VCI-Group Biographies

 

 

Steve Demmings  

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


 
Indika McCampbell  

Vice President

Indika McCampbell
Kansas Research and Educational Network
+1 785-856-9800
iumccampbell@kanren.net

About Indika McCampbell

Indika works as the Applications Specialist at the Kansas Research and Educational Network based in Lawrence, Kansas. She is responsible for providing support for IP videoconferencing and other collaboration applications on the network. KanREN is a non-profit consortium of colleges, universities, school districts and other organizations within the state, organized in order to facilitate communication among them, and for providing themselves with connectivity to the Internet via a statewide IP network. KanREN also provides technical assistance and support to the state funded Kan-ed Program. This program promotes the use of IP videoconferencing to provide collaboration capabilities to its member institutions, specifically K-12 schools, higher education, libraries and hospitals. Her work primarily deals with high definition and standard definition videoconferencing infrastructure and related technologies, but she also works with desktop collaboration platforms, such as Marratech and provides Helix streaming support as well.


 
 Julio Mundo  

Treasurer
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.


 Craig Ernst  

Secretary
Craig Ernst
University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire
+1 715-836-3639
ernstcs@uwec.edu

About Craig Ernst

Craig Ernst has worked at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire since 2000 and is part of the Systems Management & Configuration (SMAC) group. Craig's primary duties at the university include management of video codes and streaming, campus-wide management and deployment for Windows and Mac based workstations, and about 5 billion "other duties as assigned" like many employees. The SMAC group also helps to engineer and implement technology solutions to make using technology seamless, easy, efficient, affective, and affordable. Outside of work Craig enjoys spending time with his family, the occasional game of paintball, movies, gaming and the performing arts; all of which are when time allows unfortunately. 


 
 Norm Thomas  

Past President
Norm Thomas
Manager, Video and Audio Corporate Conference Services
Canada Revenue Agency (CRA)
+1 613-562-6202
normthomas@rogers.com

About Norm Thomas

Normand has twenty-seven years of IT experience in the Public Service of Canada, following a term of service with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and time off for College.

Norm has spent the last twenty-three years with the CRA, the last eight in the planning, design, implementation and management of the conference infrastructure.

He is a firm believer in the worth of members' involvement in the Group's activities, the value of VCI-Group's mandate and strong international representation that can benefit the user base.


 
 

Director 
Catherine Takacs
BT Conferencing
+1 973-770-1327
Catherine.Takacs@bt.com

About Catherine Takacs

In 2006 Catherine Takacs joined the Field Services organization at BT Conferencing to manage teams of video conferencing (VC) and audiovisual (AV) engineers supporting clients’ on-site operations. She has worked in the VC space for over 13 years in various capacities. Just prior to joining BT Conferencing 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.


 
 

Director
Rebecca Tisdale
Harris Corporation/GCSD EIT
+1 321-984-6193
rtisdale@harris.com

About Rebecca Tisdale

A graduate of the Art Institute of Atlanta, Rebecca began her career in the visual communication field as an Advertising Photographer. Since 1992 she has worked with Patrick Air Force Base, NASA Kennedy Space Center, and Harris Corporation supporting Videoconferencing, Webcasting and Collaboration projects. These working relationships have allowed her the opportunity to communicate globally and beyond encompassing the Space Shuttles and the International Space Station. Her past projects included opportunities to lead the NASA initiative to design and build a Webcast studio, as well as, produce programs for NASA TV and NASA Direct Webcast.

She is currently employed by Harris Corporation, Government Communications Systems Division. Harris is an international communications and information technology company serving government and commercial markets in more than 150 countries. Headquartered in Melbourne, Florida, the company has 16,000 employees — including nearly 7,000 engineers and scientists. Harris is dedicated to developing best-in-class assured communications® products, systems, and services.

Rebecca is the System Administrator, supporting Videoconferencing and Collaboration. Her responsibilities include new product evaluation and deployment strategies, room design and equipment integration. She provides daily management and technical support of Polycom MCU, gatekeeper and endpoints, webcasting Live & video-on-demand events along with data collaboration tools in ISDN, IP and wireless environments. 


 
Toni Alonso  

Director

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.


 

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.


 
Derek Abrams  

Provisional Director

Derek Abrams
Oregon State University
+1 541-713-3330
derek.abrams@oregonstate.edu

About Derek Abrams

With over 25 years of industry experience in IT and network communication systems design & engineering, serving public utilities, insurance, educational, state government and embarking upon healthcare and tele-health/med services. An industry voice with vision Mr. Abrams is leading the Oregon State University, the State of Oregon and the NW tele-health network service providers into a new paradigm that is advancing the adoption of visual communications in Oregon and the Northwest.


Todd Hughes  

Provisional Director

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.


JD Vaughn  

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.


 
Rob Arnold  

Advisory Council Member

Rob Arnold
Frost & Sullivan
robert.arnold@frost.com

About Rob Arnold

Rob Arnold is a Senior Industry Analyst for the North American Unified Communications and Collaboration Practice at Frost & Sullivan. In this role Rob produces analytical reports detailing market share, forecast and trending information for enterprise communications equipment, software, services and sales channels. Areas of expertise include Enterprise & SMB PBXs, gateways, terminals and servers, as well as Unified Communications, soft clients, messaging, conferencing, mobility, productivity and other applications such as CEBP and social business solutions.

Prior to joining Frost & Sullivan, Rob was Senior Analyst for the Enterprise Communications practice at Current Analysis where produced competitive and market intelligence reports on significant actions made by participants in the Enterprise Unified Communications market. In prior roles Rob worked as Corporate Procurement Team Leader at MCI/WorldCom in support of the company’s telephony systems resale and managed services support divisions, and also as a coordinator in several high volume contact centers within the healthcare industry.

Rob is frequently sought as a resource for industry press, is regularly quoted in industry articles and press releases, and has served as judge for industry trade shows. Now based in metro Atlanta, GA, Rob received his B.A. in Communications with a Minor in Business from the State University of New York at Albany.


 
Karen Wesloh  

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
Tom Westlund
Visual Communications Industry Group
+1 952-928-4665
twestlund@vci-group.org

Tom currently provides membership support, helps coordinate the annual conference, manages the website, creates newsletters and bi-weekly informational emails, and coordinate virtual meetings.

Tom is a member of the Midwest Society of Association Executives (MSAE). He graduated from Gustavus Adolphus College with a double major in Business Management & Geology. Tom has lived in Minnesota his entire life and has the accent to prove it. In his spare time, he likes to run/bike, tinker with home improvement projects, and spend time with his ever-growing family.


 

Conference Coordinator
Amy Sellheim
Visual Communications Industry Group
+1 952-928-4665
asellheim@vci-group.org

Amy works as the conference coordinator for the Visual Communications Industry Group and has worked in association management for over 5 years. Her primary responsibilities include meeting and conference planning.

Amy graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications with an emphasis in Public Relations/Advertising from Concordia College, Moorhead, MN.  Prior to joining The Harrington Company, Amy worked as a college recruiter for a large computer software company in Denver. She is a member of the Midwest Society of Association Executives (MSAE).