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The HDI Strategic Advisory Board

The mission of HDI's Strategic Advisory Board is to formulate informed recommendations on industry trends and directions, and to assist HDI in documenting and communicating these trends to the membership and the service and support industry at large.
With input from this most prestigious board, HDI's members and the industry are better prepared to meet tomorrow's challenges, to influence and provide direction to service and support organizations, and to ensure the quality and efficient delivery of service and support.
The HDI Strategic Advisory Board comprises the most prestigious grouping of the service and support industry's leading experts, Fortune 100 executives, media and analysts, vendor CEOs, and international representatives.
The 2004-2005 HDI Strategic Advisory Board consists of:
  • Chair: Sandra Simpson, Senior Manager Quality Development, SITA, Inc.
  • HDI Representative: Ron Muns, Founder and CEO, HDI
  • Past Chairman: Joe Fleischer, Vice President, Chief Technical Editor, Call Center Magazine
  • Robert Barnes, Senior Vice President, JP Morgan Chase
  • Jim Carr, Freelance Mediawriter
  • Mary Cruse, Manager - Worldwide Service Center , Cardinal Health Systems
  • Richard Hanke, Director, Enterprise Service Desk, Lockheed Martin
  • Paula Howell, Director, Customer Support Services, Ernst & Young, LLP
  • Harlan Hugh, Chief Technology Officer, THEBrain Technologies, Inc.
  • Karen Yuen, PLNet Client Services Manager, EDS Canada
  • Ken Wendle, Senior Solution Architect, HP OpenView
  • Brian Johnson, Practices Manager, Computer Associates
  • Marta Scolaro, Global Support Services Manager, Johnson Diversey
  • Laura Gloge, Information Technology Team, Suncor
  • Robert Minicozzi, Director Support Services, Intellimark
  • Peggy Libbey, Chief Financial Officer, HDI
  • Sophie Klossner, Board Administrator, HDI
Bios
Bob Barnes Bob Barnes
Bob Barnes has been in IT for more than 15 years and has managed help desks in the government, pharmaceutical, manufacturing, telecommunications and financial industries. He has managed in-house help desks and he has also worked for a Tier One Outsourcing Corporation managing its large IT outsourcing (Managed Services) contracts. As such, Bob has seen the benefits to both outsourcing and in sourcing.

Bob is currently the Senior Vice President of JP Morgan Chase & Company's Global Service Desk. Bob has been with the bank for almost three years. His Service Desk receives over 4 million calls per year globally. He has desks located in North America, EMEA, Asia Pacific and India.

He has spoken to numerous executive audiences around both solutions. Bob is a member of the HDI Executive Forum and the HDI Symposium Board. Bob has a BA in Liberal Arts, a BBA in Business Management and an MBA.

Jim Carr Jim Carr

Jim Carr is a senior-level freelance business and technology writer who's worked in and covered the computers, networking and Internet industries for more than 15 years. A former senior editor with Network and DataCommunications Magazines, he has written numerous articles covering CRM, call center technology and IP telephony for publications such as Call Center, Teleconnect, VARBusiness and eCommerce Business magazines. He has written extensively on enterprise networking technologies - infrastructure devices such as routers, security and the Internet -- for many of the leading IT publications, including InfoWorld, Lightreading.com, Network Computing and MacWorld.

As a marketing consultant, he's written a wide range of marketing collateral, including customer success stories, white papers and position papers, for a wide range of corporate clients. These include LivePerson Inc., Oracle Corp., Avanex Corp., Akibia Consulting, National Semiconductor Inc. and Novell Inc.

Mary Cruse Mary Cruse

Passionate about customer service, Mary Cruse has led teams for Fortune 500 companies for more than 25 years, focusing on software implementation and deployment, retail and technical call centers, workflow definitions and design, metrics, and SLA design and implementation.

Mary's primary responsibilities at Cardinal Health are to lead the activities in the external customer support center, supporting pharmaceutical distribution technology for hospitals and healthcare facilities. The Cardinal Health Worldwide Service Center has a staff of over 200 support specialists in 2 call center locations (San Diego and Quebec, Canada) who handle more than 70,000 contacts a month. Mary carries the HDI certifications of Help Desk Analyst, Help Desk Manager and Certified Training Instructor as well as the CIAC Call Center Operations Manager Certification. Mary is Co-VP of Membership for the San Diego Chapter of Help Desk Institute and the Chairman of the Global Member Advisory Board.
Joe Fleischer Joe Fleischer

Joe Fleischer is chief technical editor with Call Center Magazine. Since joining the publication in fall 1996, he has written numerous articles that cover traditional call center topics, including call routing, quality monitoring and voice processing, as well as newer areas such as customer relationship management, knowledge management and IP telephony.

A regular speaker and moderator at leading call center events, Fleischer is also co-author, with fellow editor Brendan B. Read, of The Complete Guide to Customer Support.
Laurie Gloge Laurie Gloge

Laurie has worked with several oil & gas and technology organizations in Western Canada and Holland. She owned and operated an IT process consulting practice and has trained a wide range of IT professionals and managers on the foundations and implementation of IT Service Management.

As certified ITIL Service Manager (ITIL Master), Laurie has worked on business transformation projects to realign services. She holds a BSc degree and MBA from the University of Alberta.

Laurie is currently working with Suncor Energy Inc., an integrated energy company headquartered in Calgary, Alberta on a two-year process improvement project designed to maximize business performance by focusing on people, processes and technology. As part of this initiative, Laurie is leading the IT Service Centre implementation for Suncor's information technology business. As such, she plays a large part in transforming Suncor's IT business from a decentralized technically focused unit into a service focused team.
Richard Hanke Richard Hanke

Richard Hanke is currently the Director for Lockheed Martin's Internal IT Help Desk (Lockheed Martin Enterprise Service Desk). Rich provides strategic direction, oversight for operations, customer advocacy, consultation, training and crisis management of the Enterprise Service Desk, through leadership and vision in matching technology and tools to enhance overall service expertise. The Lockheed Martin Enterprise Service Desk is a world class internal help desk provider. They recently received the Support Center Practices certification for the Fifth Straight year. The Lockheed Martin help desk employs over 200 employees located primarily in two major sites. They handle 1 million calls per year and support over 100,000 employees located around the world.

Richard has work for Lockheed Martin for over 20 years. He brings to the Help Desk Institute and with the Strategic Advisory Board a broad range of management and IT experiences that are important for the success of an internal help desk. He has been an "end customer" working in the engineering organization responsible for the delivering of products, worked as an Information Resource Manager responsible for the delivery of IT Service, and worked as a Computing and Network Services Manager responsible for the direct delivery of Unix, NT, Networking, Desktop and Classified IT operations.

Mr. Hanke holds a Bachelors of Science in Management Information Systems from Southern NH University as well as an Executive MBA from the Whittemore School of Business and Economics - UNH.
Paula Howell Paula Howell

As the Director of Customer Support Services for Ernst & Young LLP, Paula continues to use her creativity to lead the delivery of optimal help desk support for the global leader in professional services. As a key member of the IT organization, Paula oversees technology support operations to provide customers with reliable service and support for the Ernst & Young Americas.

Paula has been with Ernst & Young since 1994. With over 15 years of help desk support experience, Paula's focus for the past five years has been the redesign of the Ernst & Young support model from a decentralized to centralized structure for first level support. She was a key contributor to the implementation and ongoing development of the call management and knowledge systems used by 600 technicians and many teams within the IT organization. Paula's recent success has been her leadership in the development of a self-help solution that provides alternative cost-efficient support.
Harlan Hugh Harlan Hugh

Harlan Hugh is CEO and founder of TheBrain Technologies Corporation, a leading knowledge management software company. Harlan is the inventor of TheBrain technology, a visual search and categorization solution in use world-wide since 1998, as well as founder and innovator in the field of information visualization.

Focusing on user interface design and information architecture, Harlan's passion is helping people organize and share information the way they naturally think about it, transcending the boundaries of traditional desktop computing. He holds multiple patents on the relational display of information and authoring content visually. Harlan works with government and private corporations' helpdesks and customer service organizations implementing software solutions as well as developing effective strategies for improved information access, incident handle times, content sharing and collaboration. Harlan has designed several implementation practices for successful enterprise software deployment, introducing the concept and best practices of knowledge modeling and cognitive indexing of information for maximum efficiency. Harlan has initiated and managed development projects with Viacom New Media and DreamWorks Interactive, and has designed and developed products that have been commercially distributed worldwide by Microsoft and Electronic Arts. TheBrain Technologies customers include: US Department of Defense, Navy Special Warfare, California Casualty Insurance and Center Partners.
Brian Johnson Brian Johnson

Brian Johnson joined CA Technology Services in 2004 as a practice manager with specialization in IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL), after leaving key leadership roles as the director of product development in Pink Elephant and (up tp 2002) idirector of knowledge management for the UK's Office of Government Commerce.

Brian, a foremost expert in ITIL, was part of the UK Government team that created the ITIL approach. Working for the UK's Central Computer and Telecom Agency (now part of the Office of Government Commerce), Brian worked on various process modules and was a contributing author on the ITIL volumes. He also designed the Business Perspective series for ITIL , the version 2 of ITIL and started the first ITIL user group (and is now honorary life vice president). Pink Elephant is one of the world's leading ITIL organizations dedicated to ITIL best practices.

Altogether, Brian has authored or co-authored more than 15 titles on ITIL and related subjects. Putting theory into practice, he led both the first successful government implementation of ITIL best practices at National Savings, as well as one of the first private-sector examples at General Accident.
Sophie Klossner Sophie Klossner

Sophie has been an influential member of the HDI team since 1992. She focused on event planning, content and coordinating speaker development for the first two years with HDI as well as managed HDI's human resource department for 8 years. Since 1999, Sophie serves as the Local Chapter Membership Director and Chief Member Advocate, working closely with Local Chapter officers and members to maintain open lines of communication, representing members needs and issues and building strong relationships with all of HDI's chapters, officers and members at large.
Peggy Libbey Peggy Libbey

Peggy is responsible for finance and operational processes. She joined HDI in 1999 and is currently involved in financial reporting and budgeting, contract negotiations, business partner relationships and operational strategies for the company. Prior to joining HDI, Peggy was a director for four years in a local accounting firm. Earlier, Peggy was with Price Waterhouse in San Jose, California and then in Denver. She graduated from the University of Northern Colorado with a B.S.B.A. and then became a CPA in 1981 and practiced in the field of accounting and finance for 19 years.
Robert Minicozzi Robert Minicozzi

Robert is currently the Director of Support Services for IntelliMark's Support Services line of business. As the Director of Support services he has national responsibility for the following services: In-sourced & Out-sourced Help Desks, Desk Side Support, Warranty/Maintenance, Remedy and Network Monitoring. Robert provides strategic direction to each of the sub-business in the form of new service direction, technology, and P&L oversight through vision and leadership. The Support Services Group employs over 200 employees.

Robert has worked for IntelliMark for over 6 years and with the IBM Corporation for 18. He began his IT career as a Mainframe Technician and has worked through various levels of management - developing a broad range of management experience with a continual focus on Customer Support. He has managed Help Desk services for both IBM and IntelliMark with a broad industry focus: State & Federal Govt, Telecom, Pharmaceuticals, and Financial to Manufacturing.
Ron Muns Ron Muns

Ron Muns is an international leader in help desks/customer support industry and is frequently quoted on key issues and concerns. He is credited with having a significant global impact on the professionalism of the help desk/customer services industry. Ron has more than 25 years of experience as the founder of HDI, as a software engineer, as creator of several successful commercial software products, as a "Big Six" consultant, and as an IT strategist. Ron is a Certified Public Accountant, Certified Information Systems Auditor, and holds a Certificate in Data Processing. He has a Bachelors Degree in Business Statistics from the University of Texas at Austin.
Marto Scolaro Marto Scolaro

Marta has been with the SC Johnson Wax family of companies for the last 14 years working in IT, Finance, HR, and Sales. Of those, seven have been in IT with six years focused on management of the IT support organization. She is currently the Global Support Services Manager with an organization of 45 direct employees within North America and Europe. Her responsibilites include definition and implementation of the total IT service delivery strategy, management of the global desktop environment and global helpdesk environment, and has recently built a group called Client Relationship Management that is focused on knowledge management, proactive improvements, and marketing of the IT organization.

From a personal standpoint, she is married to a wonderful man named Jim, has a 2 1/2 year old daughter named Bailee, and is expecting her second child in late August. Her favorite things to do are to spend time with her family, spending time on the water boating and fishing, and playing volleyball.
Sandra Simpson Sandra Simpson

Sandra Simpson is the manager of Global Support Center Services for SITA, the world's leading provider of global information and telecommunications solutions to the air transport industry. Sandra is a member of HDI's Strategic Advisory Board, she is a founding member of the Montreal chapter of the IT Service Management Forum (itSMF Montréal), as well as being an active member of a number of other industry related associations within North America. She is a frequent speaker and workshop presenter at international conferences and has been a contributing writer/editor to a number of industry publications.
Ken Wendle Ken Wendle

A recognized leader in the adoption of ITIL® and ITSM Best Practices in the U.S., Ken Wendle has an extensive IT background in areas ranging from expert systems development to project management to systems and application administration. He has worked within IT organizations of various sizes and has been involved in and focused on the Help/Service Desk and IT Service Management field over the past twelve years.

Ken has earned the “Certificate in IT Infrastructure Management” (a.k.a., the ITIL® Master Certificate) and is an HP Certified Consultant. Ken served as a faculty member of the Help Desk Institute (HDI) 2003 and 2004 conferences and is a member and past officer of the HDI Gateway Solutions chapter.

Ken is currently serving as President of the IT Service Management Forum (itSMF) USA chapter of the international user organization created to promote ITIL® and ITSM best practices.

He is currently employed by Hewlett-Packard Company as a Lead Solution Architect.

Ken has received numerous professional and personal honors and is sought internationally to speak on the practical aspects of Service Management. His presentations always aim to "inform, educate, entertain, and motivate... though not necessarily in that order".
Karen Yuen Karen Yuen

For over 15 years as an active practitioner, Karen Yuen's primary focus has been on delivering exceptional customer service through the successful combination of life skills, continued formal education and applied best practice. She is well respected among the support industry community in achieving customer service excellence. Her support career began with the Royal Bank, Western Canada Help Centre, where support in five provinces was centralized to one Help Desk and calls were tracked on paper. She spearheaded building the Internal support from the ground floor up and was the recipient of numerous awards. During her tenure at the Western Canada Help Centre, her team came in second place in the Help Desk Team Excellence Award against Boeing International and Taco Bell International. In 1998, Karen joined EDS as the Client Service Manager (CSM) for PLNet.

Karen's experience and knowledge is a continual life learning experience. She leads by example and is constantly challenging the people around her to challenge their personal paradigms and think outside the box to improve customer service and their personal goals.

Globally, Karen has held positions with HDI on the Member Advisory Board (MAB) since 1995. She is currently the HDI MAB Western Canada Executive, has participated in the HDI Certification Program and contributed for 3 years on the Team Excellence Award Committee for the HDI. In June 2005, Karen will assume the HDI Member Advisory Board Chair. She has been a guest speaker for numerous conferences, Special Interest Groups in the Lower Mainland and numerous educational institutions.

Locally, Karen was involved in the creation of the Help Desk Local Chapter 15 years ago and has served in every executive position capacity. She currently holds position of President. She is also active with the BCIT Call Centre for Excellence since 1997, VCC Program Advisory Board since 2003, Canadian Support Professional Advisory Board since 1999, HDI Standards Committee since 2002, and the Canadian Call Centre Advisory Board since 2002. She also provides one on one mentoring for future support professional leaders. In past, Karen has been involved with the Call Centre Local Chapter 1996 - 1999, the 1997 and 1998 HDI International Service Excellence Awards Committee, Women in Technology 1999, the Langara IT Advisory Board 2000 and ITSMF in 2002.

From a personal perspective, Karen actively volunteers for Fraser Valley Cancer Society, Kidney Foundation, Orphaned Wildlife (OWL), SPCA, Delta Humane Society, the Heart and Stroke Foundation and other local initiatives.
Emeritus Board
  • Char LaBounty, CEO, LaBounty & Associates, Inc.
  • Radha Basu, CEO, SupportSoft
  • Kris Brittain, Research Director, The Gartner Group
  • Patrick Bultema, CEO, FrontRange Solutions
  • Brenda Iniguez, Account Manager, ARC
  • Gary Lemke, CEO, RealMarket
  • Carolyn Healy, Executive Director, Support Industry.com
  • Chris Farver, Sr. Account Manager, ARC
  • Ed Hawthorne, Senior Vice President, Bank of America
  • Eric Rabinowitz, Founder, DEMA
  • Joanne Osmond, President, The Vision Tree
  • Kurt Johnson, VP of Strategic Business Development, Courion
  • Malcolm Fry, Sr. Consultant, Remedy
  • Scott Koon, Manager CTS Help Desk, Mayo Foundation
  • Rick Joslin, Senior Consultant, IHS Support Solutions
  • Phil Verghis, President, The Verghis Group
  • Michele Hudnall, Director of Service Management, Managed Objects
  • David Ratcliffe, President, Pink Elephant
  • Greg Oxton, Founder, Consortium for Service Innovation
  • Harold Goldberg, VP Marketing, BMC/Remedy
Top
The HDI Member Advisory Board
The HDI Member Advisory Board members have been elected by the HDI membership to represent the interest of the membership and local chapters. Their mission is to provide HDI with informed recommendations and advice that will allow the association to better serve its members and local chapters, and to improve communications between members, local chapters, and HDI. The Member Advisory Board is comprised of one chairman, two at-large members, six regional directors (as defined below), one past chairman, and an HDI representative, all of which are volunteer positions. Regional directors communicate regularly with the local chapter officers within their region to provide guidance and monitor the health of local chapters.
2005-2006 HDI Member Advisory Board:
  • Chairman: Karen Yuen, EDS Canada
  • Chairman-Elect: Johann Stoessel, Sonic Drivein
  • Past Chairman: Mary Cruse, Cardinal Health Systems
  • HDI Representative: Rich Hand, Help Desk Institute
  • HDI Representative: Sophie Klossner, Help Desk Institute
Regional Directors:
Chairman Emeritus
  • Chris Farver, Pomeroy
  • Brenda Iniguez, Pink Elephant
  • Rick Joslin, IHS Solutions
Bios
Mary Cruse Mary Cruse

Passionate about customer service, Mary Cruse has led teams for Fortune 500 companies for more than 25 years, focusing on software implementation and deployment, retail and technical call centers, workflow definitions and design, metrics, and SLA design and implementation.

Mary's primary responsibilities at Cardinal Health are to lead the activities in the external customer support center, supporting pharmaceutical distribution technology for hospitals and healthcare facilities. The Cardinal Health Worldwide Service Center has a staff of over 200 support specialists in 2 call center locations (San Diego and Quebec, Canada) who handle more than 70,000 contacts a month. Mary carries the HDI certifications of Help Desk Analyst, Help Desk Manager and Certified Training Instructor as well as the CIAC Call Center Operations Manager Certification. Mary is Co-VP of Membership for the San Diego Chapter of Help Desk Institute and the Chairman of the Global Member Advisory Board.
Richard Hand Richard Hand

Rich Hand, executive director of membership, is responsible for the strategic direction and day-to-day operations of HDI membership. Dedicated to adding value to the HDI membership programs, he leads the team responsible for delivering valuable content, publications, products, and services to the members. Previously, Rich spent 9 years implementing and managing the customer service centers for a Fortune 500 services company. He holds a B.S. in applied science and marketing from the University of Binghamton, NY.
Don Hanson Don Hanson

Don Hanson is a 1987 graduate of St. Joseph's University. He has over 17 years professional experience and twelve years of information technology solutions management experience. For the past 11 years, Don has been employed by the Yoh Company, which provides and manages $642 million of integrated staffing and outsourcing solutions.

Don's current role is Directory of Customer Development for Yoh IT Support, a division of the Yoh Company. Yoh IT Support is a leading provider of customized outsourcing solutions. In his role, Don is specifically responsible for the management and business development, service delivery and operational support of the outsourcing, project management and national accounts nationwide.

Don has served as President of the Delaware Valley Chapter of the Help Desk Institute for the past two years. He has been on the board of the Delaware Valley Chapter since the relaunch five years ago. He is committed to the continued growth of the local and national help desk community by bringing talented people together and sharing ideas and experiences.
Sophie Klossner Sophie Klossner

Sophie has been an influential member of the HDI team since 1992. She focused on event planning, content and coordinating speaker development. Sophie's tenure at HDI has also entailed management of HDI's human relations, as well as the administrative functions of the office. Currently as Local Chapter Membership Director, Sophie works closely with all Local Chapter officers and members to maintain open lines of communication and to sustain strong relationships. Sophie sits on the Member Advisory Board as HDI's representative and Chief Member Advocate and is the Board Administrator for HDI's Strategic Advisory Board. Sophie holds a degree in Elementary Education from Utah State University and taught elementary education for 18 years prior to joining HDI in 1992.
Theresa Lucio Nieto Teresa Lucio Nieto

Founder of her own consulting firm, focuses her practice & training on auditing, designing, implementing and benchmarking on Help Desk, CRM & Contact Center where she has pour best practices combined with knowledge, experience, customer satisfaction and employee motivation.

A frequent speaker at national conferences, she has presented more than 100 in-company workshops all over Mexico and through the ITESM Virtual University, to more than 1000 participants in Central & South America.

Teresa holds two Masters degrees IT related; HDI's Help Desk Analyst, Manager, Trainer and Site Auditor certifications; Project Management certification from Carnegie-Mellon University; ITIL Foundations certification from ITSM and Benchmarking from BenchmarkPortal of Purdue University.

Fluent in English and Spanish, Teresa is the VP of Communication at the Mexico City Local Chapter and the Regional director of the HDI's Member Advisory Board where she aims to open Local Chapters in Mexico.
Aggie Maas Aggie Maas

Aggie works for The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company and has over 20 years of experience in the computer industry. She currently works as liaison for the new outsourced help desk and as the customer advocate. She has led a global team of help desk professionals to implement Peregrine's ServiceCenter at Goodyear. She also functioned as a one-person help desk when the IBM COPICS manufacturing and control system was implemented at Goodyear. She has worked on improving the Research and Development IT help desk, both in their processes and image. Aggie is the Newsletter Editor of the North Coast Chapter Help Desk Institute and current Midwest Regional Director for the HDI Member Advisory Board. Recently, she led a virtual team of help desk professionals from the United States and Canada to develop the HDI Global and Local Chapter Policy and Procedure Guidelines. She was involved in other HDI projects as well, some as project leader. Aggie obtained certification as a Business Continuity Professional and has served as Program Director and President of the Contingency Planners of Ohio, a local professional organization for disaster recovery planners. She is enthusiastic and has good communication and documentation skills. Aggie is self-motivated, positive, and an idea person. She enjoys working with and motivating people, and most importantly, she enjoys delighting customers. Aggie received her Masters Degree in Leadership from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh in May 2003.
Joann Stoessel Johann Stoessel

Johann Stoessel brings a varied information technology background; starting in Data Processing in 1980 clearing jams on the card reader for Foremost McKesson in Wichita, Kansas, to his current position as Project Manager for Information Services Operations for Sonic. Johann has always gravitated toward the customer service arena. He has worked in the Information Services departments in manufacturing, banking, insurance, marketing, health care, and retail. He has held the positions of Keypunch Operator, Mainframe Operator, Hardware Technician, Call Center Technician, Network Administrator, Training Coordinator, IT Purchaser, Project Manager, and his favorite "The get it done dude!" His membership with HDI started in 2000 when he became the Help Desk Manager for Sonic. HDI Officer positions have included Secretary and Membership VP, becoming President of the Oklahoma City chapter in June of 2003. He was a faculty member for the HDI Annual Conference in 2004.
Karen Yuen Karen Yuen

For over 15 years as an active practitioner, Karen Yuen's primary focus has been on delivering exceptional customer service through the successful combination of life skills, continued formal education and applied best practice. She is well respected among the support industry community in achieving customer service excellence. Her support career began with the Royal Bank, Western Canada Help Centre, where support in five provinces was centralized to one Help Desk and calls were tracked on paper. She spearheaded building the Internal support from the ground floor up and was the recipient of numerous awards. During her tenure at the Western Canada Help Centre, her team came in second place in the Help Desk Team Excellence Award against Boeing International and Taco Bell International. In 1998, Karen joined EDS as the Client Service Manager (CSM) for PLNet.

Karen's experience and knowledge is a continual life learning experience. She leads by example and is constantly challenging the people around her to challenge their personal paradigms and think outside the box to improve customer service and their personal goals.

Globally, Karen has held positions with HDI on the Member Advisory Board (MAB) since 1995. She is currently the Help Desk Institute (HDI) MAB Western Canada Executive, has participated in the HDI Certification Program and contributed for 3 years on the Team Excellence Award Committee for the HDI. In June 2005, Karen will assume the HDI Member Advisory Board Chair. She has been a guest speaker for numerous conferences, Special Interest Groups in the Lower Mainland and numerous educational institutions.

Locally, Karen was involved in the creation of the Help Desk Local Chapter 15 years ago and has served in every executive position capacity. She currently holds position of President. She is also active with the BCIT Call Centre for Excellence since 1997, VCC Program Advisory Board since 2003, Canadian Support Professional Advisory Board since 1999, HDI Standards Committee since 2002, and the Canadian Call Centre Advisory Board since 2002. She also provides one on one mentoring for future support professional leaders. In past, Karen has been involved with the Call Centre Local Chapter 1996 - 1999, the 1997 and 1998 Help Desk Institute International Service Excellence Awards Committee, Women in Technology 1999, the Langara IT Advisory Board 2000 and ITSMF in 2002.

From a personal perspective, Karen actively volunteers for Fraser Valley Cancer Society, Kidney Foundation, Orphaned Wildlife (OWL), SPCA, Delta Humane Society, the Heart and Stroke Foundation and other local initiatives.
Donna Holt Donna Holt

Donna Holt has been involved in every aspect of the help desk industry. Her business experience includes international trading, telecommunications, manufacturing, credit analysis and finance for several Fortune 500 companies during her thirty-year career. Donna is a founding member of the HDI Individual Certification Standards Committee, a Certified HDA trainer, an HDI Certified Site Auditor, and a help desk consultant. She was the first Western Regional Director of the HDI Member Advisory Board during the inception of the board. Donna has been President, VP Membership, as well as other positions on the Orange County Local Chapter Board for six years. She is a true volunteer and has been an advocate for HDI for many years.
Tommy Barnett Tommy Barnett

Tommy Barnett is a Senior Manager of Customer Interaction Center consulting with The North Highland Company specializing in helping clients across idustries develop and enhance their Service & Support Center practices, processes and cost improvement methodologies. Tommy is a certified Support Center Director, Instructor and Site Auditor specializing in service and support operations with more than 20 years management and consulting experience in designing, staffing and assessing service & support centers; developing service strategies, service level management and educational programs, as well as performing project management.
Colleen Syryda Colleen Syryda

Colleen Syryda recently joined Telvent Canada Ltd. working at one of their customer sites, managing help desk operations. Telvent is a Global RealTime IT Company that provides outsourcing and consulting services to manage IT and telecommunications infrastructure for an extensive international client base.

Colleen has over 12 years of experience in the IT industry with expertise in Help Desk Operations and Service Delivery. She has held various positions with EDS, GE IT Solutions, and Manpower Professional, providing consulting services to large corporations including Petro-Canada, Encana, AT&T Canada, Shell Canada, TransAlta, Nova Chemicals and Honeywell. She is a results-oriented leader with a focus on implementing best practices in an effort to improve operations and increase customer satisfaction.
Pat Albright Pat Albright

Pat Albright, based in Cleveland, Ohio, is founder and president of IT Support Consultants, Inc. (ITSC). Prior to forming ITSC in 2000, she held business/technology management positions in small business, non-profit and corporate environments. She has been involved in the implementation and support of technology for more than 20 years.

ITSC's mission is to provide high-quality, cost-effective consulting services that add value to the support of technology in small- and mid-sized businesses, non-profit agencies and government organizations. ITSC has worked with a wide variety of clients - in manufacturing, health care, legal, retail, education, small business, state government, and insurance - to implement or enhance both Internal and External support organizations. Pat is also a Certified Auditor for the HDI Support Center Certification program.

Pat has been a member of Help Desk Institute (HDI) since 1997, and is a Member-at-Large on the HDI Member Advisory Board (2005-06). She is active in the North Coast Chapter (Ohio) where she has served as Librarian (2001-02, 2002-03), President (2003-04, 2004-05), and Chapter Advisor (2005-06).
Lee Ann Roland Lee Ann Roland

Graduating with a BFA in Musical Theater, LeeAnn never expected to become a Help Desk professional. However, working in the Support/Help Desk industry has become not just a career, but a passion. She started working in the industry in 1986, worked her way up from the front lines. She implemented the first help desk for the Ohio Department of Transportation, working on the mainframe side of support as well as the desktop and network side. LeeAnn started attending chapter meetings regularly in 1994. In 1999 she was nominated and elected Vice President of Membership. During her tenure in this position the Mid-Ohio Chapter grew.
Virgina Scuderi Virginia Scuderi

Virginia is President of her own company, Competitive Advantage Inc. Virginia's experience encompasses nearly 20 years in computer and "softskills" training, curriculum development, and computer software support. Her diverse background includes: compatibility testing, troubleshooting, and hardware and software support. Using her experience as a curriculum designer for AT&T, Virginia has broadened her expertise to include development of technical user manuals for national software development organizations. Since 1993, Virginia has been associated with HDI as a primary staff instructor and consultant. During this time she has served as Director of Certification and Curriculum Development facilitating the launch of HDI's Certification program (CSS, HDA, HDSA, HDM). She is a founding member of HDI's International Individual Standards Committee (IICS) which established the certification standards recognized by the help desk industry worldwide. In addition to presenting regularly at Help Desk Institute conferences, Virginia is a lead facilitator in their Certified Trainer program.