Aaron Woods
Executive Council, Advancing Diversity In Technology Community
Aaron Woods is a Partner Services Executive who delivers consistent and measurable success designing and implementing innovative customer focused programs and strategies. The programs that he implemented have resulted in increased customer satisfaction, consistent Net Promoter Scores, and improved the customer experience, while delivering organizational efficiencies and reduced operational costs. He leverages over 25 years of experience developing programs that deliver value while building strong partner and customer alliances.
Kevin Rubin
President, Chief Intelligence Officer Stratosphere Networks
Kevin Rubin is the president and Chief Intelligence Officer of Stratosphere Networks and Converged Communication Systems. He holds a Bachelor of Business Administration, marketing and finance from Loyola University in Chicago. Additionally, he has earned various technical engineering certifications from companies such as Avaya, Cisco and Microsoft.
Through his earlier work in the telecom industry, Kevin met Steve Melchiorre, the current CEO of Stratosphere and CCS. In 2003, they co-founded CCS, which produced $116,000 in revenue during its first year. Since then, the company has seen its revenue grow every year, increasing by an average of 40 percent on an annual basis and exceeding $8 million by 2015. The company has received a number of accolades - such as the Channel Partners 360° award, Inc. 5000, and CRN MSP Elite 150 - for its performance as a provider of IP telephony and unified communications solutions and services.
Seven years after founding CCS, Kevin and Steve launched Stratosphere Networks, a multifaceted provider of IT managed services and solutions. Stratosphere's state-of-the-art Network Operations Center (NOC) in Evanston leverages the latest diagnostic tools, monitoring solutions and other technologies to deliver the highest quality proactive support for its clients. Stratosphere earned recognition as one of Crain's Best Places to Work for Millennials in 2015, Best Places to Work for Women Under 35 in 2016 and Best Places to Work for Minorities in 2017.
Kevin has also received recognition for his work in the realm of IT managed services. He has been named as one of the Top People in Managed Services by MSPmentor with the MSPmentor 250 award. Additionally, he is an executive council member of the CompTIA Managed Services Community, a group of industry leaders that provide guidance and leadership on programs, education, and research offered by CompTIA, the non-profit trade association for the IT industry.
Arsalan Eizadirad
Senior Business Development Manager, Ricoh IT Services
Arsalan Eizadirad has been a contributor and leader in helping shape how Ricoh Canada is transforming its business and brand in the Canadian IT marketplace – one customer, one strategic relationship at a time. Arsalan represents Ricoh’s go-to-market future in the IT industry as a sales specialist, solution provider, and services program manager for the Ontario marketplace. The IT Services portfolio has been within Ricoh’s offering for several years, but with no greater champion than Arsalan in actively marketing, selling and promoting Ricoh’s value proposition to its customers; achieving great success in new business growth. He approaches his marketplace under the corporate umbrella of Ricoh’s brand not just as a direct salesperson, but more as an entrepreneur developing a new IT centric service focused on helping his customers make information work for them in a secure productive manner. With Grayson I.T. being a part of the Ricoh family now, Arsalan has been extremely helpful to grow the brand nationally and be able to offer a wider range of IT services to his clients. Arsalan has served as one of the executive council members for the CompTIA’s Future Leaders group for the last 3 years and is now looking to bring his experience and passion to the Canadian IT executive council.
Maddy Martin
Head of Growth & Education, Smith.ai
Maddy Martin is the head of growth and education for Smith.ai, which provides small-business communication services, including their virtual receptionist and intake service, live web chat, and Keypad cloud phone system. She has spent the last decade growing tech startups from New York to California, and has expertise in digital marketing, lead generation, funnel conversion, email marketing, business development, partnerships, affiliate marketing, SEO, social media, and event marketing.
Corey L Kirkendoll
President/CEO, 5K Technical Services
Corey Kirkendoll is President/CEO of 5K Technical Services and an 11-year entrepreneur with 25+ years of experience in the Information Services & Technology sector. He is a visionary and the driving force behind 5K to ensure as a business that they are committed to establishing solid IT solutions for SMB clients throughout the North Texas area. Corey’s success stems not only from his industry expertise and passion for technology but in his inherent ability to establish long-term client relationships based on honesty, trust, and dependability. Because of this, 5K Technical Services is a leader in Managed IT Services and Security throughout North Texas.
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”.
Val Haskell
Global Senior Director, SAP
Val Haskell’s career in technology started with a non-traditional hiring outreach program that the Texas Department of Public Safety launched to fill IT positions. Nearly twenty years later, she’s still in the technology industry. She joined SAP in early 2011 after more than a decade consulting on business intelligence, performance management and sustainability projects. Today, she works with SAP’s partners who sell and implement SAP software.
Val has been recognized for her professional and civic leadership by the American Marshall Memorial Fellowship 2007, Leadership Dallas 2010, and Leadership ISD 2013. She served on several boards: Chair for Leadership ISD, Board member Reading Partners, Dallas Independent School District Budget Review Committee Member and Dallas Police Department’s Citizens Police Review Board. Val has a passion for education, which for years had her focus on the public-school system. In working with public schools, she realized the need for more adults to have on-ramps to stable careers. Due to her own positive experience in technology, Val would like to see more people, from all backgrounds, find the on-ramp to her field. She resides in Dallas, TX.
Rob Rae
VP of Business Development, Datto
As Vice President of Business Development at Datto, Rob's role is to oversee many different aspects of Datto's business including Marketing, Global Sales, Partner Programs, Product Development and Training, all with the goal of helping our partners go to market.
With over 25 years of sales and B2B activities, Rob has extensive experience in IT hardware and software sales. All of Rob’s industry experience has been working with 100% channel focused organizations and working directly with Channel VAR’s, Solution Providers and Managed Service Providers in achieving their goals.
Prior to working with Datto, Rob has built successful sales teams in a variety of industries including Level Platforms (acquired by AVG), Compaq (acquired by HP). Last 4 years running, Rob was named as one of MSP Mentors Top 250 people shaping the global managed services market. Executive Board member at both ASCii and CompTIA.
Specialties: Managing people and teams to success. Creating an ideal workplace, one that fosters success, accountability and loyalty. Building relationship and working with the channel specific to the IT industry