2017 Speakers

Denise Rundle is a General Manager in Microsoft’s CSS (Customer Service & Support) business unit and leads the Community, Advertising, Partner & Sales Support Business Unit. Denise deeply believes that each customer support touch point is an opportunity to show our customers that Microsoft listens and cares, and an opportunity to increase their engagement with our products and services. Her team manages all aspects of Advertiser, Partner Enablement, Microsoft Store, Save and Commercial Presales Support including creating leads and presales from existing customer service interactions and enabling sales through external partners. Denise leads the strategic planning for our social media and online communities investments globally. She also leads an innovative CSS strategic program, “Achieve More” to leverage our customer and partner engagements to drive incremental value.

Denise joined Microsoft in 1990 and during her tenure she spearheaded the first 24x7 customer service efforts, built the online support assets in the early days of the internet, established the first Microsoft Most Valuable Professional Community strategy, and has led several different Service Delivery organizations.

Denise has an undergraduate degree in speech communications, journalism and public relations and is a mean poker player.

James “Mac” McAnally is Vice President of Global Support Delivery, Engineering Resolution (GSD ER). Mac started with HPE in 1985 and has held a number of positions in the Customer Solution Center, Field, and Support Sales organizations. Most recently, Mac led the GSD Customer Solution Center, leading the organization through the HP separation and implementing the Workflow Transformation program.

Previously, Mac led Global Support Delivery Americas for Brazil, Canada, Mexico, MCA (Multi-Country Area) and the United States, the start-up of the Costa Rica Global Solution Center, and served as the Site Manager ensuring readiness and the successful transition of existing and new businesses into Costa Rica. Before leading the Costa Rica operations, Mac managed the Americas Value Solution Center, the Mission Critical Solution Center, and the TS Account Management Program. In addition, he started and managed the Field Support Engineering team and spent two years on-site as a Major Account Support Manager for Worldspan. He has also held various positions in the Solution Center as a Project Manager, Production Engineer, and Response Center Engineer. Mac resides in the Atlanta area with his wife. He enjoys spending quality time with his family and friends in outdoor activities such as golfing, fishing, cycling, and motorcycling.

Bob Horton is Director of Field Service Operations for ABB’s Process Automation Division. He has over 20 years of experience in Field Service and Engineering Consulting in such areas as industrial automation, environmental science, energy conservation, and chemical engineering. He is currently responsible for customer satisfaction and profitable delivery of over $50 million annually in field service business. His customers include many household names of chemical, petrochemical and consumer products companies that require 24/7 responses to production emergencies. He is tasked with meeting the demands of an ever-changing marketplace with new processes, technologies, and competitive challenges.

Bob attended undergraduate school at North Carolina State University and received a PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin.

Mauricio has over 24 years of P&L management, program & business management, delivery, operations, maintenance and services management experience in telecommunications industry.

Prior to joining FNC, Mauricio held multiple positions at Lucent Technologies and during this time, led the creation & implementation of a Global Program Office responsible for the delivery of a multiyear billion dollar program for one of the major Tier 1 operators. After Lucent, spent some time at NSN, as the Head of the Services Business Management organization, leading all organizational, business and process re-engineering initiatives to fulfill NSN’s services strategic intent, including a process framework and governance for Services BU Strategic Business Reviews.

Since joining FNC in 2009, Mauricio was responsible for the Network Delivery Organization responsible for the end-to-end delivery all programs / projects for all our 445+ customers until 3 years ago moved to lead FNC Managed & Maintenance services organization responsible for pursuit, product line management, services agreement management, services delivery & operations including Fujitsu Technical Assistance Center and Network Operations Center.

BSc in Mechanical Engineer with specialization in Aeronautics from ITA – Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica, MBA in Marketing from ESPM – Escola Superior de Propaganda e Marketing and Agribusiness from Harvard Business School. Working experience in Agricultural, Forestry, Mining, Construction and Aviation industries. Also served as Chairman for Latin America Regional Management Committee at AEM - Association of Equipment Manufacturers and as Management Committee Executive Secretary at Integration Crop-Livestock-Forestry (ICLF) Support Network in Brazil.

Rhonda Monks leads the development of brand strategies, policies, customer satisfaction initiatives, and product support programs for more than 300 Construction Equipment dealer locations in North America. She oversees more than $40 million annually in warranty dollars, product improvement programs, and customer goodwill. In addition, Rhonda has over 30 years of experience with service parts materials management, product development, product quality, and product support for CNH Industrial.

Neil Johnson serves as Vice President of Fujifilm's Technical Solutions & Support group within the companies Graphic Systems Division. His team is responsible for all support including; consumables, software, color management cloud system, hardware support and consultative services.

Neil began his career with Burroughs Corporation as a service technician. Then has work in a number of management roles for AGFA Corporation, Fujifilm Corporation totaling 31 years of Field Service management experience ranging from local/regional support to most recently being responsible for service for all the Americas.

Experienced in; mergers; operational efficiency, development of new technologies, achievement of financial goals, etc.

Johnny is Senior Vice President of Gas Business Enablement for National Grid, responsible for transforming how National Grid’s US gas employees serve their customers by standardizing processes across the legacy companies and implementing a new front-office technology platform. He is a Professional Engineer from the UK who joined the National Grid team in 1997 and has since held a variety of technical and commercial roles in the UK and US for both the electricity and gas sides of the business.

He has previously led the transformation of Customer Operations in the UK gas business, which included National Grid’s first implementation of performance excellence. In his last role, Johnny ran National Grid’s 2,400-person customer field service organization across all US jurisdictions for gas and electric, focusing on using performance excellence in the field.

As Vice President of Field Services for the Cox Communications Virginia Region, Bob is responsible for providing strategic leadership for Field Services Residential and Commercial Operations, and CommCenter Operations. Bob is an inspirational executive leader specializing in leading change in large organizations, delivering strong business results and building effective business relationships. He has high emotional intelligence, with an eye for talent and a skill for leadership development and employee engagement throughout all levels of the organization. His strong business acumen, blended with 30 years of operational experience, process improvement and expense reduction, lead to a culture of excellence, employee satisfaction and customer loyalty.

Recognized for his leadership skills with the 2006 Cox Leader of the Year Award for Virginia, Bob is passionate about developing and mentoring others, while ensuring a world class experience for Cox’s customers. He is a mentor for Cox Communications, Cox Enterprises and Women in Cable Telecommunications or WICT. Bob is also a Board Member of the Southeast Virginia Boys and Girls Club board of directors.

Larry Wash is Executive Vice President for KONE Americas and serves as a member of KONE’s Executive Board. In this role, he leads a $2 billion business that includes teams across the United States, Canada and Latin America. Larry also serves as Board President for the National Elevator Industry, Inc., a preeminent trade association for the building transportation industry.As a senior executive with extensive experience running global organizations and a well-respected thought leader, Larry is skilled at developing strategic direction and at implementing operational improvements to profitably grow businesses.

Prior to joining KONE, Larry was President of Global Services for the Climate Solutions sector of Ingersoll Rand with full responsibility for the management of their services businesses. While in this position, he developed C-level executive relationships, and led Hussman, Thermo King, and Trane in driving growth in both emerging and mature markets.Before joining Ingersoll Rand, Larry served as Vice President of Service & Contracting for Trane, where he led the services businesses in Canada, Latin America and the United States and created the strategic and operational plans for Trane Building Services. Ingersoll Rand acquired Trane in 2008.Earlier in his career, Larry held the position of Vice President of Global Services for Xerox Corporation, responsible for worldwide strategy, business development, marketing, sales and operations. Larry began his career in 1985 with Eastman Kodak Company, where he was Director of New Business Development.

Larry received his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Wayne State University and a master’s degree in electrical engineering from the Rochester Institute of Technology. Larry also holds a master’s in business administration from Stanford University.

Eric Schwartz is the lead project manager of Smart Grid Innovation & Technology for Florida Power & Light Company, and has worked at the company for seven years. He is responsible for forecasting, piloting and implementing cutting-edge technology to be used by the company. He has served in other roles at the company, including delivery assurance lead and reliability program manager.

Prior to joining FPL, Mr. Schwartz was an engineer for Emergency One, a leading fire apparatus manufacturer, where he designed aircraft rescue fire-fighting trucks; and K-Rain, where he designed irrigation sprinklers. Mr. Schwartz holds two work patents and four personal patents.

Mr. Schwartz earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Central Florida and an MBA from Florida Atlantic University. He is a certified Six Sigma Black Belt. In his spare time, you will find him pursuing his entrepreneurial interests – designing children’s products for mothers on the go – and spending time with his wife, Elyse, and three children, Nolan, Camden and Hayden.

Forrest Yount is the Operations Transformation Leader for U.S. Field Operations at United Technologies, Climate, Controls & Security. He joined the company over 13 years ago and has over 13 years of HVAC industry experience. Forrest was also a Lieutenant and Submarine Officer for the United States Navy for seven years. He holds an MBA from the University of Florida and a BS in Mechanical Engineering from North Carolina State University.

Chris leads the design and deployment of the Otis Internet of Things (IoT) operational and market strategy and is implementing changes to Otis’ service infrastructure through IoT adoption.

Chris has 24 years of experience in the building service industry. After three years in banking in New York City and completion of a graduate degree, Chris started with Otis in Chicago as a maintenance supervisor. He then held positions of increasing responsibility including Account Manager, Branch Manager and General Manager before transitioning to Otis North America Headquarters and now works in World Headquarters. Chris also has eight years of experience in the fire protection industry.

Chris holds a bachelor’s degree in economics and computer science from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, and a Master of Business Administration from Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.

Govind has 25+ years of experience in industrial manufacturing arena. Govind has held leadership positions in business management, strategy and execution. In his current role, he is accountable for growth and profitability of global field services and training business. ROCKWELL continues to provide leading edge solutions to manufacturing customers, leverages IoT to deliver value for industrial customers and significant improvement in profitability.

Senior Director John Bunney leads Technical Services for Cisco Data Center, Core, and Service Provider technologies and has been with Cisco for over 16 years. Cisco’s Global Technical Assistance Center organization is responsible for resolving over 1.4 Million customer and partner post sales technical support issues per year.

John strives to create a world-class culture, focused on customer success, agility, innovation, business and technical leadership, and “can-do” attitudes.

John has been the recipient of several awards during his tenure with Cisco, including the Cisco Pioneer award, the Cisco Services Pinnacle Award, the Cisco Services Innovation and Operational Excellence Award and was a two time winner of the Data Center MVP award.

In previous roles, John has overseen Cisco’s Routing, Switching, Voice, Collaboration, Wireless, and Network Scaling Technical Services groups.

Prior to joining Cisco in August 1999, John spent several years working for the Department of Defense (Defense Manpower Data Center) as a Research Longfellow.

Charlie Byrd is the Director of Implementation Support at Roche Diagnostics. He joined the company in 1990 and has held various technical and managerial positions with increasing responsibility in the Support Department. Prior to joining Roche, Charlie worked for another diagnostic manufacturer where he gained his passion for the Diagnostic Testing Industry and how it has such an impact on patient lives every day. 

Charlie is from England where he earned a Bachelor's Degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering before moving to the US. He also has also earned an MBA from Indiana Wesleyan University. Charlie lives near Indianapolis and is keen photographer who loves to travel.

Charles Dowdell has over 30 years’ experience of increasing responsibility in managing the development and distribution of technical information in a variety of different industries, including: digital and wireless communications, microelectronics, and heavy equipment. Currently, he is involved in end-to-end information processes in the agricultural equipment business. His teams have been awarded with the Society of Technical Communications (STC) International Distinguished Award as well as the Rare Bird Award from the Center for Information Development Management (CIDM).

Charles holds undergraduate degrees in Electronics Technology, and Management. He also holds a Graduate degree from Syracuse University School of Information Studies (iSchool).

Born and raised in South Milwaukee, WI, Chris Gresser currently resides in Bossier City, LA. Gresser is a retired Air Force Master Sergeant and been with Medtronic 1 year-21 years electronics field repair. He completed his MBA program in 2016. In his current role, he leads a team of 8 Field Service Engineers spanning 240 accounts across 17 states. His qualifications include being known for the Led Continuous Improvement Program for 2,000 people for 3 years. He also increased annual production output by 315% by changing workflow-new process adopted companywide.

Charles has 34 years’ experience in the healthcare industry with both sales and service assignments. His career started in field service as an engineer progressing to management and leadership positions. Teams he has led have developed and deployed field tools including CRM applications (Sales Force), Mobile applications, knowledge management systems, resource modeling software and smartphone technology. Change Leadership is integral to most new technology and organizational changes; his teams developed and implemented new customer escalation process and technical support teams.

Charles has an undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering and a graduate degree in Industrial Engineering.

Greg Ratcliff bring with him more than 15 years of experience with critical systems analysis and management. In his current role, Ratcliff leads a group that focuses on increasing the value of Liebert Services’ offerings and bringing usable data to customers via Reporting Systems, Big Data Analysis and Internet of Things (IOT) technologies.

Prior to joining Liebert Services, Ratcliff led the global monitoring group product management and marketing efforts at Liebert North America. He has several patents in IOT and power management and has published many articles and white papers.

Ratcliff has undergraduate degrees in applied mathematics and information systems, and has a master’s degree in business administration.

Hiren Dalal is VP, Operations & Transformation at CA Technologies. Hiren has led many key transformation programs at CA including Self Service for CA Support, Lean Six Sigma and Agile Transformation for Global R&D team. He is a strong believer in applying change management principles in conjunction with process improvement methodologies to deliver value to customers.

Hiren has played several key roles at CA and is an Agile expert, Certified Scrum Master and Product Owner, Certified Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt who was first introduced to the benefits of Lean Six Sigma at General Electric.

Christie Morin is the Program Director over Self Service at CA Technologies. Christie’s specialty is in working with Customer Support organizations in driving value of Self Service internally to ultimately deliver an exceptional customer experience. Christie is an instructor of CA’s Lean Six Sigma and is working towards her black belt certification. Christie holds a variety of certifications such as PMP, ITIL, KCS and Green Belt (LSS).

Ken has worked in the Service industry for over 34 years with vast experience in both the Field and the Corporate Service environment. His experiences include New Product Service Development, Technical Knowledge Management, Customer Satisfaction Measurement, Business Process Re-engineering, Workflow Analysis, Field Service Support and Service Systems. He is currently the Director of Sorter Support Operations for Pitney Bowes with responsibility for Global Sorter Service Product Management and Support functions including Helpdesk Operations.

Prior to joining Pitney Bowes, Ken worked for Southwest Airlines as an aircraft mechanic. Among numerous accolades and awards, Ken recently was recognized for receiving his first US Patent for inventing a process which prevents excessive downtime due to computer hard drive failures.

A native of Austin Texas, Ken received his MBA in Business Management from the University of Phoenix.

Mary Proud supports the technical and management teams for Worldwide Sorter Support, Presort Services and Intellijet Printing at Pitney Bowes. In this role, she is responsible for analytical reporting, procurement, and site support. Mary also supports these teams in consistently achieving high levels of client satisfaction, inventory controls, and specialized projects.

Mary is a champion for both internal and external client satisfaction. She joined Pitney Bowes in 1985 and has held various customer service positions; Installation and Customer Training Representative, Production Mail Coordinator and Customer Service Manager.

Mary hold her BA in Business Administration from Holy Family University in Philadelphia.

Richard Mack has a Master’s degree in mechanical engineering from the Technical University Darmstadt, Germany. He started working for Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG in Research & Development driving key developments for high speed printing equipment. He then had various roles in operational service management in the USA and Germany. Currently he is pioneering the new digital services area to drive customer performance and developing respective business models to increase after sales revenue.

Bill has over 25 years of global experience in the Field Service and Aftermarket Services industries. Bill currently works for JLG Industries, a division of Oshkosh Corporation. Oshkosh, which is celebrating its 100 year anniversary in 2017, is a world leader in designing, manufacturing and servicing a broad range of access equipment, commercial, fire & emergency, military and specialty vehicles. JLG is the world’s leading designer and manufacturer of access equipment, including aerial work platforms, scissor lifts and telehandlers.

As JLG’s IT Director, Customer Sales & Service, Bill leads the team responsible for support of all the JLG global customer facing functions including Sales, Marketing, E-Business and Aftermarket Services, including Parts Distribution and Field Service. This includes operations in North America, South America, Europe, Singapore, China and Australia.

Bill and his team are in the process of implementing a new field service and support solution for all the company’s North American service centers. This initiative extends the use of a field service solution which has been successfully operating in JLG’s Australia operations for over 5 year. In addition to traditional service work order management, this initiative will incorporate the use of telematics to connect customer’s equipment to JLG applications, which will allow for proactive equipment monitoring, predictive and scheduled service, overall fleet management and ultimately a lower total cost of ownership.

Prior to working for JLG, Bill has held leadership positions in consulting, operations, finance and information technology functions for three separate Fortune 500 companies, including Andersen Consulting, Compagnie de Saint-Gobain and ARAMARK Corporation.

As VP Global Services for North and South America, Kevin Young has responsibility for growing the service business profitability for Munters Corporation. He has over 33 years of experience in design engineering, product development, operations and sales management. He currently manages 120 persons for the company and through his leadership; he has reduced warranty costs, increased annual service net sales and improved gross margins. Also during his 27 year career at Munters, he was responsible for the development and patents of two of the company’s most successful dehumidification systems well exceeding $1B in global sales and further contributing to the growth of U.S sales. His past professional experiences including the design and direct construction of environmentally controlled facilities including clean rooms and dry rooms. He holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Technical University of Nova Scotia, Canada.

Munters is a global leader in energy efficient air treatment and climate solutions. Using innovative technologies, Munters creates the perfect climate for customers in a wide range of industries, the largest being the food, pharmaceutical and data center sectors. Munters has been defining the future of air treatment since 1955. Today, around 3,500 employees carry out manufacturing, sales and service in more than 30 countries. Munters reports annual net sales in the region of SEK 6 billion and is listed on Nasdaq Stockholm.

Over his 30 year career in the Service industry working for Bell and Howell, Jim Feely has held a number of challenging positions linked to both sales and service. As Senior VP of Global Services, his proven ability to create market driven strategies and build winning teams in diverse markets, drives the effort to deliver innovative service and technology solutions for many of the world’s largest finance, industry and public sector enterprises. Our service organization is among the most sophisticated in the world for production workflow, automation and industrial mechatronics. Utilizing these strengths, Jim has helped position Bell and Howell as a global service provider in a variety of new markets that has helped increase company revenues and profits substantially.

Historically, Jim has been a small business owner and a volunteer firefighter for almost 20 years and currently resides in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Tim Spencer has a diverse background of manufacturing management, operations leadership, service and support, and general management. Working within multi-billion dollar companies, he has service experience driving change leadership across global environments. With unique solutions and innovation, Tim has led revenue and profit growth, new product development, and customer satisfaction at The Standard Register Corporation, General Binding Corporation, ACCO Brands, WMS Gaming Inc, Scientific Games, and most recently with Bunn-o-matic Corporation. He is the recipient of excellence awards from both Gartner Group and Aberdeen, and has been recognized by technology organizations for implementations in field service management solutions.

He is a graduate of the University of Utah with a degree in Business Finance and currently resides in Springfield, IL.

During the past 21 years, T. Scot has been employed in various technology and service management related fields with FedEx Office. T. Scot’s philosophy, borrowed from the book Leveraging The New Infrastructure, is that when you take away the technical jargon, technology is an investment like any other made in business and must make a return. Recently rebranding the FedEx Office Field Technology Organization to FedEx Office Field Services, this is a deliberate change in culture from technician to trusted operations and service partner focused on professionalism, partnership, service and business value.

T. Scot holds a Bachelor of Science Degree with double majors in Architectural Design and Behavior Psychology which he says taught him “people and process”. T. Scot is married to Chelsea, a Registered Nurse and together they have three children, a son Thomas and two daughters; Kenzie and Madison.

Before coming to Kinko's, T. Scot operated the on-demand publishing company FlightLine Publishing, producers of custom aviation directories and publisher of The Vintage Airplane Catalogue. He has also worked as a technology consultant/research assistant for Anne Taylor and Associates, a firefighter/EMT for the Bernalillo County Fire Department, and is a musician, music and stage producer.

Samuel DiFabbio III (Sam) has been an operations technology professional with FedEx Office (formerly Kinko’s) for 10 years managing product & program ownership as well as service & delivery. He has led teams that defined, developed, and implemented complete business process transformation as well as cutting edge backend service layer and cloud implementation. Most recently, he has partnered with his leadership to rebrand the organization’s “Field Technology” team to “Field Services,” which has transformed a culture of “technicians” to broadly trusted operations professionals.

A native of Ohio’s “Rust Belt” and a decedent of a family of steelworkers, hard work and determination are second nature to him. Sam received his B.S. from Robert Morris University in Pittsburgh, PA in 2005 and currently resides in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex.

Chris earned his BS and MS in Industrial Engineering from The University of Alabama. From 2004 to 2008, He worked as an Industrial Engineer for United Parcel Service. Since January of 2008, Chris has worked for a family of field services companies headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama. From 2010 to 2015, He served as Chief Operating Officer of Satellites Unlimited Inc. – one of the nation’s largest labor fulfillment contractors for Dish Network. In early 2016, Chris transitioned into a role with McKinney Communications Corporation (“MCC”), the parent company of a family of field services companies that includes Satellites Unlimited.

Today, Chris serves in multiple roles for MCC including General Manager of Digital Electronic Supply (“DES”), COO of Custom Labor Solutions (“CLS”), and VP of Strategy and Business Development for MCC. He is married to his high school sweetheart and have two children, ages 6 and 9. Chris is an avid outdoorsman and is the Co-Founder and Branch President of the Alabama Chapter of The Quality Deer Management Association (The QDMA).

Breeden has a broad array of field service engineering experience including field service management, business development, service marketing, organization development, industrial safety, fleet management, training, CRM, and call center operations.

Breeden is the author of The Intentional Field Service Engineer and creator of the Field Service7℠ development program. His service industry experience includes clinical diagnostics and scientific instrumentation, irrigation system controls, banking equipment, homeland security optical readers, and industrial weighing systems.Breeden has held positions from field service engineer to vice president of global operations with P&L responsibility of $115MM.

Breeden holds a Master’s degree in Business Management from Pepperdine University and is currently Vice President of Service Operations for Fairbanks Scales. Breeden resides in Asheville, North Carolina.

Tom Voirin is a senior executive in the telecommunications market with extensive experience in the Service sector spanning over 30 years. He has been responsible for the national and international deployment of communication equipment and has led global Service initiatives to implement "Best Practices" in the engineering, program/project management, field installation and provisioning of Optical Networks.

In his career he was the Sr. Director of Deployment Services at Tellabs, Vice President & General Manager of Professional Services at ADC Communications, the Director of Quality & Customer Satisfaction at Motorola, the Director of IT Infrastructure Delivery at Royal Philips and currently Tom is employed at ISCO International as the Vice President of Customer Services.

His strengths lie in aligning customer expectations with service delivery capabilities to exceed revenue and profit goals. Under his leadership he has directed companies to attain a sustainable competitive advantage by defining, developing and articulating a common framework for the company’s service strategy. He is a leader that engages employees to fight competitive pressures with effective business tools allowing them to feel “connected” to the company. He leads process improvement in a positive collaborative manner resulting in increased profitability and customer loyalty. Most importantly, he has mastered the art of leveraging customer feedback to create an effective change management system.

Tom values his family and time spent with them. He has been married to his wife, Linda, for 40 years. Together they have 3 children, Adam, Greg and Chris. Tom is a Certified Tree Farmer and has planted over 25,000 trees at his farm in NW Illinois. Tom enjoys working outside, traveling with his family and volunteering at local non-profits and community outreach program.

Experienced Management professional with demonstrated success in improving and growing businesses in multiple industries with a focus on rapid business transformation. Proven ability to translate customer value into operational processes that optimize resources while improving the customer experience and achieving breakthrough results. Proficient in Operations Management, Strategic Assessment and Planning, and Systems Integration. Strong skills in Leadership Coaching/Development, and Metrics/Incentive Alignment for Capacity and Sales Growth. Proven ability to function as a Coach/Leader at all levels of business.

Syd Briggs has been the General Manager of Steele-Waseca Cooperative Electric since January 6, 2009. He previously served seven years with Southwest Arkansas Electric Cooperative in Texarkana, Arkansas and 11 years with Rio Grande Electric Cooperative in Brackettville, Texas in Accounting, Finance, and Member Services. Since becoming a General Manager, Syd has been active with presentations at Cooperative functions, National and State conferences, local clubs, and other organizations.

Syd has an MBA from Texas A&M Texarkana and a BBA in accounting from Sul Ross University in Texas.

Rick's career has spanned over 35 years all of which has been spent in the Technology Services market. After spending the early years in Field Service in technical and technical management roles, Rick consolidated his Marketing and Technical Education with his passion for service, and entered the emerging role of Services Sales. For the past 25 years, Rick has carried a bag and has built and lead successful Services Sales teams for several industry leaders such as IBM (Nulogix), Sun MicroSystems, DecisionOne and Customer Engineering Services. Rick has been actively involved in the Services Industry, chairing the Canadian Services Section of CompTIA for 8 years, while also serving on the Board for 3. Rick is the Vice President, Technology Services Sales, for Customer Engineering Services.

Kris Oldland is Editor-in-Chief of Field Service News, the world’s leading business magazine dedicated to field service industries. Kris is a well recognised figure within the global field service industry, who can regularly be found speaking at various international field service focussed events and is widely regarded as a key commentator in the sector.

Sarah Nicastro is the Publisher and Editor In Chief of Field Technologies. In her role, Sarah is responsible for the editorial direction of both the print and online publications.

Field Technologies is the premier resource for understanding the technologies and tools available to help optimize your mobile workers, service, and assets. Field Technologies provides service, transportation, utilities, and public works professionals with information on technologies including IoT, field service automation, fleet management, and mobile computing.

Carsten brings with him an experienced leadership profile. He is responsible for execution of B2B Services (Analytical instrument, and Process control/sorting solutions to the food & agricultural industries), driving customer satisfaction and profitable growth, through teamwork and performance management. Carsten likes working closely with his team, where he has the possibility to lead and inspire on a day-to-day basis through coaching, enthusiasm, commitment, creativity and persistence, providing strategies, and team direction. As a manager, he makes sure that ideas and strategies are converted into action and concrete results.

• Working since 2014 with TOMRA Sorting Solutions serving as Executive Service Director, P/L responsible for 85 employees across Americas & Oceania.
• Combines analytical and strategic mindset to put structure to complex business issues/challenges
• Has built effective global management teams and structures to align service operations to better meet key customer requirements
• Extensive experience in crafting and leading service growth strategies, organisational changes incl. globalisation and outsourcing of non-core, as well as cost reductions and turn-around strategies.
• Has streamlined global service processes incl. implementation of global CRM-systems across a global service organisation, with documented results of higher service effectiveness and efficiency.
• International expertise in driving profitable growth of Service operations through a combination of direct sales, distribution channels, and strategic partnerships.
• Documented results of achieving higher growth, share, profitability, and customer and employee satisfaction.

Electronics Technician Graduate from Centennial College - Toronto, Ontario. Hands-on experience in the field commission and repairing commercial Fire Alarm Systems with Edwards (now ChubbEdwards) and Simplex (now SimplexGrinnell - Tyco). Held progressive Management roles from Field Supervisor to Major Accounts & Business Development Manager in the Fire Protection industry. Current role as Director, Technical Services with Henry Schein Canada, a Dental distributor for Merchandise and Equipment to Dental Practitioners. Responsibilities are for all aspects of the Technical Services business in Canada.

Scott earned his BSEE at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and then went on to earn his MBA at the same university. During this time, he developed a love not only for technology but for the entire business of technology manufacturing, sales, and service.

Scott entered manufacturing with the implementation of ISO 9000 in the electronics industry. He then entered Engineering, moving to Sales Management, Manufacturing Management, and then Business Unit management in the electronics industry. During this period, Scott developed a love and appreciation for the importance of completely addressing business from the initial stages of development to the continued support necessary for assuring the complete customer satisfaction and delight required to excel in business.

Scott currently leads Field Service for an industry-leading manufacturer of specialized capital equipment in which customer focus in machine installation, professional service, and technical education enables continued leadership within the industry.

Jason Young has been called a "rare breed" when it comes to developing leaders and customer service initiatives. No wonder. As a former senior-level manager at Southwest Airlines, Jason learned the value of a successful workplace culture. During his 10-years with the airline consistently rated No. 1 in customer service and employee satisfaction, Jason Young was a key driver in creating and developing the company’s innovative training programs for its successful leadership and customer service culture that have become renowned in the business world today.

Driven by the need to extend his unique insight in leadership development to others outside Southwest, Jason Young separated from the pack in 1998, when he left the airline to launch his own consulting practice to focus on corporate training and development services specializing in culture, leadership, customer service and team building. Today, as president of LeadSmart, Inc., Jason Young shares his vision in developing successful corporate cultures with forward-thinking companies, including Starbucks, IHOP, Radio Shack and Tyson Foods, to name just a few. He has even returned to his old turf—Southwest Airlines—to extend his knowledge as a corporate training consultant in the leadership development area once again. Jason has captured his philosophy of creating high performance cultures in his books, The Culturetopia Effect and Servicetopia.

Capturing the innovative strategies and tactics he created at Southwest Airlines, Jason Young offers insight and practical information that can be implemented immediately. His keynote presentations and training programs are in demand for audiences of all types—from senior level executives to front line employees. Jason’s messages reach to the core of every audience member with his unique style and engaging presentation skills. Participants are treated to a compelling experience that will change the way they view themselves, their customers and the company for which they work.

Jason Young’s keynote presentations are designed to reinforce the concepts and skills geared to increase learning and assist in the transition from the meeting room to the workplace. The result is an inspirational encounter that resonates long after his presentation is over.

Martin Knook, CEO of Gomocha, is having over 20 years of experience as an IT executive & entrepreneur, who focuses on building technology teams to make the difference for customers throughout the world. At Gomocha, he is leading his team into the mobile age, enabling customers to optimize field operations with the Gomocha products; configurable workflows – configurable data sets for several industries, such as Utilities, Telecom, Vending, Installation and Field Service.

Leading this team, says Martin Knook, “Is all about bringing talented people together strengthen their knowledge and resolve problems into IT solutions. My strength is to find the balance between these complexities and finding the right balance to build a business. That’s what motivates me.”

Before joining Gomocha, Martin was CEO and founding partner of SecondFloor, an international company that delivers successful solutions for risk, finance, compliance and enterprise transformation projects, using modeling, analytics, reporting, and decision support / business architecture analysis (www.secondfloor.com).

Prior to that, Martin Knook was founding partner and Director of several other IT companies, including HGH (www.hgh.nl).

Vivek Joshi, CEO and Founder of Entytle, Inc., is an executive with significant Aftermarket Service experience in various industries, spanning diversified industrial manufacturing, healthcare, private equity and high technology. He previously was founder and CEO of LumaSense Technologies Inc., a temperature and gas sensor manufacturer, from inception through February 2013; an Operating Partner at Shah Capital Partners; and Senior Vice President of Marketing for Sun Services, a $3.6 billion division of Sun Microsystems. He was also a senior executive at GE and has extensive experience in Aftermarket business in various companies during his career.

Vivek has an M.S. in Chemical Engineering and an M.B.A. from the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville and a B.Tech in Chemical Engineering from IIT, Mumbai.

Always up for a good challenge and open to innovative solutions, Scott’s career has led him to work with a variety of companies in sales leadership roles, including Accelarad (now Nuance Communications), Optimal Readings (now Aris Radiology), Awarix (now McKesson), ComFrame (now NWN), The Trizetto Group, Nichols TXEN (now CSC Healthcare Solutions Group), and others. Scott has a nuanced ability to understand, communicate and deliver software technology solutions to individuals and business that can benefit from them the most.

His impressive resume of 20+ years of value-creating relationships has led him to Help Lightning, a Birmingham-based technology company where he currently serves as a Senior VP of Sales. Help Lightning is a virtual presence technology company that leverages a mobile merged reality video app for the service industry.

Scott holds a bachelor's degree from Auburn University.

Tobias Dengel is the CEO of WillowTree Inc., a global leader in mobile and web application strategy, design and development.

Previously, Tobias co-founded Leads.com. As President of the company, he managed its rapid expansion as an early pioneer in packaging online search products, including Google, Yahoo!, MSN and AOL, together for sale to small businesses. In 2005, Leads.com was acquired by Web.com, where Tobiasworked in an executive role until 2009.

Prior to starting Leads.com, he was SVP & General Manager of AOL Local & Yellow Pages. He previously held a variety of roles in the AOL Business Affairs department, including VP, International. Tobias began his career as an Analyst at the management consulting firm AT Kearney.

Tobias holds a BSE in Finance (Wharton) and a BSE in Systems Engineering, both from the University of Pennsylvania.

Shahar Chen, CEO & Co-Founder of Aquant, is an entrepreneur and expert in the field service world. Shahar brings more than 15 years of both business and technical expertise in leading sales, innovations, design and implementations of enterprise mobile workforce management applications, cloud implementations and workforce planning and scheduling solutions. Shahar started Aquant with the mission of bringing a unique AI solution to the field service world, enabling companies to maximize their products’ uptime by making smarter, data-driven, optimized decisions throughout the customer service process. Prior to starting Aquant, Shahar spend 14 years at ClickSoftware, where he served in various positions for sales, consulting, and innovation, with his most recent positions serving as an Enterprise Sales Executive and Director of Solution Center.

Assaf Melochna, COO & Co-Founder of Aquant is an expert in Field Service. He has years of business and technical expertise in enterprise software as well as consulting experience for Fortune 500 companies on field service management. Assaf started Aquant with the vision of helping service companies to maximize their products’ uptime. Assaf brought a unique approach from his experience as a Major in the intelligence forces (IDF) where he specialized in turning massive data to knowledge, and knowledge to actions. Applying AI, on top of this proven methodology, enables service companies to leverage their data throughout the service lifecycle to make smarter, faster, data-driven decisions throughout the customer service process. Prior to starting Aquant, Assaf spent 10 years at ClickSoftware, where he served in various positions in consulting and innovation.

Laurent Othacéhé has been one of the most innovative thought leaders in the field service industry for over 20 years. Prior to Cognito iQ, he was founder and CEO of 360 Scheduling, a company he grew to be a leading provider of mobile workforce scheduling and optimisation software. Othacéhé has been recognised as ‘one of the most influential people in field service’ for several years running. His current mission is to change the face of field service through Cognito iQ’s Operational Performance Analytics technology which provides a revolutionary approach to Field Service Management.

Joe Kenny is Vice President of Global Customer Transformation at ServiceMax where he uses his years of service delivery experience working with prospects and existing customers to fully leverage the value of ServiceMax to their field service organizations. Joe brings over 30 years of leadership in operations, sales, product development, marketing, and field service. Focused on delivering high impact and long-term customer success, Joe has managed and delivered onsite, offsite, and near site business support services to many Fortune 100 clients. Prior to ServiceMax, Joe was most recently with Canon-Enterprise serving as Operations Director. Prior to Canon-Enterprise, he held leadership positions at Loomis Armored, Pitney Bowes and Eastman Kodak.

David Crist is President of Brother Mobile Solutions, Inc. The company’s innovative mobile and label printers provide market-leading businesses in route accounting, field service, public safety, manufacturing/warehouse and retail industries with high-value, specialized solutions to improve workers’ productivity, lower operating costs, gain a competitive advantage and service customers more effectively.

Mr. Crist sets the strategic direction for all customer and partner-facing functions and leads an experienced team of professionals in achieving aggressive year over year revenue increases. He is responsible for leading the development and implementation of a wide range of growth initiatives including new products, markets, channels, strategic alliances and acquisitions.

Prior to joining Brother Mobile Solutions, Mr. Crist spent 23 years in numerous sales, marketing, business development and executive positions with Hewlett-Packard Co., Zebra Technologies Inc. and Crane Company. He joined the company in 2009 as Regional Vice President focused on commercial, industrial and vertical markets at Brother.

Mr. Crist received his Masters degree in Business Administration from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, CA, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Engineering from Purdue University in West Lafayette, IN. He lives in the Chicago area with his wife and three children.

Bob leads the strategic and operational excellence initiatives at Starr and Associates Management Consulting in Atlanta. He is responsible for formulating and driving change strategies such as business process improvement, lean implementation, cost reductions, quality improvement, and customer-supplier relations. He has worked with technical service-based organizations and manufacturing facilitates applying six sigma methodology to resolve complex challenges and forming quality management systems to sustain the gains. He has revitalized complacent cultures, turned around failing divisions, and built high-caliber quality management teams.

Bob has a BS from Rowan University and an MBA from the Georgia Institute of Technology. He has Six Sigma Black Belt certification and ISO 9001 Lead Quality Auditor credentials. He lives in Carrollton, Georgia with his wife Barbara. Bob enjoys camping, kayaking and stargazing through his Dobsonian telescope with his grown children.

Always up for a good challenge and open to innovative solutions, Scott’s career has led him to work with a variety of companies in sales leadership roles, including Accelarad (now Nuance Communications), Optimal Readings (now Aris Radiology), Awarix (now McKesson), ComFrame (now NWN), The Trizetto Group, Nichols TXEN (now CSC Healthcare Solutions Group), and others. Scott has a nuanced ability to understand, communicate and deliver software technology solutions to individuals and business that can benefit from them the most. His impressive resume of 20+ years of value-creating relationships has led him to Help Lightning, a Birmingham-based technology company where he currently serves as a Senior VP of Sales. Help Lightning is a virtual presence technology company that leverages a mobile merged reality video app for the service industry. Scott holds a bachelor's degree from Auburn University.

Paul Whitelam is Group VP of Product Marketing at ClickSoftware, where he works with field service management leaders across a variety of industries. Paul has more than twenty years’ experience in enterprise software, working on both the technical and business aspects of many of the areas that are fundamental to field service such as mobility and sensor technology (Nokia), data management (Endeca), and machine learning, SaaS and GIS (HERE).

Simon is responsible for Capriza’s products strategy and is passionate about bringing products to market and developing and growing the business. He brings over 20 years of products experience in enterprise mobility, IoT, and application and network testing.

Prior to Capriza, he led the product efforts at Jasper (acquired by Cisco), and has led product teams at AtHoc (acquired by BlackBerry) and Mercury (acquired by Hewlett Packard).

One of Sara’s passions is bringing people together. She achieves this as the program director of the Field Service event portfolio where service executives come together to identify best practices, inspire innovation, and build career-long relationships. With a deep curiosity towards industry evolution and fulfillment in helping executives solve their most pressing challenges, Sara conducts market research that leads to the development of the esteemed Field Service USA, Europe, and Fall conferences. She’s been researching, recruiting speakers for, and managing market-leading events for over 10 years in the service, supply chain, finance, pharma, and wellness industries. Prior to conference producing Sara held various roles in technology career counseling, publishing, advertising/PR, and human resources.