Rachel Hogan
Robert Half Technology
     (952) 831-6888

Rachel has been a recruiter since 2000.  She started her career recruiting administrative, clerical, and light industrial individuals for temporary positions.  Rachel then spent 3 years working as a corporate recruiter for collection and customer service positions with Allied Interstate.  In 2004, she decided to go back into the staffing industry and joined Robert Half Technology.  In Rachel's current role, she is responsible for recruiting infrastructure IT professionals for contract and contract to hire positions.  
 
Rachel has been a part of the local HDI chapter since 2006.  As the Vendor Relations Coordinator she plans to help facilitate the communication with vendors and members and be able to use her abilities as a recruiter to help grow this local HDI chapter.

Tom Aguilar-Downing
               Ecolab
         (651) 795-4304

Tom is a Senior Service Desk Associate and has been at Ecolab since 2003.  He has worked as a contractor in the Twin Cities since 1996 for Robert Half Technology and Alternative Resource Corporation,  providing support for clients including Target, Integris Metals, Medica, the St. Paul Companies, 3M, Smead, and Damark.  Prior to his arrival in St. Paul he had been with Ben Franklin Retail Stores where he started as a Project Leader and Database Programmer, before moving up to Help Desk Manager.  A three year stint as a Software Instructor in New Jersey preceded that.  Tom started his professional life with a dozen years working for the YMCA serving in Cincinnati, New Jersey, Japan, Chicago, and New York.

Tom has been involved with HDI since 1995, has been the Webmaster for the chapter from 2002 to 2008, and also is a volunteer on the International Committee of the St. Paul YMCA.

Brian Tigges
      EcoLab
 (651) 795-5445

Brian has worked in Information Technology for 15 years and has been working at Ecolab for 10 years.  He is currently a Lead PC Analyst focused on metric reporting and software asset management.  Brian has been part of HDI for 8 years and the VP of Finance for the local chapter since 2003.

Julie Thorndycraft
     Faegre & Benson
       

Julie is the Technical Services Manager at Faegre & Benson. Her team includes the Service Desk and Desktop Services. The Service Desk provides 24x7 support for both internal and external customers with a total call volume that averages over 7500 calls per month. The Service Desk has one Supervisor, two Leads and 21 Service Desk agents. In addition, Julie has overall responsibility of the national Desktop Support team of 15 and two Desktop Architects.

Julie has been involved with IT support since 1984 in roles ranging from Customer Support to Project Management. She has been directly involved with Help Desk support for fifteen years at various corporations in the Twin Cities. She has been a member of HDI since 1990 and was Vice President of Membership for the Minnesota HDI chapter for a year before becoming President of the chapter in 2005.

Gina Montague
  Dorsey and Whitney
 (612)492-5910

Gina has been the Manager of the Technical Support Center at Dorsey & Whitney since 2001, at which time she became a Help Desk Institute member. Gina manages 8 full-time employees that provide 24x7 coverage to over 1,800 employees in a law firm that spans the globe.  She is an active HDI member and enjoys attending the local chapter meetings and national conferences. Gina was VP of Membership from 2005 to 2008.

Heidi Simmons
Baker Till Virchow Krause, LLC
  (612)876-4703

Heidi is the senior I.T. Operations Manager.

Neil Peterson
 Knowledge Peak
  (952) 431-2999

Neil worked in the staffing industry for 2 years and helped to provide help desk outsourcing and full time placements.  He created training development programs for career changers and new entrants into the job market.  

Neil is currently working in the training and consulting industry and has been selling training services for eight years.  He is the owner of Knowledge Peak Inc., a Minnesota based training and consulting company.  He has worked with many local organizations and help desk staffs to provide technical, soft skill, and ITIL process based training.  He has been a member of HDI for 8 years and was VP of Programs from 2004 to 2008. 

   Matt Beran
    American Medical Systems
 (952)930-6754
    

Matt is the Service Desk Team Lead at American Medical Systems, providing service internationally across 5 continents.

Matt has been in the support industry since 2001, while receiving his degree from Gustavus Adolphus College.  Matt joined the local chapter in 2008 and uses HDI as a resource for training, collaboration, perspective and inspiration.

Chris Ezell
Black Box Network Services
 (952) 352-2364

Chris is currently working for the company, Black Box Network Services in Minnetonka as Data Center Operations Team Leader. He has been at Black Box (formerly Norstan) for 7 years. He mainly supervises IT analysts at the Service Desk and Data Center Operations. Most of his 13 years of IT experience has been providing 1st and 2nd level support in help desks or service desk large and small environments. Some of those companies include IBM, Possis Medical and CSM Corporation. Prior starting employment in the IT field, Chris worked 14 years in Social Services as a department team leader for Opportunity Partners, a non-profit agency serving persons with disabilities.

Chris has a B.A. degree in Organizational Management and Communication from Concordia University. He also has a Help Desk Manager certification.

Chris stays busy spending a time with his wife and 2 children. Their favorite family activities are shopping, dining out and traveling during the spring and summer. He is a fitness addict who balances running, tennis, basketball and weight lifting as his main forms of exercising. He also enjoys writing and playing music.

He became an Officer for the HDI Mn. Chapter because I wanted to contribute to an organization that provides support and recognition to the Help Desk and related IT support industries.

Kathy Raph
  U.S. Bank
 (651) 205-1446