HDI International Certification Standards Committee

Abby has been an influential member of HDI since 2005. She is a local chapter officer in the Long Island chapter of HDI and a charter member of the HDI Government Forum. She currently serves as the Senior IT Project manager for Tax Processing Operations Support in the IRS whose mission is to provide project management oversight for print operations and the volunteer income tax hardware distribution program. As a former IT Service Desk Quality Assurance Manager for the IRS with over fifteen years experience in Information Technology management, she has proven her ability to meet or exceed client expectations in service delivery. Abby holds a B.S. in Mathematics and MBA from St. Joseph’s College. She is a member of PMI and is ITIL v3 Foundation certified.

Pat Albright is Manager of Support Center Services at HDI. In this role, she is responsible for the management and development of HDI Support Center Services offerings, including HDI Support Center Certification and HDI Support Center Assessment Services. As part of the HDI Certification & Training team, Pat also manages the work of the HDI International Certification Standards Committee which includes the maintenance and development of HDI Standards. She has been an HDI-Certified Auditor since 2003 and an HDI Faculty member since 2009. She holds the HDI-SCD, HDI-SCM, HDI-SCTL, HDI-SCA, and ITIL Foundation v3 certifications, and the CobiT Foundation 4.1 Certificate. An active member of HDI since 1997, she has served as a volunteer local chapter officer and advisor, as a judge at the national level for the HDI Analyst of the Year and Team Excellence Awards, as a member of the HDI Member Advisory Board, and as a member of the review committees for the HDI Support Center Team Lead Certification Standard, HDI Support Center Manager Certification Standard, and HDI Support Center Standard. She is also a frequent presenter at industry events.

Pat has been involved in the implementation and support of technology for more than 20 years. Prior to joining HDI, she served the industry as a consultant, working with support centers in nearly every industry, and worked as a practitioner, managing end user support in the legal industry. She has held business and technology management positions in non-profit, small business, and corporate environments. She also serves as a part-time faculty member at Lakeland Community College in Kirtland, OH, where she teaches Help Desk Concepts and Management.

Ingrid Bradford is an accomplished Instructional Designer and Facilitator, with over 12 years of experience in the support industry. As HDI’s Senior Instructional Designer, Ingrid is responsible for HDI’s strategic initiatives by overseeing the design, development, and integrity of all HDI certification and training courses.

Prior to joining HDI, Ingrid was instrumental in the creation and development of STI Knowledge’s certification curricula. She served as a Training Consultant designing and implementing customized learning solutions for PepsiCo, Orange, and SWIFT. She is credited for directing the development and implementation of STI Knowledge’s first online certification training course. One of Ingrid’s largest contributions to STI Knowledge is the creation of the Certified Instructor course and program, which grew to include over 60 Certified Instructors worldwide.

In previous positions, Ingrid worked as an HR Consultant involved in retained recruitment of executive level professionals in the Telecommunications, IT/IS, HW/SW Engineering, Business and Sales industries. She holds a BS degree in Education from
Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, and is an active member of the American Society of Training and Development (ASTD).

Rae Ann Bruno is the President of Business Solutions Training, Inc., a firm focused on experiential training for process improvement, business-aligned leadership and team development. Rae Ann is known for her interactive, information packed training courses and her ability to tailor information to her participants so that they can apply it in their respective roles. She has trained all levels of employees in the areas of communications, high performance teaming, DISC Profile, and leadership skill building with a special emphasis on Information Technology.

Rae Ann has over 15 years of management experience with an emphasis on process re-engineering, employee development, and business alignment of IT services. Formerly the Vice President of Strategic Relations for Previo, Rae Ann was the publisher of Previo’s eZine, eSupport Perspectives and has authored many articles and white papers published in various support and service industry publications. In this role, Rae Ann consulted with Previo customers on process re-engineering and best practices and trained support professionals on industry best practices.

Prior to Previo, Rae Ann was the Director of IT Customer Service for Siemens Energy & Automation (SE&A) where she started up an IT training and documentation department, re-engineered the Service Desk, and implemented Incident Management, Problem Management and Service Level Management across the IT organization. She came to SE&A from Cutler-Hammer where she re-engineered the Support and Security teams in her role as Enterprise Support Manager. In her previous role as the Training & Documentation Manager, she worked closely with the business units to develop and deliver business-focused training and support. Her training team won the Cutler-Hammer Award for their innovative and successful training program focused on raising the computer literacy of the Cutler-Hammer sales force through organized peer training.

Rae Ann has her ITIL Service Management Foundation Certificate and is a certified trainer HDI Professional, Knowledge Management, Team Lead, Manager and Director Certifications. Rae Ann was nominated for the 2001 Computer World Premier 100 and was the recipient of the 99 Service Award from Service News. She was the co-chair of the Georgia 100 Mentoring program Alumnae Association and served on the World Leadership Team for Help Desk 2000. She is a regular speaker at leadership and support conferences.

Laura has 20 years experience in the Computer Support field. Her experience includes work at TeleSciences, GE Aerospace, Allegheny Health, Education and Research Foundation, Merck Pharmaceuticals, and Stonemor Partners.

Her IT career encompasses training and installation, instructional development, technical writing, quality assurance, and help desk support and management. She has built and managed both training and support organizations, focusing on process and procedure development. Her responsibilities have included projects in Belgium, England and Canada.

Laura has an M.Ed. in Computers from Rosemont College. Currently her role includes managing the Technical Services and the Telecommunications Groups for a public company in the greater Philadelphia area with 200 remote locations nationally.

John Butler is currently the Director of I.S. End User Support Services with Brinker International where he oversees three teams that provide technical support and special services to the restaurants as well as the corporate office. He started as a helpdesk analyst back in August of 2000 and worked his way up to his current position which he has held since March of 2007.

John had over 15 years of management experience in the Hospitality industry, before switching gears and directing his focus on IT. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology and his Master of Science degree in Management and Administrative Sciences from the University of Texas at Dallas. John also has certifications for A+, Net+, MCP and ITIL v3. John has been involved with HDI since July of 2008 and is currently serving as a member of the HDI National Retail Forum Steering Committee.

Sarah Carpenter works for Electronic Data Systems (EDS). She started her career with EDS in March of 1999. Sarah graduated from Olivet College with a BA in Business Administration and Communication.

During her nine years with EDS she has had the opportunity to fulfill several Service Desk Positions. She began her career as a request handler supporting General Motors. She has served as a Team Leader, Supervisor, Career Progression SME, Contract Owner, Site Training Lead and Regional Training Lead. Today Sarah manages the groups who handle Global Training, Global Process and Global Communications for the GM Global SvD.

Brandon Caudle is the Support Center Manager for Delta Dental of California. Over the past nine years at Delta Dental, he has consolidated six Help Desks and been instrumental in the creation of Delta's 24x7 Follow the Sun support model and also the Enterprise-wide adoption of consistent Incident Management Best Practices and Processes

Brandon is the past president of the Sacramento Chapter of HDI and carries the HDI Help Desk Manager Certification. His passion is Customer Service and willingly shares his thoughts and experiences both online and in speaking to HDI and other groups.

John Custy is the founder and principal of JPC Group, a professional services company focused on three key factors of IT Service Management (ITSM): people, process, and technology. He has over twenty-five years of experience working in IT services and service management, and he is an ITIL-certified Service Manager/Expert, a certified ISO9000 Internal Auditor, and an itSMF-certified ISO/IEC 20000 Consultant. He is a member of the HDI Faculty, an HDI-Certified Auditor, and a Subject Matter Expert (SME) for the HDI Individual Certification Standards and HDI Support Center Certification Standard. He was a key contributor to the development of the Support Center Practices (SCP) certification, the Software Support Certified Consultant (S2C2) program, the HDI Support Center Certification program, and the HDI International Certification Standards Committee.

John has been involved as a practitioner, educator, and consultant in developing industry education and certification programs for over fifteen years, he has co-authored an industry paper ("Customer-Oriented Enterprise Integration Technology"), and he is a well-known speaker and educator at IT service management conferences globally. John has a BS from Lowell Technological Institute and an MS in Innovation and Technology from Boston University. His certifications include: ITIL Service Management Manager, ITIL Service Management Practitioner, ITIL Foundations; ISO/IEC 20000 Consultant; ISO9000 Internal Auditor; HDI Support Center Manager (SCM), HDI Support Center Team Lead (SCTL), HDI Help Desk Support Engineer (HDSE), HDI Support Center Analyst (SCA), and Knowledge-Centered Support (KCS).

Michael Devaney is currently the Director of Support for Enterprise Mobile, an industry leader in providing implementation, management, and support of Windows Mobile solutions to Fortune 1000 companies. With over 20 years of experience in service and support, Michael has previously been employed as a Managing Consultant for IBM’s Global Business Services and as a Director at CompuCom, a national outsourcer for Help Desk Services. He has presented on Knowledge Management at several HDI Conferences as well as a contributing author to HDI’s Implementing Service and Support Management Processes: A Practical Guide.

I am a graduate of Fairfield University. I am certified as a Help Desk Manager by Help Desk 2000 now HDI. I also possess a Foundation Certificate in IT Service Management.


I have provided Help Desk management in various industries: retail, regional banking, global reinsurance, and medical systems.

I recently started by own consulting firm, DNP Consulting specializing in Help Desk management and hope to write a book on Help Desk management.

My personal hobbies are spoiling my niece, two nephews, and my two great nephews, gardening, and collecting candle holders. I am a lifelong resident of Stratford, CT.

With over 30 years of experience in the high technology and software development industry, Paul has held numerous positions in customer services, support and marketing. Experience includes front line technical support (levels 1, 2 and 3), support team lead, manager of international support, service business development manager, marketing manager and director of solutions marketing.

Paul’s wide ranging experience includes creation of support center policies and procedures, integration of multiple support centers, selection and development of Knowledge Management Systems, quality assurance processes, implementation of sophisticated Service Management Systems, support marketing strategy and collateral development, new service development and launch, and services marketing.

Nathan Eatherton is the IT Service Desk Manager for the University of Missouri, where he is responsible for all front line support channels. Nathan has worked at the University for over 10 years and has led two separate support center consolidations. He is currently working to implement ITIL and KCS best practices.

Nathan holds Support Center Manager, Director and Knowledge Centered Support certifications from HDI, the Project Management Professional certification from PMI and has an MBA from the Gordon E Crosby MBA Program at the University of Missouri.

As JM Family Enterprises’ Manager of IT Service Management, Mark is responsible for the management of the Support Center as well as the overall Service Management functions within IT. Mark has more than 12 years experience assisting companies leverage their IT investments through well defined service and support processes.

An HDI member since 2004, Mark will be assisting with the creation of the North Florida local HDI Chapter in 2008.
Mark is a graduate of Florida State University, holds the HDI Support Center Manager certification, and two ITIL certifications, Foundations and Support and Restore.

Nathan is currently the IT Quality Assurance (QA) Manager for FedEx Kinko's; ensuring products delivered by the FedEx Kinko’s Information Technology (IT) department meet FedEx Kinko’s IT Quality Standards. Prior to QA Nathan was the Service Desk Manager for FedEx Kinko’s; an internal First and Second Level Tech Support organization comprised of 5 supervisors and 80 support professionals providing 24x7 technical support to 20,000 FedEx Kinko's employees at over 1,400 retail locations in the US and Canada. Nathan has been with FedEx Kinko's since 1998 filling the roles of First Level Support Representative, Team Lead, Second Level Specialist, Supervisor, Engineer and Manager. Nathan started his management career in 2004 overseeing support for the largest technology deployment FedEx Kinko's has completed; deploying a new point of sale and workflow management system to every FedEx Kinko's retail location. Nathan is an HDI certified Support Center Manager (SCM) and is ITIL Foundations certified. Nathan also serves as the VP of Membership for the local HDI chapter in Dallas / Ft. Worth.

Greg is an independent IT service management consultant. He has been active in service management software and process consulting for more than 15 years. Greg holds ISO, ITIL, COBIT, Six Sigma black belt and several software tool certifications. Greg has been delivering IT tool and process training for 25 years. Greg has written several ITIL training courses and has developed a Deming-based ITIL implementation methodology. He works closely with the Collaborative for Enterprise Transformation and Innovation at the Ohio State University and InsightETE, an IT service management software vendor in Columbus, Ohio.

Drew Jaehnig has been in IT for more than 15 years and has managed service desks, network operations centers and technical control facilities for Defense Department agencies ranging from the United States Navy, The Counter-Intelligence Field Activity, The Defense Information Systems Agency and Joint Staff Support Center. He has managed service desks providing global as well as local support to a wide range of Defense Department users on systems ranging from Command and Control functionality in direct support to the troops on the ground to basic administrative support for office workers in the National Capital Region. As such, Drew has seen the high octane high survivability portion of the industry and understands how the US Government is approaching IT in its most dynamic forms.

Drew is currently the Operations Chief for the Joint Operations Support Center in the Pentagon. Drew has been with the Joint Staff Support Center for a little over a year. His Service Desk receives calls globally from the Combatant Commanders in direct support of Command and Control efforts on the ground and operates in a 24x7 basis high pressure environment.

Drew is a former member of the United States Navy and is a member of the HDI Government Forum, the HDI Desktop (formerly Field) Technician's Technical Review Committee and is a certified HDI Support Center Manager (will be after I do my test this week.). Drew has a BA in Mathematics and two Associates in Physics and Acoustic Design.

John Jester is a Team Supervisor for BJC HealthCare in St. Louis, Missouri. John supervises the day-to-day operations of the Customer Support Center that provides support for the 13 hospitals and 26,000+ employees served. He has more than 10 years of experience in the Information Services industry. John is active in the HDI Gateway local chapter in St. Louis, MO. John joined its board of directors and has served as the VP of Finance since 2006. The chapter achieved Platinum status in the HDI Circle of Excellence program in 2009.

Lynn Johnson is the Manager of End User Support at Carnival Cruise Lines, where she manages both the Technical Support Desk and the Desktop Support groups. She has more than 25 years of experience in the Information Technology industry, ranging from desktop support to network administration to training, and she holds the HDI Support Center Manager and ITIL Foundation v2 certifications.

Lynn joined Carnival in April 1988 and took over the management of the support desk in October 2005. During her tenure at Carnival, she has been responsible for project coordination and delivery of new technology to all Carnival locations. Lynn has served as logistics coordinator for thirteen new ship deliveries and IT project manager for all Carnival new builds and refreshes since 2002.

Lynn is active in the HDI South Florida local chapter. After attending an interest group in September 2008, Lynn joined its board of directors as the Co-VP of Programs and worked on the team that breathed life back into the chapter which had been inactive for several years. The chapter achieved gold status in the HDI Circle of Excellence program in its first year.

Rick Joslin is the Executive Director of Certification & Training for HDI. He is responsible for the development, sales, and delivery of HDI’s training and certification offerings. Rick is a certified Knowledge-Centered Support (KCS) instructor and has guided organizations with the implementation of KCS. He is also a certified instructor for the HDI certification courses. Prior to joining HDI, Rick was a Principal Consultant with IHS Support Solutions. Formerly, Rick was the VP of Customer Care for ServiceWare, VP of RightAnswers.com, and VP of Knowledge Engineering. Rick was responsible for the production of the industry’s leading third-party knowledge bases, known as Knowledge-Paks. A winner of the 1999 Service 25 Award, Rick has been widely acknowledged as one of the most influential luminaries in the support industry. Rick is the author of the HDI Focus Book on Knowledge Management, the HDI Focus Book on the Knowledge Management Maturity Model, and a contributed the Knowledge Management chapter in the HDI Service and Support Handbook.

Rick is an active member of the Consortium for Service Innovation’ KCS Program Committee and serves on the Strategic Board of Advisors for HDI and the Advisory Council of Indiana University of Pennsylvania's Business College. He was a founding member, chairman, and director-at-large of HDI’s Member Advisory Board, and continues to serve as a chairman emeritus on this board, on the HDI Training Advisory Board, and the HDI International Certification Standards Committee. Rick was a founding advisor for the Help Desk Professionals Association, as well as the president and chapter advisor in the Pittsburgh Chapter of HDI. Rick has served as a judge for the 10 Best Support Websites sponsored by the Association of Support Professionals, as a judge for the HDI Team Excellence Award sponsored by HDI, on the Eservice Standard Advisory Board sponsored by Service & Support Professionals Association (SSPA), and on the HDI Support Center Certification Committee.

Robert S. Last is the Content Manager for HDI. For more than 25 years he has been involved in the IT technical support field as a manager, trainer, consultant and industry analyst. He is the author of dozens of articles, white papers, and HDI Focus Books on a wide range of topics related to all aspects of technical support. He is the author of the HDI book, How to Be a Successful Support Center Analyst. He also supports the HDI membership and staff by managing the “Ask the Expert” service on the HDI Web site.

Bob is a graduate of Cleveland State University with a B.A. in Urban Studies and also an M.A. in history. He also holds certificates in disaster recovery planning, management and instructional design. He is an HDI-certified Support Center Analyst, Desktop Support Analyst, and Support Center Manager.

Linda Lenox is the IT Manager at Cox Communications-Hampton Roads, where she is responsible for server, network and telecommunications management, the service desk, and client services. She previously held positions at Smithfield Foods as the Senior Manager of End-User Services and at The New York Times Company as the Manager of Computer Support and IT Operations. Ms. Lenox received her MS in Telecommunications Management from the University of Maryland University College and her BS in Business Management from LeTourneau University. She is a recipient of Best Practice Awards in Business Process Improvement (2006) and Help Desk (1999), and was named to the Computerworld Premier 100 IT Leaders in 2003.

Mr. Marchand is a seasoned Business Manager with 33 years of experience in various aspects of the IT industry. He is a founding Partner of RADAR Solutions Group Inc. specializing in customer service consulting, training and management tools. For eight years he managed on-site service delivery teams with an excellent track record in achievement of revenue, expense and customer satisfaction goals. Mr. Marchand has six years experience in project and program management. Much of this experience was gained in hardware and software product lifecycle planning, development and implementation of major product enhancement and re-engineering deliverables.

Mr. Marchand has successfully demonstrated skills in training development and delivery of quality improvement programs, customer management, performance management, troubleshooting techniques, process improvement and documentation techniques and project management. He has led process improvement teams in a helpdesk and on-site environments that focused on, productivity improvements and employee empowerment. He has demonstrated leadership in the implementation of measurable quality process improvement initiatives. He is ITIL Foundation certified, an HDI-Certified Instructor and a member of the HDI International Certification Standards Committee (ICSC). He serves as a Ottawa HDI Chapter Executive and has delivered several presentations to the chapter and the itSMF Conference in Toronto.

Peter J. McGarahan is the founder and president of McGarahan & Associates. Pete is also the acting Chairman of the IT Infrastructure Management Association, a sister organization to HDI. Pete’s value to the service and support industry and business is his thought leadership. As a practitioner, product manager and support industry analyst and expert, he has influenced the maturity of the service and support industry. His passions for customer service led the Taco Bell support organization to achieve the Help Desk Institute Team Excellence Award. IT Support News also named him one of the “Top 25 Professionals in the Service and Support Industry” in 1999. Support professionals voted McGarahan “The Legend of the Year” in 2002 and again in 2004 at the Help Desk Professionals conference for his endless energy, mentoring and coaching and his valuable contribution to the support industry and community.

Formerly the Manager of IT Client Services for Novant Health, Chris Meadows was responsible for the overall Incident Management process and Service Desk function supporting 22,000+ customers. His responsibilities included managing the Support Center, Data Center Operations and Remedy Teams. Chris has 10 years experience in the support industry. Prior to accepting support leadership roles in the HealthCare arena, Chris served as a Certified Instructor for STI-Knowledge / Help Desk 2000 during which he trained and certified more than 500 support industry practitioners nationwide in Best Practices. In addition to being HDI Support Center Director certified, Chris is also ITIL Practitioner certified.

For over 14 years, Julie L. Mohr has been passionate about service and support management. Her broad range of experiences include teaching ITSM and COBIT courses worldwide, working as Director of Professional Services for IHS Support Solutions, Consulting Practice Principal for Agilità and Pomeroy, Managing Consultant with ARC and Director of Outsourcing at Seneca. She has worked as a technical advisor to the Department of Education, a support manager at the National Institutes of Health and as a support analyst at NASA. Julie is a certified Helpdesk Director from Helpdesk 2000 and certified ITIL® Service Manager.

Julie provides imaginative insight and dynamic leadership to transform service and support organizations into best practice, customer-focused environments. She has helped organizations to implement Knowledge Management, ITSM, IT Governance, organization structures, service catalogs and service level management. Julie is an active contributor to the future development of the industry through speaking engagements at conferences worldwide and publishing over 150 articles on best practices. Julie is the author of The Help Desk Audit: Blueprint for Success, The Help Desk Toolkit: Companion CD and The Help Desk Dictionary, and maintains an informative industry website for practitioners at www.blueprintaudits.com. She is also a member of IEEE Computer Society, ISACA, HDI, itSMF, ICMI and the Association of Support Professionals.

In a humorous storytelling style, Deborah's 20, plus years of Key Note speaking, teaching and coaching provokes truth and eye opening ideas to create "Life-Formation", understanding of our humanity, and how to get it back. Deborah is a Master Practitioner of Emotional Intelligence, one of twelve in the world.

Working largely with Help Desks, Call Centers and Technical groups around the world, Ms. Monroe concentrates on integrating humans and process for a balanced working environment. Her aim is to build understanding and empathy creating a positive bottom line through employee and customer retention.

Deborah, honoured recently, in joining the HDI faculty, after working extensively with STI Knowledge as one of their Master Certified Instructors, where she worked in partnership shaping their renowned courses, certifying trainers and thousands of Support Industry Professionals.

Ms. Monroe has been the driving force in launching three not-for-profit organizations, two of which are international. Deborah is also a published performer, songwriter and musician. She has appeared on local and international TV and radio. Ms. Monroe resides in the Hudson Valley in New York. She has lived and traveled abroad, and currently has two projects in line for publication.

Simone Moore is a Senior Consultant with Help Desk Association Australasia (HDAA), our Gold Australia and New Zealand country partner since 1999. Simone conducts many of the HDI certification programs, ITIL Foundations and provides consultation for best practice review and implementation. Simone’s experience covers fast-paced, dynamic environments such as the Military, telecommunications, information technology, pay television and health.

With industry qualifications in Contact Centre and Service Desk, Simone specialises in customer service, strategic planning, organisational development, change management and human resources. Simone is also certified in various therapeutic techniques successfully integrated with the corporate arena.

Simone engages you in a depth of knowledge, collaboration, sense of humour and a learning approach that is thought provoking, interesting and relevant ensuring synchronicity in the mind, body and spirit of a company.

Skip Pogue is a Support Center management professional with proven leadership skills and a track record of building value in all types of Support Center environments. He has been with Technisource 10 plus years during which time he has held several management and director level positions. Currently he is the Director of Training, Certifications and Transitions for North America with the responsibility for the transition of all new Help Desk / Deskside Services accounts from conception to steady state. Prior to accepting this position with Technisource he was the National Director of Help Desk Quality Management. This position allowed him many unique opportunities to utilize his management and leadership skills.

His previous Technisource experience includes a position as an Operations Director with oversight responsibility for 3 major managed service accounts. These accounts, located in Fishkill and Melville New York and Kennesaw Georgia, exceeded 400 total employees and generated over $20,000,000 in revenue.

Before joining Technisource Skip worked for and retired from IBM. The last 15 years of his career with IBM was spent entirely in the customer service and Support Center arena. Additionally, there was a 3-year period with TSS (Technology Service Solutions) a subsidiary of IBM directing the day-to-day operations of a help desk supporting IBM server products.

Skip is also a certified instructor for HDI. Through HDI he holds the certifications of Help Desk Manager, Help Desk Analyst, Customer Support Specialist, Desktop Support Technician and Support Center Team Lead. He is also an HDI Support Center Certification Auditor.

Mike Rabinowitz is an experienced certified trainer. He spent the first part of his career as a New York City Police Officer. He calls it "the ultimate learning ground for communication skills". He also got involved in educating people in the community through meetings, lectures and lots of face to face communication. After a 10 year police career, Mike now has 10 years in the world of IT support and customer service. He spent 6 years learning his craft with companies such as Carolina Medical Center and Bank of America as a field technician, team leader, manager, Assistant Vice President and for the last 4 years as a trainer. Using his "street corner" approach and his passion for helping people learn the tools that allows them to stay motivated, Mike can be depended upon to combine his real life work experience and process knowledge to help companies get the most out of their training dollars.

Born in Des Moines, IA, Walter has lived in states in the Midwest and south. He and his wife currently reside in Southern Michigan near Kalamazoo. Walter is the Controls Manager for the Dematic Customer Service Technical Support Desk which is a 24/7 Call Center. He has a BS from California Coast University and certifications as a Help Desk Director, Manager, Knowledge Manager and Project Manager Professional (PMP). During his non-working hours, Walter enjoys traveling and boating.

Jacque Rowden has been part of the evolution of Help Desks for the past 20 years. Managing internal global technical support organizations at Viacom, a dot.com, and several law firms, Jacque has been on the front lines of changes in how we think of support (HDI, ITIL).

Jacque is a board member of the Steel City chapter of HDI. She is a Microsoft Certified Professional as well as HDI Support Center Director certified. She has spoken about eDiscovery, managing IT professionals, certification versus experience, and Small to Medium Help Desk Strategies. Her current team's vision: To be the best Help Desk in the world!

Aaron Spurlock is the Chief Information Officer for West Virginia Medical Institute and Quality Insights, an organization focused on providing services to improve health and maximize the quality of health care on a regional and national basis. Aaron has over 15 years of strategic leadership experience in information technology domains ranging from financial services to healthcare.

Aaron is an active member of HDI, HIMSS (Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society), HITSP (Healthcare Information Technology Standards Panel), the WV e-Health Initiative and the Green Data Center Alliance. Aaron is ITIL Foundation Certified, holds a BBA from Marshall University and a MS from Mountain State University.

Artur Sygnatowicz began his career in 1982 as a system design engineer. From 1990 till 2006 he was a manager and a member of the board of several IT systems integration companies and an IT outsourcing company. He also has experience in managing a software house company. Artur is currently working as an IT management consultant. He has participated in IT audits and IT system development projects where he was the project manager. He has focused his professional development on security systems and IT systems management projects.
In 1998 he established HDI-Poland. He now hold the position of HDI-Poland manager. He is also an SCA and SCM certified instructor. Artur graduated the Faculty of Electronics at Warsaw University of Technology.. He also completed postgraduate studies in Business Management and Marketing as well as many courses in IT including COBiT, PRINCE2. He has been awarded the ITIL Foundation certificate.

Clyde Talley is a help desk professional who has worked in both the public and private sector of service and support, working at FM Facility Maintenance as a Director of Operations, the University of Connecticut (UConn) as Manager of Customer Support and Relations, Phoenix Companies as a Manager for the Service Center Operations and Desktop Support for the United States and overseas in Bangalore, India, and a Client Management Consultant and in various other roles for service and support at MassMutual Financial Group. Clyde holds a Masters of Science Degree in Management from Cambridge College with certificates in Diversity and Organizational Development, and is certified as a Help Desk Director, Certified Knowledge Manager, Certified Project Manager, and a certified trainer for the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Clyde has worked as a consultant for the National Conference for Community and Justice, and has also served as Chief Executive Officer and President of the Board of Directors of Early Childhood Centers (ECC) in Springfield, MA. Under his leadership, ECC built a new 4.5 million-dollar facility.

A native of Springfield, MA, he has been involved in Toastmasters (a communication and leadership organization) for over 17 years. He is a Past District Governor of the organization and has served as Lt. Governor of Education and Training and District Governor for Toastmasters International covering over 2,200 members in Eastern New York, Western MA and all of Connecticut. He also received Toastmaster’s Excellence Award in Education and Training. As a professional speaker/lecturer for over 18 years, Clyde has given workshops and presentations to various businesses, colleges, local and civic organizations. He is also the creator and presenter of the “Inspired Excellence” seminar and workshops.

All of Mark’s work has involved some form of public or private customer service and support operations. In IT, his career includes technical, lead, and management positions in datacenter operations, application development and support, and his current role of managing Halliburton’s Global IT Service Center. Mark has also led teams in developing processes for configuration, incident, change, and service level management based on the ITIL and ISO 20000 frameworks. HDI’s certification standards are key tools that Mark uses in developing his team and its operations. Mark is in his second term as a member of the HDI Strategic Advisory Board.

Dan Wilson has over ten years experience in IT Service. Dan is currently the Manager of Client Services at Volkswagen of America in Auburn Hills, MI responsible for Incident Management as well as the day to day management of the Help Desk, Desktop Support, and Asset management vendor, T-Systems. Previously Dan was the General Manager at PMV Technologies focusing on the continuous improvement of PMV's service and internal operations as well as maintaining their IT infrastructure. In the past, he has managed help desk and technical staff for Oakland University’s IIT Help Desk and School of Business Administration, Handleman Company, and PMV Technologies. Dan has served many years in the HDI Motown Chapter as President, Vice President of Membership and Vice President of Programs. He also sits on the HDI Member Advisory Board as a Member at Large and the HDI International Certification Standards Committee. Dan's strengths are in the areas of process and procedure, management, analytics and statistical reporting. One of Dan's passions is helping people (family, peers, colleagues, and customers). Being in the support field allows him to fulfill the passion every day. Dan has a Bachelors Degree in Management Information Systems from Oakland University's School of Business Administration, HDI's Help Desk Manager and ITIL Foundations certifications.

Tatsumi Yamashita has 20 years support industry experience and has developed several help desks and support centers throughout Japan. In 1999, he became the first Japanese HDI intern and has since studied advanced support principles in the U.S. that could be applied toward the advancement of Japanese support environments. He finally established HDI-Japan in 2001 based on the strong demand of Japanese support service industries and he is working as CEO of HDI-Japan with many HDI members and partners in Japan now.

Sarah Younger has worked in the technology support arena for more than 15 years. Currently she is the director of support center operations for the American Medical Association in Chicago, IL.