Eugene has more than 20 years of experience in the customer service industry, and is a frequent speaker and writer about the industry. Since foundering Help Desk Solutions, Inc. in1993, he has assisted companies in size from start-up to Fortune 500, government agencies and institutions of higher education in the implementation or improvement of their customer service. He performs assessments of present operations, and provides recommendations and guidance to implementing and/or improving processes and procedures as well as for new technology. Eugene is a founding member of the Help Desk Institute's Individual Certification Standards Committee; a Help Desk Institute certified instructor, a Help Desk Institute certified site auditor, and the Southeastern Regional Director of the Help Desk Institute Member Advisory Board. He was one of the founders of the North Carolina Chapter, Triangle Chapter, Raleigh-Durham, and Central Virginia Chapter, Richmond, VA. Presently he is the President for the Triangle Chapter.

Matthew Bowles is an experienced Executive Consultant and holds the IT Executive Management Certification, one of Pink Elephant’s highest levels of certification in ITIL. His main focus at Pink Elephant is to deliver effective consulting, and educational services to clients based upon a demonstrated in-depth knowledge and experience of IT Service Management best practices.

JoAnna Brandi, is Publisher of JoAnna Brandi's Customer Care Coach ™ a weekly training program designed to teach managers "The Art and Science of Exquisite Customer Care." She is the author of three books and has been writing newsletters and articles since 1984. She is the author of Winning at Customer Retention, 101 Ways to Keep 'em Happy, Keep 'em Loyal, and Keep 'em Coming Back, Building Customer Loyalty – 21 Essential Elements and 54 Ways to stay Positive in a Changing, Challenging and Sometimes Negative World. She is contributing author to Inc. Guide to Superior Customer Service, and Best Practices in Customer Service.

Rae Ann Bruno - Business Solutions Training

Rae Ann Bruno is the President of Business Solutions Training, a firm focused on business-aligned leadership and team development and organizational culture change. Rae Ann is known for her interactive, information packed training courses and her ability to tailor information to her participants so that they can apply it in their respective roles. She has trained all levels of employees in the areas of change management, skill building, process improvement, career management, and talent development. Rae Ann has nearly 15 years of management experience with an emphasis on process re-engineering, employee development, change management and business alignment of IT services. Formerly the Vice President of Strategic Relations for Previo, Rae Ann was the publisher of Previo’s eZine, eSupport Perspectives and has authored many articles and white papers published in various support and service industry publications. In this role, Rae Ann consulted with Previo customers on process re-engineering and best practices and trained support professionals on industry best practices.

Noel Bruton is a UK-based, independent consultant and trainer specializing in IT services and user support management and operations. He joined the IT industry in 1979 and formed his consultancy practice in 1991, which has a worldwide clientele. He is the author of How to Manage the IT Helpdesk and of Managing the IT Services Process. His numerous seminars have trained hundreds of IT services managers and staff. He writes extensively in the industry press and is a popular speaker at conferences all over the world.

Steve Coscia, President of Coscia Communications, is a best selling author, columnist, 20-year customer service practitioner and telephone skills specialist. He is the author of two best-selling books: "Customer Service Over the Phone" and "TELE-Stress." A partial list of companies that use his telephone strategies includes Motorola, Milwaukee Power Tools and Olive Garden Restaurants. He was invited to lecture at UC Berkeley to present his ideas and concepts on communication and building business relationships. In addition, Coscia presents keynote speeches, conducts training seminars, and leads telephone skills workshops. He also writes a monthly column for the Eastern Pennsylvania Business Journal.

Jeff Davis is the fastest typist in Kentucky, plays the saxophone, and has a Secret security clearance. He's worked as staff programmer for a law firm and as IT manager for a healthcare provider. Jeff spent eight years as an author and editor-in-chief for The Cobb Group, the world's leading publisher of software-specific newsletters, located in Louisville. When Ziff-Davis Publishing acquired The Cobb Group, Jeff was promoted to senior editor and wrote the Stump Jeff feature columns for ZDNet's Help Channel. As a freelance writer, Jeff has written over 1,200 articles for TechRepublic.com, a Web portal dedicated to information technology professionals. Jeff's articles have generated more Web traffic than any other author published on TechRepublic.com. Jeff is currently under contract to write enterprise-wide system security policies for a Fortune 500 healthcare provider.

Pam Erskine specializes in reengineering information technology service groups that are failing to meet business and customer expectations. She also teaches public and onsite seminars in various soft skills such as team building, accountability, customer service, etc. Her reengineering successes include service teams in the software development, aerospace, healthcare, pharmaceutical, insurance, legal, and academic industries. Her direct approach to dealing with employee issues along with technological and process enhancements has shown dramatic improvement in productivity, morale, teamwork, and customer service resulting in technology groups exceeding customer expectations. Pam directly managed two nationally recognized support and training teams before becoming a consultant and instructor. She is certified by both STI Knowledge and Help Desk Institute. She completed the Executive Leadership Program at Wellesley College and she holds a Bachelors in Business Management.

Ron Feiertag has over 20 years of experience in attending and writing about technology conferences. Most of his articles appeared in APCUG Reports, where his title is Contributing Editor, and his other articles appeared in a variety of computer user group publications nationwide. He has a Bachelors of Business Administration degree in Accounting from City University of New York and has worked as an internal auditor, budget analyst and accountant at different points in his professional career. He used computers extensively in each of those jobs and this led to his interest in what can be learned at technology conferences.

Steve Harrell is the VP of North America for Agilità Consulting. He has over 10 years of extensive project management, consulting and operational experience in Information Technology. As a Solution Delivery Manager with ARC, Steve was responsible for the successful delivery of Multiple IT Support Solutions, including Help Desk, Deskside Support, B2C IT support and ARC’s “ARC Support Center,” which is a 7 x 24 Off-Site Help Desk Solution. He provides leadership and subject matter expertise to Site Managers, and works to insure both End User and Executive Sponsor Satisfaction, for all Solutions. Steve encourages the use of leading-edge tools and technologies and provides his own personal knowledge of industry trends and industry best practices to each of his solutions. Steve is committed to keeping his skill set sharp and is pursuing his ITIL certification.

Carrie joined HDI in 2002 and is the program manager for its Support Center Certification (SCC). She has over 10 years experience in technology marketing and program management, and has worked for companies that include EDS, Trilogy, and Vignette.

Donna Holt comes from a strong background of customer service, sales, administration and management in diverse industries such as international trading, telecommunications, credit analysis, and banking. Among the companies with whom she has been affiliated prior to her help desk era, are Allegheny International, AT&T, GE-RCA and Beneficial Finance. Her experience in the Help Desk industry began nearly ten years ago at Long Beach Bank (now Ameriquest) where she established their first help desk from its inception to take its place as the “central point of contact” and an integral part of the Information Services Department.

Julie L. Mohr is the Principal Research Analyst and Author at BlueprintAudits.com. For over 15 years, she has been passionate about service and support management providing imaginative insight and dynamic leadership to transform service and support organizations into best practice, customer-focused environments. She has helped over 50 organizations including many Fortune 100 companies to implement Knowledge Management, ITSM, IT Governance, organization enhancements, process re-engineering and service level management. Julie is an active contributor to the future development of the industry through speaking engagements at conferences worldwide, researching industry trends and publishing over 150 articles on best practices. Julie has developed a support organization maturity model and audit methodology utilized by thousands of organizations to identify weaknesses and develop improvement plans. She is an expert worldwide instructor in multiple industry frameworks including ITSM, KCS and COBIT. Julie is a certified Helpdesk Director and certified ITIL® Service Manager. She is currently serving as VP of Membership for the itSMF LIG in Sacramento, a faculty member with HDI and participated on the HDI Support Center Certification (SCC) standards committee. Julie is the author of Mapping Support Processes: Blueprint for Success, The Help Desk Audit: Blueprint for Success, The Help Desk Toolkit: Companion CD and The Help Desk Dictionary, and maintains an informative industry portal for practitioners at www.blueprintaudits.com. She is a member of IEEE Computer Society, American Society for Quality, Association for Computing Machinery, ISACA, HDI, itSMF and the Association of Support Professionals. Julie is a graduate of The Ohio State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science.