the areas of Client Development, Sales Management and Coaching/Performance Leadership Consultation, Susan believes that “Technology is the enabler, but People are the key”.

Kristian Wright

COO, inSOC

A degree in graphic design propelled Kristian Wright into a technical role with Quark, whose QuarkXPress® revolutionised publishing. Following a technology-linked role with a media company, Kristian spent three years as Kall Kwik UK’s IT manager, before risking the combined forces of Y2K and dot-com bubble to join start-up ControlP, where he co-developed patented PDF manipulation software. Moving into IT services in 2002, Kristian founded Inbay, having learned first-hand over many years how IT support should be delivered, and have overseen growth from a six-strong team to today’s international, MSP-focussed business. Kristian has been an elected Fellow of the RSA since 1992.

Jonathan Blakey

VP of Technology, Technology Assurance Group

Jonathan Blakey is responsible for driving adoption of best practice technical operations and supporting adoption of successful relationships between TAG’s Membership and Strategic Partners. Jonathan provides consultation, analysis, business management advice and counseling to TAG Members to bring innovation to existing policies and procedures in order to contribute to the profitability of the company. Jonathan also identifies and solidifies strategic partnerships with suppliers to the industry to lead in the procurement of technology that will open new strategic opportunities, increase the profitability and give TAG Members a competitive advantage in their marketplace

Before joining TAG, Jonathan held the role of Chief Technology Officer of The 20 MSP Group. During his 15-year tenure with both The 20 and also Roland Technology Group, Dallas-based MSP and The 20s sister company, Jonathan served in a variety of key senior management positions, including Chief Information Officer. As CTO of The 20 MSP Group, he pioneered the technology and technical support strategy of the business. Jonathan successfully collaborated with several vendors’ software development teams to build their software in a direction to specifically meet The 20 business model requirements. He has trained, recruited, and developed a team that grew to over 40 technical staff to provide full levels of remote technical support via live call answering and email-based support with a rapid response SLA and customer satisfaction that was among the best in the Managed IT Services industry.

Steven Estabrooks

General Manager, Captec Americas Inc.

Steve Estabrooks is a Corporate Entrepreneur with a proven track record for leading hyper-growth businesses over the past thirty years in the Information Technology industry, including one that was sold to IBM in 2007. Steve’s professional expertise spans several management disciplines including: Strategic Planning, Business Innovation, Marketing, Solutions Selling, Knowledge Management and Organizational Design. Steve still gets very excited about new technology and how it can make an impact on the current market trends.

Currently Steve oversees an innovative industrial computer hardware design and manufacturing company called Captec out of Canada. They custom design and build rugged systems for the medical, military and simulation markets just to name a few. His interests outside of work include travel, playing hockey and golf and spending as much time on his boat as possible.

Tony Francisco

President & CEO, CloudPlus

A serial entrepreneur that is passionate about deconstructing business concepts and reconstructing them into profitable business models through technology, automation and scalability.

CloudPlus, my latest endeavor founded in 2003, is a reverse-engineered SaaS delivery model that has grown into a world-class cloud services platform and is being considered an industry-first: a true hosted services distribution platform.

Prior to this, I bring over 23 years of experience as a sales, marketing, and business development leader driving integrated solution sales, including key roles at GTE and Schlumberger and Oculan where I had spearheaded the company's expanding domestic and international sales and channel initiatives.

I’ve also spent several years working with local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies regulating IT Security practices throughout the United States and am an active member of CompTIA where I sit on the Cloud Community Executive Council.
“Life has no remote. Get up and change it yourself.”

Adam Gittins

General Manager, HTS Ag

Adam Gittins developed a love for agriculture at an early age while helping out on the family farm in Neola. He attended Iowa State University where he earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Agricultural Business, with an area of emphasis in Farm Business Management. Working with GPS while crop scouting, Adam developed an interest in Precision Ag that led to a position with Ag Leader Technology in Ames, IA. He worked in their technical support department providing assistance with hardware and software to dealers and farmers around the world. Adam assisted with testing products and was the GPS and Guidance specialist. In the fall of 2005, Adam joined the then small Precision Ag team at HTS and relocated back near the family farm. With his in-depth technical knowledge, he hit the ground running and helped HTS grow their Precision Ag Department exponentially. In 2013, HTS was sold and the Precision Ag division became its own stand-alone company, HTS Ag, with Adam taking the helm as general manager. Adam has helped position HTS Ag in the drone industry, offering drones, training, and image stitching software for field analysis.

Marc Haskelson

President & CEO, Compliancy Group, LLC.

Marc Haskelson is the President and CEO of Compliancy Group. He has over 25 years of sales, marketing, and operational leadership experience, having held executive positions at Hearst Publications, Experian, and AT&T. He works with innovators to bring new products and solutions to market, utilizing his knowledge of fulfillment, customer care, compliance, and payment processing to consistently deliver rapid profitable growth. Melding direct marketing, sales, and entrepreneurial management, Marc’s experience with technology and operational execution has grown revenues from start-up to $150MM.

Compliancy Group gives anyone the ability to simplify the growing challenges of HIPAA compliance, whether they are an experienced health care professional with compliance expertise or a front desk manager without any formal training. Compliancy Group’s The Guard™ is a simple, cost-effective, web-based compliance solution that can help any organization regulate and monitor all aspects of their HIPAA compliance throughout their entire practice. With Compliancy Group, health care professionals are guided by a team of Compliance Coaches™ to Achieve, Illustrate, and Maintain™ compliance under the full spectrum of HIPAA, HITECH, Omnibus, and PCI regulations.

Eric Pinto

Senior Director | Channel, SOCSoter, Inc.

A veteran of the managed services space, Eric Pinto has leveraged the past decade of experience to foster a deepened understanding of the needs of the small business community. Born and raised in Dallas, Eric serves as the Vice President of Channel for SOCSoter, Inc., a leading VoIP provider built from the ground up for managed services. Unique to SOCSoter is a core focus on partner enablement by providing MSPs with the services and resources required to support business customers.
Eric Pinto serves on CompTIA's Executive Council for IT Security and continually is asked to provide thought leadership and guidance to the SMB community.

Greg Plum

Director, PartnerReady

With extensive experience in various marketing, business development, education, and management roles in banking, telecommunications, information technology, and software services, my background includes a focus on driving company growth, leveraging technology and strategic alliances to increase market share.

For the past 20 years, I have been an advocate for technology providers, assisting with CompTIA's lobbying efforts on Capitol Hill, facilitating CompTIA education content as a faculty member, and a former member of CompTIA's Telecom Advisory Council.

My core strengths include the ability to translate complex solutions into easily digestible content, delivered in a manner that results in increased awareness and excitement around solution implementation. My passions include artificial intelligence, technology optimization, brand marketing, partner and strategic alliance development, and change management education.

Tamara Prazak

Director of Channel Strategy and Marketing, AppGate

Tamara develops and implements marketing and sales enablement strategies for channel partner programs at AppGate, the secure access company.  Tamara has 20 years of experience in technology marketing. At ViaWest,  she built the channel program from the ground up, eventually accounting for more than 30% of the company’s bookings.  She then drove the development and execution of channel strategy for Flexential, formed when Peak 10 and ViaWest merged, resulting in greater than 30% YOY growth in channel bookings.  Tamara then joined Cyxtera developing and successfully implementing channel strategy and marketing which led to top line bookings growth and over 30% growth in YOY opportunity production. Tamara serves on the board of directors for Cloud Girls, an invitation only Cloud Technology Think Tank for Women. Tamara holds a degree in Business Administration from the University of Illinois and when she’s not working, she enjoys spending time with her family and running.

Frank Raimondi

Vice President, Channel Alliances & Partnerships, IGI Cyberlabs

Frank is a strategic channel marketing professional who specializes in bringing together organizations to develop strategies and programs producing the highest value for all.

Frank currently is the VP of Channel Alliances & Partnerships for Nodeware, built by IGI CyberLabs, utilizing his over 30 years of outstanding background in the IT/PC channels. Frank utilizes his strong relationships with vendors, distributors, and solutions partners to work together toward a greater goal. Frank helps guide IGI CyberLabs through alliance and partnership marketing, event production and management, strategy development, and complete follow-through to execution. Nodeware is an MSP-focused tool that delivers complete visibility of your network, real-time discovery of devices, and prioritization of security gaps/vulnerabilities and provides detailed remediation suggestions.

Jay Tipton

CEO, Technology Specialists

Jay Tipton is the CEO, and owner of Technology Specialists in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He founded Tipton Inc. (dba Tipton Computer Consulting) in 1997, and in 2000 he merged with D Bly Consulting to form Technology Specialists, focusing on SMB and Healthcare verticals in Northeast Indiana and Northwest Ohio. In 2006 he became the sole owner of Technology Specialists.

Jay attributes the success of his business to the close partnership he has with his clients and his willingness to evolve his business model as new technologies surface. Like other successful VARs, he only recommends products if it solves an issue for a client or enables the client to be more successful. As a result, Jay has long-term clients who consider him to be a strategic outgrowth of their company, not just the IT provider.

Since founding Technology Specialists, Jay has been an ardent advocate of the channel. Jay is a long-time and founding Board member of The ASCII Group’s Advisory Committee. He is also an active member of Tech Data’s Tech Select group and was a subject matter expert on the development of CompTIA’s Security Trustmark. He attends many industry conferences each year and is often quoted in industry publications speaking on behalf of independent resellers. 

In his free time, Jay is involved in several charitable causes, including the Boys & Girls Club of Ft. Wayne, the Ft. Wayne Museum of Art, and Erin’s House for grieving children. In addition to several technology awards, he was recently named a Distinguished Alumni of IVY Tech State College. 

In 2007 Jay and his wife Suzi welcomed their first child, Jennifer Diana, who according to several sources now goes to the office daily and has started to take over the company.

Ryan Walsh

Chief Channel Officer, Pax8

As co-founder and senior vice president of partner solutions for Pax8, a born-in-the-cloud distributor, Ryan Walsh oversees the selection of cloud products in the Pax8 online marketplace and drives the market requirements and development of the Pax8 Command Console, a cloud marketplace platform designed for channel partners.

Ryan has more than 15 years of experience helping channel partners to build successful cloud practices by enabling them to easily sell, bill and support cloud subscription services. Under his direction, Pax8 is redefining how distribution works for the channel in a cloud-centric world.

Prior to Pax8, Ryan served as vice president of product management for MX Logic, a cloud-based email and web security company that was acquired by McAfee in 2009. Following the acquisition, Ryan directed the product teams responsible for McAfee's portfolio of cloud-based email and web solutions and later led the product unification and hybrid cloud development effort for the company's web security product lines. Ryan has dedicated his career to enabling business with Internet-based solutions. He started his career building a reengineering practice at Deloitte & Touche in the Consulting division.

Ryan holds a BA in Business Economics from Colorado College and an MBA from the Harvard Business School.

Chris Whitaker

VP of Advanced Solutions, IoT and Wireless, Telarus