VCI-Group Biographies

		President Toni Alonso North Shore LIJ +1 516-734-3373 aalonso@NSHS.edu About Antonette "Toni" Alonso In June 2011, Toni became a member of North Shore – LIJ as the Director Enterprise Video Services Infrastructure responsible for the growing needs of conferencing/collaboration within the health system. In March 2009 she joined BT Conferencing first as the Vice President of Customer Advocacy for BT’s – VBU division; and, then as the Global Head of Central Services. In those capacities she worked with both Sales and Operations for the successful on-boarding of new clients and to ensure that the customer was aware of the various services BTC offered in Strategic Staffing, Event Management and through awareness and adoption of the conferencing services they were procuring from BT. With her team they were able to identify areas of growth and make recommendations to customers based on their usage and trends. Toni Alonso was employed by Pfizer Inc in 1995 and was a Director with global responsibility for the strategy, design and implementation of the conferencing/collaboration infrastructure in audio, video, streaming and web conferencing. She also had responsibility for the delivery of major events/broadcasts both on and offsite; and was the liaison for the Americas region during the outsource transition of Information Technology to Hewlett Packard (HP). In her capacity at Pfizer Inc she was one of the first successful implementers/Users of Video Conferencing over IP using an overlay network; currently Pfizer is on a converged network utilizing AT&Ts latest technology, MPLS. Toni has been in the video conferencing industry since 1989 and is considered an expert in her field and has met with other organizations, BMS, GlaxoSmithKline, M&M/Mars and Oracle to discuss how to successfully deploy video conferencing. Prior to joining Pfizer she worked for Citicorp/Citibank for 17 years in various capacities and left as a Vice President. Toni was a Director of the Polycom User Group (PUG) for seven (7) years and President of PUG in 2005 and 2006. She was also President of the Global Crossing User Group and a Director of the Americas PictureTel User Group. She has interests in the theatre and ballet and sponsors a non-profit theatre organization in New York, the Roundabout. She is an avid New York Yankees fan and devotes her fall Sunday afternoons to watching the NFL. Toni is a graduate of High Point University in North Carolina and has a B.A. in Spanish/English education and an MBA from Villanova University.
		Vice President Todd Hughes Western Kentucky University +1 270-745-2822 todd.hughes@wku.edu About Todd Hughes Todd has worked for Western Kentucky University for the past 5 years. WKU is located in Bowling Green KY and has over 20,000 students enrolled. As the Interactive Video Systems Engineer, Todd is responsible for the design, installation, upgrades, additions, and support of 42 distant learning classrooms located across South Central Kentucky. He maintains the video network infrastructure and Adobe Connect administration support, pilots desktop video conference solutions, and oversees the bridge connections of 110 classes per week; totaling over 800 hours of endpoint connection. Lastly, He works closely with the WKU community as new video technologies are explored and implemented across the many colleges and division that make up the university.
		Secretary/Treasurer Catherine Takacs +1 973-770-1327 catherine.takacs@tatatcommunications.com About Catherine Takacs Catherine Takacs has worked in the VC space for over 13 years in various capacities. Most recently managing teams of video conferencing (VC) and audiovisual (AV) engineers supporting clients’ on-site operations. Prior to that, she worked for an AV integrator managing over 60 technical resources deployed as Level I, II, & III on-site meeting and conferencing operations support to the company’s major clients. She has served on the Board of Directors since 2000 and prior to that she headed up a business unit for a NJ based consulting firm managing all aspects of association management support for several International and domestic not-for-profit technology associations including PictureTel User Group (PUG), CMA, WSTA, TRMA, and TM Forum.
		Past President Stephen Demmings Cornell University – Johnson School of Management + 1 607-254-8967 srd38@cornell.edu About Stephen Demmings Steve currently works at the Johnson School of Management at Cornell University with the Cornell-Queen's Executive MBA program. The program is taught through videoconferencing across Canada and the United States. Steve has established remote boardrooms, training for both students and professors as well as the building out and operating a broadcast studio
		Director Theo Economides Greenline Emeritus Consulting LLC +1 312-436-1883 theo.economides@greenlineemeritus.com About Theo Economides Theo Economides is a visionary and noted speaker in the field of Business Mobility and Collaboration Technology. With more than 30 years experience in the TV and radio, higher education, telecommunications, and legal environments his fortè is in leading businesses out of their typical perceptions of technology and into new, synergistic understanding and applications. His public speaking engagements challenge attendees to re-think and re-shape their understanding of how to position technologies within their own organizations in order to achieve the higher goal of creating compelling experiences that drive adoption, usage, and improved business output. Mr. Economides has a vast IT, technology, and telecommunications background, but it is his unique ability to create a unified view of all these technologies and to explain it all to any audience which sets him apart from his peers. As such, his presentations have been well-received at many conferences; most notably, the annual conventions of the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) and the Visual Communications Industries Group. Mr. Economides’ career began after completing two degrees in Electrical Engineering at Texas A&M University, at the university’s Educational Broadcast Services (home of PBS and NPR affiliate stations, KAMU-TV & FM). He implemented and maintained the far-reaching video conference network infrastructure and classrooms for the university and the State of Texas. In that role he also led a number of innovative projects in the broadcast, Internet 2, and distance learning technology fields. For instance, the creation of a “Virtual Town Hall” meeting for Texas Governor G.W. Bush, connecting a poor rural Texas school district to Vice President Al Gore at the White House, and engineering and organizing (and singing the bass part of) the only ever virtual barbershop quartet for an Internet 2 meeting in Atlanta, GA. A native of Chicago, Mr. Economides returned in 2005 to work for the law firm of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. As the firm's audio-video engineer and member of the firm wide Telecom team, he managed, maintained, and augmented the firm's global videoconferencing infrastructure and conference rooms. With his combined experience in telepresence, videoconferencing, streaming media, IT, broadcasting, VoIP, and traditional telephony, he was also the firm's Unified Communications Subject Matter Expert. Since leaving Kirkland in 2009, Mr. Economides cultivated his vision for the place and use of collaboration technology for mobility in business to a new, visionary level. He formed Greenline Emeritus Consulting to bring this vision to forward-looking organizations, to cultivate a new culture of mobility, virtualness, and collaboration from within. In addition to his technical and teaching competencies, Mr. Economides is an accomplished pianist, singer, musical conductor, and musical educator. A musician since the age of eight years, he currently teaches private voice and piano students. He is a member and administrator of Chicago's "Too Hot to Handel" choir and has directed numerous musical theatre orchestras and mens a cappella choruses.
		Director Julio Mundo Pfizer Inc. +1 212-733-6836 julio.mundo@pfizer.com About Julio Mundo Julio Mundo began working for Pfizer Pharmaceutical Inc. as a Video Analyst in the Corporate Information Technology Division in 1998. He is currently the Service Delivery Manager (SDM) responsible for the Operational Service Delivery to the Americas with concentration on the Metro New York/New Jersey campuses. Julio is responsible for providing Audio, Video and Web conferencing in New York, New Jersey and Latin America to 30,000 colleagues and 300 endpoints. Julio also provides support to Pfizer’s Executive Boardroom. Julio has volunteered at the conferences for the past four years managing the coordination of all Audio/Visual requests during the conference. Julio has his MBA in Business Administration from Keller’s Graduate School of Management in New York City.
		Director Douglas Pearson Accenture douglas.d.pearson@accenture.com About Doug Pearson Doug is a manager with Accenture’s internal infrastructure Delivery Services organization, currently focused on delivery of videoconference interoperability infrastructure. Doug has been with Accenture for over 28 years and has a strong background in voice network and collaboration technologies. Doug led the effort to deploy Cisco/Tandberg video bridging infrastructure, Microsoft Unified Messaging, j2 eFax service, Cisco MeetingPlace conferencing and other communications services. In addition to deployment of new technologies, Doug’s experience includes communications product management, vendor management, service delivery, technical design, Service Desk setup, and production of end user communications and training content. Doug has been active in volunteering in various industry-related groups including AT&T, Sprint, Latitude, LinkVTC, PictureTel, and VCI-Group user groups. Doug served on the former PictureTel Users’ Group Board of Directors, including two years as the group’s President, and currently serves on the Visual Conferencing Industry Group’s Board of Directors. Doug lives in Cary, IL, is married with two teenage girls, enjoys playing and composing keyboard music, and is active in various church ministries.
		Provisional Director Elizabeth Burton PrimePoint, LLC. +1 606-802-2949 Elizabeth.Burton@primepoint.org About Elizabeth Burton Elizabeth Burton is CEO of PrimePoint, LLC, and has 20 years of experience working with public and private sector organizations on organizational development, technology implementation and resource maximization strategies. In addition, Elizabeth is currently a Provisional Director with the VCI-Group, the largest independent association in the conferencing and collaboration industry and comprised of end-users and vendors focused on videoconferencing, telepresence, Unified Communications and/or collaboration technologies. Elizabeth also serves as a Senior Fellow with The Performance Institute in Washington, D.C., and has trained hundreds of organizations on grant writing and administration, including staff from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Department of Education, U.S. Department of Health and Senior Services, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and numerous state and local government agencies and nonprofit organizations. She is a peer reviewer for many federal and state grants, and has published numerous articles on grant funding. Previously, she was National Director of the Polycom Grant & E-rate Assistance Programs, where she helped over 200 organizations annually to secure government and foundation funding for telecommunications solutions, and created marketing and demand generation strategies targeted to solution selling. As Program Coordinator with the State of Missouri, Elizabeth administered over $26 million in discretionary funding, and as Special Projects Coordinator for the Harry S Truman School of Public Affairs, University of Missouri, she co-created the first training center on leadership, grants and other public policy programs. Elizabeth holds a Master’s degree in Public Administration and is certified as an Economic Development Finance Professional.
		Provisional Director Chris DiFiglia North Shore-LIJ Health System +1 516-655-1291 cdifiglia@nshs.edu About Chris DiFiglia Chris is an industry veteran of more than twenty five years within Information Technology with the last fifteen years focused on the Visual Collaboration space. He has worked in both the Enterprise end user space and most recently on the manufacturer side of the business. This experience has provided Chris the unique opportunity of understanding both sides of the Industry. Chris previously served on the Boards of the PictureTel and Polycom User Groups.
		Provisional Director Andy Howard Howard & Associates +1 203-671-5174 andy@howard-associates.com About Andy Howard Andy Howard is Managing Director of Howard & Associates, a leading consulting firm focused on helping clients “improve communications with video.” Mr. Howard has helped hundreds of large corporate, government, and educational customers architect and implement enterprise-wide video deployments. Mr. Howard is a highly regarded IP video expert, industry veteran, and a frequent speaker at leading industry events. Prior to founding Howard & Associates, Mr. Howard was a key executive at VBrick Systems, and was instrumental building the company from startup to market leader. Frost & Sullivan named the company the Enterprise Video market leader in 2011. While at VBrick, Mr. Howard performed multiple roles including Strategic Alliances, Business Development, and Product Strategy. Mr. Howard positioned VBrick as the “go to” partner for streaming video for companies such as Avaya, Microsoft, HP, and LifeSize. Mr. Howard also provided the product vision for the creation of two of VBrick’s most strategic products – its core media management software called the VBrick Enterprise Media System (VEMS) and its core video distribution appliance, the VBrick Distributed Media Engine (DME). The combination of these two products allows organizations to build scalable and highly reliable enterprise video distribution systems. Mr. Howard has been at the forefront of the digital video industry since it began, pioneering the development of the industry's first streaming media caching appliance in the late 1990's, while holding Product Management and Marketing positions at CacheFlow (now Blue Coat) and Novell. Mr. Howard received a bachelor's degree cum laude from Harvard University and an MBA with Distinction from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan.
		Provisional Director Geoffrey Vande Weerdt G2J Videoconferencing +1 888-832-7982 geoffreyv@g2j.com About Geoffrey Vande Weerdt Geoff has more than 12 years of experience in the technology and business communications industries. Geoff is currently Head of The Americas for G2J, a leading Wholesaler of Video Management Solutions for Managed Services Providers. He previously served in various management capacities within the Telepresence, Unified Communications & Remote Collaboration industries including Sales Manager in Canada for a Arkadin, leading Provider of Audio, Web, Video & Unified Collaboration Solutions. Prior to this role, Geoffrey was the Director of Sales Channel for IPeak Networks (now LiveQos) an OEM of IP Packet Loss Recovery Solutions (PLR) and oversaw the entire Channel Program. Before moving to North America, Geoffrey spent more than 7 years in the Videoconferencing industry serving in various senior level positions including Sales Manager Europe in Paris (France) & Director of Business Development in London (UK) for G2J Videoconferencing. In 2002, he started his career in the Telecoms, Conferencing & Unified Collaboration industry in the United Kingdom with Genesys Conferencing. Before moving to the Telecom industry, Geoffrey wasTeam Leader of a large Call Center for Marketing Research & Survey in London, UK.
		Advisory Council Chair JD Vaughn JD Vaughn Consulting jdvaughn@jdvaughn.com About JD Vaughn JD Vaughn is the founder and principal at JD Vaughn Consulting. He has served as the Vice President of North American Sales at Polycom and as General Manager for Radvision Corporation and began his career in videoconferencing in 1989 at Picturetel. He is an author and writer of several books and is a well known co-host with Elliot Gold on the annual TeleSpan Predictions.
		Advisory Council Member Ray Glynn Vidyo ray@vidyo.com About Ray Glynn Ray Glynn is currently Vice President Strategic Accounts for Vidyo Inc. Glynn has 35 years of technology sales, sales management and general management experience in the network technology market place. His video experience includes President of 2Confer, video, audio and data reseller, Regional Vice President of Sales for Polycom and Vice President of Sales at Radvision. Glynn is based in San Francisco, CA.
		Executive Director Karen Wesloh Visual Communications Industry Group +1 952-928-4665 kwesloh@vci-group.org Karen has been in the association management field since 1992 and has served on the staff since 2004. Karen graduated cum laude from the University of St. Thomas with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Administration and Economics. She also received her Master of Business Administration in Marketing and Strategic Management from The Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota, where she focused on non-profit management. Karen obtained the Certified Meeting Professional (CMP) designation in 2005. She is a member of American Society of Association Executives, the Midwest Society of Association Executives, the AMC Institute, and the Professional Convention Management Association.
		Assistant Director Jackie Kastner Visual Communications Industry Group +1 952-928-4665 jkastner@vci-group.org Jackie attended St. Cloud State University and earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in public relations. While attending SCSU, Jackie was active in the Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA), serving on the board as Fundraising Chair and Vice President. During her junior year, she studied abroad in Poland and Spain which sparked her interest in doing more traveling. Jackie also enjoys cooking and trying new recipes, as well as attending concerts and cheering for Minnesota sports teams. Jackie is a member of the Midwest Society of Association Executives (MSAE).

Click here to submit feedback about this page