CompTIA Names Community Leaders for 2013

IT advocacy and training organization CompTIA Inc. last week unveiled at list of industry luminaries to lead the Downers Grove, Ill., group’s member communities in various disciplines for the coming year.

The CompTIA communities provide valuable insights and direction for educational and lobbying efforts in important tech areas such as cloud computing, IT security, managed services, managed print services, mobility and unified communications.

New to the CompTIA roster this year is the member group Advancing Women in IT, established to “empower women with the knowledge and skills necessary to help their pursuit of successful IT jobs, and to inspire women to enter the IT industry as a career option,” according to CompTIA officials. Sandy Ashworth, global director of channel relations and warranty at Unisys Corp., and Jean Mork Bredeson, president of Service 800, will head up the new effort.

Other industry leaders tapped to lead CompTIA member communities include the following:

Cloud/SaaS
John Rice, senior director of partner communities at Intermedia, and Ted Roller, vice president of channel development for LogMeIn

IT Security
Scott Barlow, vice president of sales and marketing for Reflexion Networks, and Grant Johnson, principal-IT consultant at Array

IT Services and Support (Canada)
Christopher Adamson, director of IT and professional services at Ricoh Canada Inc., and Brook Douglas, director of sales at Parts Now Canada

IT Services and Support (U.S.)
Michael Schuler, vice president of U.S. sales at Zylog Systems Inc., and Aaron Woods, director of the Xerox Corp. NARS Program

Mobility
David Sobel, director of partner community for Level Platforms, and Heather Murray, director for mobility at Tech Data

MSP Partners
Jay McBain, co-founder of Channeleyes, and John Tippett, chief operating officer at EDTS

Managed Print Services
Barney Kister, senior vice president at Supplies Network, and Ian Berger, regional account executive of Parts Now

UK Channel
Lee Evans, managing director for Vital Technology Group, and Jim Harrower, UK & Ireland sales manager at GFI Software

Unified Communications
Guy Yasika, regional sales manager at Alteva, and David Gilbert, chief executive officer of SimpleSignal

“Each of these groups is performing important and inspired work that’s benefitting the entire IT industry and the customers we serve,” said Todd Thibodeaux, president and chief executive officer at CompTIA. “Their collective expertise has contributed greatly to the development of new credentials and trustmarks for IT companies and hundreds of IT channel training courses and publications. Their insights have helped shape advocacy efforts and policy stances on critical issues and legislation affecting the IT industry.”