Chief Executive Officer
Jeff Tench is the CEO of New Signature. As CEO, Jeff leads the executive team to set the direction and focus of the company and participates as a member of the New Signature Board of Directors.
Jeff is a focused leader with a passion for building a great culture, team work and collaboration. He brings sales management and leadership experience and expertise from his successful 20 year career in the telecommunications and technology sector to New Signature. Jeff began his career at US WEST Communications serving in a range of product management and marketing positions followed by a 11 year career at Level 3 Communications. At Level 3, Jeff held a variety of positions, including SVP Product Management, SVP of Product and Marketing for Level 3’s European Markets Group. He left Level 3 in 2010 as President of Business Markets Group. Most recently, Jeff was the CEO of Teliris, Inc., a Columbia Capital portfolio company which was sold to Dimension Data Holdings in 2014.
Chief Innovation Officer
Jeff Dunmall is New Signature’s Executive Vice President of Global Managed Services, bringing deep expertise and leadership to the New Signature team. Jeff and his team develop SaaS applications through Microsoft’s cloud, spanning the full-stack of Microsoft products including Azure, Office365, and Dynamics CRM.
In 2015, New Signature acquired Canadian technology consulting leader imason, inc. and with that merger gained Jeff, along with his seasoned career in innovative business technologies. As co-founder of imason, Jeff was a dynamic force of knowledge and relationship management solutions. His goals at New Signature mirror his goals from imason—develop the best team, build company culture, and focus on delivering dramatic impact with Microsoft technology.
Jeff is passionate about helping businesses transform into connected enterprises by empowering employees and stakeholders with cloud-based solutions to create, manage, and discover knowledge. A thought leader and expert at building innovative tools and applications based on proven enterprise-class platforms, he has worked with many top brands in telecommunications, financial services and others industries.
Jeff is a graduate of the Computer Engineering program at the University of Waterloo. He enjoys hanging out with his family, listening to music through his Sonos music distribution system, and when he finds a moment, you might find him windsurfing on Ontario’s lakes.
Chief Financial Officer
Pat Paquette is the CFO of New Signature, and is responsible for the company’s accounting, financial, tax, treasury and M&A support functions.
Prior to joining New Signature, Pat has held increasingly more senior and strategic roles including the Director of Finance and Corporate Development for First Western Financial, Inc. where he led the company’s corporate finance, FP&A, budgeting and M&A functions; Director in KPMG’s Transaction Services practice, leading due diligence engagements for private equity and corporate clients; and, Senior Associate for Ernst & Young’s audit practice where he focused on financial audits of publicly and privately held companies and during which time he achieved a CPA designation.
Pat received his undergraduate degree in Accounting from the University of Notre Dame and received his M.B.A from Duke’s Fuqua School of Business.
Chief People Officer
Sarah is a highly effective leader with 20+ years of Human Resources experience focused on developing and implementing HR initiatives aligned with business strategy to improve performance in high growth businesses.
She was an originating executive of Avanade’s successful launch into Canada and its growth trajectory across the country. She began her career as a people leader for both Deloitte and Accenture and her accomplishments have spanned: technology, consulting and research & marketing for both the public and private sector.
More recently, Sarah has worked in new and emerging technology companies to drive growth and implement programs that underpin and reinforce the corporate strategy.
Sarah lives in Toronto with her husband and her 9-year-old twin boys. She enjoys skiing (both water and snow), tennis and, because of her boys love for playing hockey, she spends a significant amount of time in hockey arenas.
Chief Technology Officer
Reed M. Wiedower is the Chief Technology Officer and global Microsoft Alliance executive at New Signature. He is a visionary who drives New Signature’s technological research and translates these efforts into solutions that deliver measurable return for customers. Reed has championed New Signature’s Microsoft, cloud, learning and partner strategies. He personally runs the Microsoft Partner Seller program at New Signature, consisting of top consultants who help deliver great customer experiences to customers in the form of Customer Immersion Experiences, whiteboarding sessions and planning services and is an award-winning Partner Seller himself.
Prior to working at New Signature Reed worked at the United States Department of Agriculture and JIL Information Systems. Reed graduated from Williams College with a double major in Political Science and English. He is a Microsoft Certified IT Professional on multiple platforms including Dynamics 365, Microsoft 365 and Azure, and is a Microsoft Certified Trainer as well as a CompTIA Certified Technical Trainer.
Chief Strategy Officer
Paul has run consulting and managed IT services companies as CEO for 20 years, having trained with Deloitte Touche and Accenture. Prior to his CEO roles Paul implemented worldwide business process change management programmes and systems for large multinational organisations. He is passionate about how the combination of an agile approach to consulting and managed services, coupled with the evolution of modern day transformational technologies, enables companies to make fast incremental changes that have a significant positive impact on performance.
Chief Operating Officer
Jim Olson, Chief Operating Officer, is responsible for New Signature’s overall business performance and client success. Jim has over 25 years of experience in the consulting industry working with clients to maximize their investments in the Microsoft enterprise platform. Most recently, Jim spent 17 years at Avanade, a leading digital innovator and joint venture company from Accenture and Microsoft. Jim held a range of regional and global leadership roles at Avanade and brings extensive consulting and business transformation experience to help New Signature and its clients realize their growth ambitions.
Jim lives in Long Island, NY with his wife Christa and three kids, Mckenna, James and Brogan.
Chief Solutions Officer
In his role, as EVP, Global Solutions, Dan is charged with strategic development of New Signature’s consulting services. Dan was the founder of Dot Net Solutions, the Microsoft 2015 UK Partner of the Year, which was acquired by New Signature in April 2016. Dan works very closely with the Microsoft account teams, serves as a mentor for Microsoft Ventures and is one of only three Brits currently sitting on the global Microsoft Azure Partner Advisory Council and Partner Engagement Board. Dan is also president of IAMCP UK.
Dan is a renowned Microsoft Cloud evangelist and often presents at conferences and events around the world about the advantages Cloud can bring to organisations. He is co-author of the book ‘Delivering Solutions on the Windows Azure Platform? Ask the Smart Questions’.
Regional General Manager, Southeast US
Brian is the General Manager for New Signature’s southeast region. In this role, Brian is responsible for all aspects of New Signature’s work in the Southeast including strategic vision, people and business development, and client success. Over the course of his nearly 30 year career, Brian has had the opportunity to lead dynamic teams within large commercial enterprises and brings to New Signature a deep understanding of technology and telecommunications. In his spare time, Brian volunteers with numerous organizations in and around his hometown of Alpharetta, GA, such as Swim Across America and Milton First Responder Foundation.
Regional General Manager, Canada
As the Regional General Manager (RGM) for New Signature’s Canadian business, Peter is responsible for all aspects New Signature’s work in Canada, including strategy, business development, and client success. Peter is a passionate supporter of diversity in business and technology and believes that having an inclusive and diverse team is the key to success. A significant part of his role as RGM is to lead New Signature’s strategic partnership with Microsoft in the Canadian region. Over his 20+ year career, Peter has been actively engaged in the Microsoft partner ecosystem–including participation on Microsoft Partner Advisory Councils (PAC) and involvement with Internal Association of Microsoft Channel Partners (IAMCP). When Peter is not at the helm of New Signature in Canada, you can find him riding his bike, enjoying life with his wife and 3 children or saving lives through blood donation. Peter himself has donated blood 116 times and is a champion for blood donation in his community.
Regional General Manager, United Kingdom
Neil is New Signature’s Regional General Manager for the UK. Joining New Signature as part of the Dot Net Solutions acquisition, Neil is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the UK business, overseeing delivery of all customer services and solutions and ensuring that our customer’s expectations are met every time. He has been instrumental in growing the UK business ten-fold.
Prior to joining New Signature, Neil worked at Microsoft in a variety of senior sales, solution and industry roles and held technical consulting, pre-sales, sales and sales management roles for a global ISV, Bentley Systems, across EMEA and APAC. He holds a Masters Degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Nottingham.
Neil is driven to ensure that every customer interaction exceeds expectations and that each New Signature experience delights and inspires. He is a pioneer within the business for hiring talented individuals who live by the company values we have defined. In his spare time Neil loves to play golf, write songs and enjoy family time with his young son.
Regional General Manager, Northeast US
Ed Schwartz is the Regional General Manager for New Signature’s Northeast region. In Ed’s role at New Signature, he is responsible for all aspects of New Signature’s work in the Northeast including strategic vision, people and business development, and client success. Ed has spent the last 20 years in the Microsoft enterprise consulting space where he has led large commercial teams driving significant client transformation. Prior to joining New Signature, Ed spent 14 years at Accenture in the Microsoft consulting practice branded Avanade. Ed has a passion for working with clients and developing world-class client management teams.
When Ed is not visiting clients and team members from Virginia to Maine, you can find Ed on Long Island, NY with his wife and two daughters. He is an avid surfer and outdoorsman.
Chairman
Neil Hobbs brings more than 35 years of experience in the technology and telecommunications industry, holding Chairman, Chief Executive and Senior Executive positions.
Currently, Neil is the Chairman of New Signature, Chairman of euNetworks and Chairman of SummitIG, in addition to being a board member of Cologix for the past 7 years. Previously, he has served on the boards of Teliris, Terrapact and Atlantix.
Prior to 2008, he held a number of senior positions at Level 3 Communications, Concert and British Telecom.
Chief Executive Officer
Jeff Tench is the CEO of New Signature. As CEO, Jeff leads the executive team to set the direction and focus of the company and participates as a member of the New Signature Board of Directors.
Jeff is a focused leader with a passion for building a great culture, team work and collaboration. He brings sales management and leadership experience and expertise from his successful 20 year career in the telecommunications and technology sector to New Signature. Jeff began his career at US WEST Communications serving in a range of product management and marketing positions followed by a 11 year career at Level 3 Communications. At Level 3, Jeff held a variety of positions, including SVP Product Management, SVP of Product and Marketing for Level 3’s European Markets Group. He left Level 3 in 2010 as President of Business Markets Group. Most recently, Jeff was the CEO of Teliris, Inc., a Columbia Capital portfolio company which was sold to Dimension Data Holdings in 2014.
Director
Patrick Hendy joined Columbia Capital in 2002 and focuses primarily on IT services investments. Currently, he is focused on new opportunities around the data center, including colocation, hosting, managed services and cloud services. Patrick is currently a member of the Board of Directors of Cologix, Virtustream and Mindshift, and is actively involved with Columbia’s investment in Presidio. Patrick has also worked closely with a number of former Columbia portfolio companies, including WCS Wireless (acquired by Nextwave Wireless), XM Satellite Radio (NASDAQ: XMSR), Nuvox Communications and New Global Telecom. Prior to joining Columbia Capital, Patrick served as a senior analyst in the Global Telecommunications and Media Investment Banking Group of J.P. Morgan in New York, structuring public and private equity and debt financings, as well as merger and acquisition transactions. Prior to J.P. Morgan, he served as a financial analyst in the Debt Capital Markets Group of Wachovia Securities. Patrick received his BA in Economics from Vanderbilt University.
Director
John joined Columbia Capital in 2000 and focuses on Internet Infrastructure and Enterprise IT Services investments. John is currently a member of the Board of Directors of Benestra, euNetworks, Summit IG, TerraPact, Cologix and New Signature. John previously served on the boards of ICG Communications (acquired by Level 3), New Global Telecom (acquired by Comcast), Presidio (acquired by American Securities), GTS CE (acquired by Deutsche Telekom), mindSHIFT (acquired by Best Buy), FDN Communications (acquired by NuVox), Virtustream (acquired by EMC), Cloud Sherpas (acquired by Accenture) and Zayo (publicly listed: NYSE) and represented Columbia Capital’s interests in Mpower Communications (acquired by TelePacific). Before joining Columbia Capital, John worked in Morgan Stanley’s Private Equity Group, where he specialized in investments in the telecommunications/data services arena. He also held positions with Fidelity Ventures, the private equity division of Fidelity Investments, and the Investment Banking Division of Alex. Brown & Sons, Incorporated. John received his B.A. from Princeton University and his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.
