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 | Audrey Smilgys, Senior Solution Consultant
Audrey delivers incredible value to our customers and our team through a unique and well-rounded understanding of associations. Prior to joining Protech’s team, Audrey spent 20 years serving associations in a number of different roles, including managing education programs for the National Association of Realtors and a nursing certification organization, an account manager for an association management company, and managing implementations of association management software. At Protech, Audrey puts her experience to work for our customers by supporting new solution implementations, configuring applications to meet specific client requirements, and training client staff. She specializes in fundraising, events management, and membership management. |
|  | Brenda Davis, Principle Consultant
Brenda received her MBA from the University of Baltimore with a specialization in leadership. She has been a key player on Protech’s team for nearly five years, and has a total of thrirteen years of experience working as a Consultant, Project Manager and Account Manager. At Protech, Brenda is responsible for utilizing her deep product knowledge, combined with detailed business analysis skills, to manage custom enhancements projects within Protech Business Solutions implementations, including specification definition and acceptance, development, quality assurance, client acceptance, and deployment. Additionally, she provides strategic oversight to ensure the delivery of comprehensive and cohesive customer solutions. |
|  | Brian Bruffey, Chief Executive Officer
Brian has two decades of experience providing the association industry with first class business solutions. In his twenty years with Protech, Brian has helped bring Protech to the forefront of the elite group of companies dedicated to serving the needs of member-based organizations. His unwavering passion for excellence, combined with his understanding of the market, has helped Protech develop a diverse and loyal group of customers and partners. As Protech’s CEO, Brian provides the necessary leadership to innovate and is responsible for every aspect of the company’s performance. As a member of the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) Technology Committee, Brian continually strives to stay abreast of the ever-changing association community and plays an active role in the continued advancement of association technology. |
|  | Brian Sutton, Director of Information Technology
Brian is responsible for the oversight of Protech’s corporate infrastructure along with providing implementation and post-live support for our clients. In nine years at Protech, Brian has been a key player in more than seventy implementation projects and has developed expertise in network administration and architecture, firewall, Protech Business Solutions, Active Directory, Exchange Server, SQL Server, Microsoft Dynamics CRM and GP. Prior to joining Protech’s team, Brian worked in the Workstation Support division at Group 1 Software. |
|  | Chris Kahl, Partner Technology Advisor, Microsoft
Chris has spent the past two decades working in technical sales and consulting and has been focused on Sales Force Automation and Customer Relationship Management systems for the last ten years. He has worked with companies, large and small, to help them refine sales, marketing and customer service operations and to apply appropriate technology solutions in support of well-defined business goals. Chris believes in focusing on the needs of the end-user of a system as the surest path to rapid adoption and effective collection of key business information which can, in turn, be used to drive better decision-making. Chris is currently employed as a CRM Partner Technology Advisor with Microsoft Corporation. |
|  | Christoph Kunkel, VP for Operations, Council of Independent Colleges
Christoph is Vice President for Operations at The Council of Independent Colleges and is responsible for various operational, technological, and data activities at CIC. A native of Germany, Kunkel studied political science, economics, and history at Heidelberg University and the London School of Economics, crossed the Atlantic on a Fulbright Fellowship, and received a master’s degree from Cornell University (NY) in government. In his life outside CIC, he serves as an adjunct professor for Cornell’s Summer in Washington program. Kunkel joined CIC in February 2004 as Assistant to the President and later also served as Assistant Director of Research. |
|  | Francie Dalton, President, Dalton Alliances, Inc.
A frequent speaker for associations, Francie Dalton specializes in communication, behavioral, and management sciences. Her firm, Dalton Alliances, Inc., is a premier business consultancy enabling management to meet critical objectives in leadership development through customized 360’s, employee and member surveys, executive coaching, and education workshops. Dalton’s works have been featured in Harvard Management Update, CEO Magazine, Investors Business Daily, American Way Magazine, The New York Post, MSN Money, The New York Times, and more. She has been a regular columnist for the Washington Business Journal on issues of leadership, and has appeared on CNN Financial News Network, where she was interviewed about her work in the areas of leadership and performance measures. |
|  | Frank Bruffey, III, Chief Technology Officer
Frank draws on nearly a quarter of a century of experience in working with associations to lead Protech’s technology strategy and development efforts. During his tenure at Protech, he has been driven by an objective to develop technology solutions that help make the business lives of association executives more productive. In the past several years, he has extended that passion to developing innovative technologies that also empower associations to provide a personalized, interactive experience for their members. Frank leads a development team that carries numerous certifications for Microsoft technologies and boasts strong expertise in SQL Studio, MOSS 2007, Visual Studio 2008, ASP.NET Framework 3.5, C#, HTML, CSS, AJAX, XML, and XSLT. His team has actively participated in Microsoft’s Technical Adoption Program (TAP), providing early insight into Microsoft’s roadmap and ensuring that Protech is always in tune with the latest Microsoft technologies. Frank has been instrumental in leading Protech through the continued advancement of technology, including the transition from DOS to Windows to .NET, with an unwavering commitment to user adoptability of newly released solutions. In 2008, Frank was instrumental in helping Protech launch several new products, including SharePoint for Members, which was developed in part by one of only a handful of Microsoft SharePoint MVP’s. Most recently, his commitment to quality development and implementation of the SCRUM development methodology led to the Certified for Microsoft Dynamics designation for Protech’s core CRM for Members application. |
|  | Grant Costello, Solution Consultant
As a member of our implementation team, Grant utilizes a deep technical understanding of Protech CRM for Members to configure and set up our clients' systems. He also writes and trains clients on SQL Reporting Services (SRS) reports. Grant is proficient in C, C++, C#, and .NET programming languages. |
|  | Hamid Echane, Solution Consultant
Hamid received his Bachelors degree in Management Information Systems, with a minor in Computer Science, at North Dakota State University. He plays an integral role in configuring and implementing Protech Business Solutions, assigning workflows and security roles, as well as providing end-user training. Prior to joining Protech’s team, Hamid worked in the IT Department for Bobcat Corporation and as a Technical Lead for the Microsoft CRM support team. |
|  | Janet Lampert, Vice President of Marketing
Janet’s experience in the technology industry runs deep and she brings to the table an incredible wealth of technological and leadership expertise. Before joining Protech, Janet worked for seventeen years as a senior leader at Great Plains (now part of Microsoft). During her tenure at Great Plains, she played a key role in growing the organization from a small start-up company to the accounting software giant that caught the attention of and was acquired by Microsoft. Janet was also a senior executive at Encore Business Solutions, where she gained valuable experience in the nonprofit community. Her leadership contributions propelled Encore to significant revenue growth, and the eventual adoption by Microsoft of Encore’s nonprofit accounting solutions. At Protech, Janet is responsible for directly managing all of Protech’s sales and marketing activities. She leads Protech’s Fargo, ND, team, with offices located just across the street from the Fargo-based Microsoft Dynamics (Microsoft Business Solutions) team, facilitating effective collaboration with Microsoft and helping to cultivate our valuable relationship. Janet is a member of Microsoft’s Partner Advisory Council (PAC), and actively participates in the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) Industry Partner Alliance (IPA). |
|  | Jason Schnur, Vice President of Sales
Over the past ten years, Jason has worked with non-profit organizations to help them develop lasting relationships with members. Jason is a member of the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE), the Virginia Society of Association Executives (VSAE), and the New Jersey Society of Association Executives (NJSAE). His main responsibilities at Protech are to develop relationships within the non-profit community by advising potential customers and ensuring that Protech customers receive long-term value from their investment. Jason is a graduate of Penn State University and is an active volunteer with The Children's Miracle Network, a non-profit organization dedicated to saving and improving the lives of children. |
|  | Justin Rossello, Sales Engineer
Since joining Protech’s team, Justin has worked closely with several departments within Protech to carefully analyze our clients’ business practices and determine how Protech Business Solutions can be configured and manipulated to deliver the greatest value to our customers. As a member of the Sales and Marketing team, Justin plays a critical role in demonstrating and presenting Protech Business Solutions to their fullest capabilities and identifying areas that may require further development. Throughout the years, he has been an evangelist for new ideas and product enhancements, and a champion in evaluating new tools that may integrate with Protech Business Solutions to most effectively meet our clients’ needs. |
|  | Kevin Bruffey, Vice President, Customer Service
Kevin joined Protech in June of 1991 as a technical support resource servicing customer’s networking, desktop and server software & hardware needs. In 2005, Kevin created the customer service department (CustomerCare) to manage delivery of software licensing & product sales, hardware, technical & application support and professional services to Protech’s customers. The CustomerCare initiative has proven helpful in improving both customer satisfaction and customer retention. |
|  | Lindsay Laven, Regional Sales Director, Zap Technology
Lindsay is Zap's North American Regional Sales Director. Based in San Francisco, Lindsay is responsible for driving revenue through partners across the Unites States. Lindsay joined Zap from Microsoft where she spent four years as a Business Intelligence Specialist selling PerformancePoint in Microsoft’s NorthWest district. During this time Lindsay led the US in PerformancePoint customer adds, revenue and percentage of quota. Lindsay also has business intelligence start up experience as the first sales representative in the Western US for Arbor, the author of Essbase, which successfully went public then merged with Hyperion. While at Arbor, Lindsay was consistently the #1 or #2 sales representative in the company. Prior to entering the business intelligence market, Lindsay sold Oracle Financials and Oracle Manufacturing during her three years with Oracle. Lindsay has earned a B.A English, M.A Mathematical Studies in Educational Research at Stanford University and an M.B.A Finance at University of California, Berkeley. |
|  | Mary Ann Parks, Manager of Consulting Services
Over the past seventeen years since joining Protech, Mary Ann has participated in more than one hundred association software implementations, with roles ranging from Lead Project Manager to Lead Accounting Implementation Manager, to Lead Trainer. She participates in various departments within Protech: Operations, Sales, and Development. Mary Ann is an accountant by trade and has prior experience as the Controller for an educational association and as a staff accountant for a local CPA firm. She has earned several Microsoft Certifications including Customer Relationship Management and Great Plains Financials.
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|  | Rob Wenger, Chief Executive and Chief Technology Officer, Higher Logic
Rob has been developing social networking applications for associations and non-profits for nearly 10 years. As a founder and Chief Technology Officer for Active Matter, a web software company specializing in non-profits, Rob designed and developed the Web 1.0 versions of Microsites, eGroups, the Member Directory, and many others between 1999 and 2003. Between 2003 and 2007 Rob served as the Principal Product Architect and lead the design and architecture of an association management software solution. Currently, as CEO of Higher Logic, Rob is revisiting the Web 1.0 products but recreating them to use the latest and greatest technologies coupled with the founding principles of Web 2.0: the collaborative community that is the Social web. |
|  | Suellen Maneely, Manager of Quality Assurance
Suellen has been a member of Protech’s team for ten years, in which time she’s played a role in software development, project discoveries and specifications, creation of user documentation, and project and account management. Her extensive experience has given Suellen a unique and in-depth understanding of Protech Business Solutions – from application development through project implementation and beyond – which positions her to most effectively ensure the usability and performance of the applications as the leader of our QA team. |
|  | Teena Whittenhall, Sr. Project Manager
Teena is regarded by customers and colleagues alike as one of Protech’s most organized and successful Project Managers. She joined the Protech team in September of 2004, and has participated in numerous implementations since then, as both a Consultant and Project Manager. Her previous work experience covers a variety of industries, giving her broad and strong insight into business processes and organizational interdependencies. Teena has managed projects encompassing the full range of Protech Business Solutions, including Web Portal for Members and SharePoint for Members, and has experience with large and technically complex implementations as well as out-of-the-box rapid implementation scenarios. Teena’s experience and tenure with Protech provides her with a unique ability to speak not only at the project level but at the application level as well. Teena’s strengths lie in disciplined project analysis, planning, and organization; clear and effective communication; and strong leadership to ensure that project activities remain in alignment with overall goals, objectives, and priorities. |
|  | Wes Trochlil, President, Effective Database Management
For nearly 20 years, Wes has worked in and with dozens of associations and membership organizations throughout the US, ranging in size from three staff to over 700. In that time Wes has provided a range of consulting services, from general consulting on data management issues to full-scale, association-wide selection and implementation of association management systems. With his recently released book "Put Your Data to Work: 52 Tips and Techniques for Effectively Managing Your Database," and having published over 50 articles and hundreds of blog posts, Wes is the most published author on data management in the association market. Wes has written for and been quoted in Associations Now, CRMBuyer, Association Management, ECommerce Times, Association Trends, techiecrossing.com, SearchSMB.com, eWeek, monster.com, Executive Update, the Washington Business Journal, InsideCRM, and FORUM magazines, and appeared as an expert on CRM issues on Microsoft's Non-Profit TV program. In addition to his writing, Wes also speaks regularly to association audiences across the US and Canada on a wide variety of data management issues, from selecting and implementing an association management system, to leveraging the data for better marketing and communication. |
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