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.
President
Chris Hertz is the founder and President of New Signature where he leads the company’s customer-service-oriented culture, sets the company’s long-term strategies, and works closely with customers on a wide range of strategic engagements. He is a cloud industry expert who has presented in the US and Europe and has been quoted in dozens of publications including Time Magazine. Under his leadership, New Signature has been recognized with more than 100 awards, including 2014 Microsoft United States Partner of the Year.
Chris serves as a Member of the Microsoft Office 365 Partner Advisory Council, Member of the Microsoft Solution Integrator Partner Executive Board, Member of the Microsoft Windows SMB Partner Advisory Council and Member of Microsoft’s Virtual Technology Specialist Program.
Chris holds a Master of Business Administration degree from the MIT Sloan School of Management and a Bachelor of Science degree with a double major in Information Management and Technology and Anthropology from Syracuse University. He holds sixteen technical certifications from Microsoft.
Executive VP, Managed Services
Brian is the Executive Vice President of Managed Services at New Signature, and responsible for developing managed service solutions to help customers operate and manage their Microsoft technology across private and public cloud deployments.
Brian was the founder of a Microsoft technology consulting company and a managed services company, both now part of New Signature. These organizations were always on the front edge of Microsoft technology. Brian’s entrepreneurial spirit and hands-on leadership style is instilled in the organizations’ culture and has led to continued business growth. The business’s success can be attributed to Brian’s personal experience in the IT industry which is grounded in systems integration work with large, complex, multi-platform networks.
Being part of the IT community is important to Brian. He is actively involved as a Chair for Seneca @ York Program Advisory Committee (PAC), and is the co-founder of several IT community initiatives: TASK (Toronto Area Security Klatch) with over 3100 active members TAG:IF (The Azure Group – Infrastructure Focus), and SecTor, the largest Security Education Conference in Canada, held annually in Toronto.
He maintains his technical edge through consulting and participation with numerous technology related events and holding certifications such CISSP, MCITP, and MVP status.
Executive VP, Cloud Applications
Jeff Dunmall is the Executive Vice President of Cloud Applications, bringing added expertise and leadership to the New Signature cloud computing services sector. 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 Sales Officer, Southeast
Jeff Meyer is Chief Sales Officer of New Signature, bringing leadership and focus to consistently delivering great experiences to our clients, partners and associates. In this role, Jeff leads a team of professionals focused on relationship building, sales and marketing activities for the Greater Southeast Region of the U.S.
In 2015, New Signature acquired InfraScience, an award winning professional services firm focused on Microsoft solutions. InfraScience was co-founded and led by Jeff. He has 30+ years of experience in evaluating and deploying technology architectures and is an experienced consulting leader. He has consulted on enterprise cloud readiness and technology management best practices across multiple industries. Jeff concentrates on helping organizations leverage investments in technology to reduce costs, improve reliability, increase scalability and empower critical business initiatives.
Prior to founding InfraScience in 2003, Jeff was a Practice Principal for Hewett-Packard’s (HP) Infrastructure Consulting and Integration Group where he led a team of 45 professionals delivering services to Fortune 500 clients in the Southeastern United States. He joined HP as a result of the acquisition of Extreme Logic, an award winning regional Microsoft Partner based in Georgia, where he founded and managed the Infrastructure Services practice. During his tenure at Extreme Logic, the firm was recognized as the Southeastern Partner of the Year in 2000 and the North American Partner of the Year in 2001.
When he’s not at work, Jeff enjoys cheering for the University of Georgia Bulldogs where all three of his children attended. He’s passionate about music, reading, technology, antique bicycles, and spending time with family.
Managing Director UK
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 Sales Officer
David Geevaratne is the co-founder and Chief Sales Officer of New Signature. He helps set and execute the firm’s strategy, directs sales efforts, and provides subject matter expertise to customers. He was recognized as a leader in the IT industry by being named a 2015 Washington Business Journal Minority Business Leader Awards Honoree and to CRN’s 2012 “30 in Their Thirties” list. Prior to New Signature David was the director of technology operations at Public Sector Media and earlier in his career co-founded Netstar.
David attended Washington College with a dual focus in both English and Philosophy and a minor in Computer Science. He is an elite IT professional and holds four Microsoft Certified IT Professional and eleven Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist certifications. He is also a CompTIA Certified Technical Trainer and Microsoft Certified Trainer. He is a member of Microsoft’s coveted Microsoft Virtual Technical Solutions Professional corps.
Executive VP, Human Resources
Vicki Thomson is Executive Vice President of Human Resources. Together with her team, she is responsible for recruiting new talent, fostering New Signature’s unique corporate culture, building and delivering outstanding benefit programs, and championing team work across the organization. Deeply passionate about the individual success of each and every New Signature team member, Vicki’s support for staff is evident every day, often punctuated by her infectious laughter that resonates throughout the office and across the Skype for Business video calls.
Vicki graduated from the University of Waterloo with a B.Math degree and has worked in a variety of roles in the technology area including: application development, HR, marketing, recruiting, sales and training. She enjoys cooking, reading, drinking wine, and sharing time with her countless friends and family.
Chief Operating Officer
Dave Charlton is New Signature’s Chief Operating Officer. He manages the day-to-day operational activities of the corporation, leads the Consulting organization and guides corporate planning and development, Dave has more than twenty years of experience in leadership positions with established public companies and startups.
Before joining New Signature, Dave was the chief technology officer of Santeon, Inc. and earlier in his career was the vice president of product development at InforMax, a global leader in commercial bioinformatics software. There, Dave was responsible for a multimillion dollar budget and all aspects of product development for the company’s award-winning line of desktop and enterprise software for biomolecular analysis. Earlier in his career, Dave launched a number of groundbreaking ecommerce ventures and produced market-leading technology for the retail industry. Dave attended Yale University where he studied mechanical engineering.
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 Technology Officer
Reed M. Wiedower is the Chief Technology Officer for 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 is a champion for New Signature’s Microsoft, cloud, learning and public sector strategies. Reed leads the talented Solution Architect team at New Signature. He is responsible for ensuring service excellence and creative and innovative solutioning for the business challenges that New Signature’s current and prospective customers face every day.
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 System Center, Virtualization, Exchange, Lync and SQL Server, and is a Microsoft Certified Trainer as well as a CompTIA Certified Technical Trainer. He is a member of Microsoft’s elite Microsoft Virtual Technical Solutions Professional corp.
Chairman
Neil is the Chairman of New Signature. He brings over 30 years of experience in the technology and telecommunications industry, holding Chairman, Chief Executive and senior executive positions. Currently he is also Chairman of EuNetworks, one of the Leading integrated bandwidth infrastructure companies in Europe.
In the last number of years he has held the positions of Chief Executive of Terrapact inc, served as President and CEO of Atlantix Systems and was CEO and then Chairman of Teliris before its successful sale to Dimension Data. Previously he held a number of senior positions at Level 3 Communications, Concert and British Telecom. Currently Neil holds a position on the Board of Directors of Cologix, one of the fastest growing data center and interconnection companies in North America.
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.