About
Who we are
The Microsoft Teams Users Group Community is targeted at IT Pros and Developers interested in Microsoft Unified Communications. Our goal is to provide the community with valuable information as it relates to all forms of Microsoft Unified Communications. Our meetings will include both technical and Business information relating to Skype for Business and Microsoft Teams and educate by bringing subject matter experts on the Microsoft Unified Communications platform, Microsoft Teams, to incubate and grow general knowledge to each community.
The Microsoft Teams Users Group is organized exclusively as a trade association within the meaning of section 501(c)(6) of the Internal Revenue Code, including, for such purposes, the making of distributions to organizations that qualify as exempt organizations under section 501(c)(6) of the Internal Revenue Code or the corresponding section of any future United States Internal Revenue law.
Adam Curry – President
Adam is a Solutions Architect with Unify Square and an expert in Microsoft Unified Communications technologies. Adam has accumulated over 15 years’ worth of experience in various systems, networking, and telecommunications systems. His experience ranges from higher education and manufacturing industries to consulting. Adam has utilized numerous Microsoft technologies including messaging and Unified Communications, and has a breadth of experience that falls within many IT organizations. Adam possesses experience in all stages of development, architecture, and deployment of Microsoft Skype for Business and Microsoft Teams deployments. Adam can be reached on Twitter via @mostlyuc
Jeff Schertz – Director of Community Engagement
Jeff works as a Microsoft Solutions Architect for Polycom. With nearly two decades of experience in the IT industry, he’s consulted on projects ranging from targeted global messaging migrations down to supplying complete IT solutions for small businesses. Jeff has held several system administration positions for school districts, software developers, consumer product manufacturers and data/voice service providers. Jeff lives in Chicago’s Northwest suburbs and enjoys playing guitar, photography, snowboarding, traveling, and motorcycle racing.
Michael Tressler – Director of Technology
Michael is a Senior Premier Field Engineer for Microsoft focused on Skype for Business and Office 365. He authored the book “Enterprise Voice in Skype for Business” and has been a Chapter Organizer for the past several years. He has been working in IT for over 20 years ranging form Windows NT 3.1 to networks and firewalls to unified communications. Michael lives in St. Petersburg, Florida and in his spare time he likes traveling and a fresh beer or two.
He can be reached on Twitter via @flinchbot.
Josh Blalock – Director of Content
Josh is a Partner & Principal Cloud Architect at Cloudway, specializing in Skype for Business and Microsoft Teams deployments of all types. His Microsoft-based career in IT began over 14 years ago as an Exchange Administrator in the United States Air Force, but his real sweet spot has been in the UC realm the last few years. Josh enjoys being a regular part of the Skype for Business social community as a blogger, the author of the eBook “Skype for Business Hybrid Handbook”, and the guy in the cowboy hat on the semi-weekly #TeamsRecap webcast. He can be reached in the Twitterverse as @GetCsJosh, and with the SIP address josh@get-csjosh.com.
Kevin Peters – President Emeritus
Kevin Peters is the Director of Solution Architecture at Unify², specializing in architecture and design of large UC voice deployments as well as managing a team of consultants and senior consultants. Kevin has over 15 years in the IT industry and holds both Microsoft Certified Master in Lync 2010 and MCSM in Lync 2013. Prior to joining Unify Square, Kevin was the Unified Communications Practice Lead for a Microsoft partner covering the Central and Heartland districts in the U.S. In addition to being a board member and LCO at the Skype UG, Kevin is the President of local charity group in Cincinnati, sings and plays guitar in a Cincinnati based rock band, and is an active Taekwondo student, demonstration team member, and instructor. You can keep up with Kevin on twitter via @lyncguy.
Local Chapter Organizers
The Skype for Business Users Group would not be able to run with the help of Local Chapter Organizers. These people have the job of truly running each location and are the lifeblood of the organization.
Atlanta, GA · Jose Mateo
Jose Mateo leads the team of Microsoft Solution Architects at Poly. He is responsible for providing expertise, vision and forward thinking in the area of Unified Communications and Collaboration. He has been in the Information Technology field for over 20 years, working specifically with Realtime Collaboration solutions for over 15 years. He is a problem solver and a great communicator. He takes a consultative approach with customers to help them strategize and make informed decisions on how and why UC/IC solutions and technologies can help them solve some of the most complex business challenges. Jose lives in the Atlanta Metro area and enjoys craft beer, sports and woodworking.
Austin, TX · Thad Trusler
Thad Trusler is a UC Consultant with 25 years of IT industry experience, including support, development, systems engineering, architecture design, and consulting roles with companies ranging from startup to Fortune 5. He began his IT career in an Air Force data center hanging reel-to-reel backup tapes and changing printer paper while attending Oklahoma State University for a degree in Electrical Engineering Technology. Starting his UC journey with a global deployment of OCS 2007 R2 in 2008, he has designed and implemented deployments hosting over 600,000 users in over 60 countries. He spends his free time in Round Rock, Texas, brewing beer, playing bass in a local band, coordinating camping trips with his son and Cub Scout Pack 404 and bragging about his amazing wife of 12 years.
Baltimore, MD · Xadean Ahmasi
Xadean Ahmasi is the President of BizTech Fusion and has an 18+ year proven track record of architecting and instituting effective global Information Technology strategies. Xadean has a telecom management background which includes senior-level consulting for AT&T and BT. Xadean has been responsible for the planning, design, and implementation of multiple Lync solutions on large-scale, complex multi-technology projects for enterprise customers.
Boise, ID · Mark Vogl
Mark began his IT career almost 20 years ago as an IT Administrator working for various engineering and architectural firms. He Started working for Cerium Networks in 2005 with a specialization in all things related to Unified Communications, especially focusing on integrations between platforms. Mark not only has expertise in Microsoft infrastructure, but also other Unified Communications Platforms. He has his Microsoft Certified Solutions Masters certification for Lync 2013, and currently works as the Director of Microsoft Engineering Services for Cerium Networks.
Charlotte, NC – Bryan Wofford
Bryan Wofford is a Senior Escalation Engineer in the Fast Track Center, joining Microsoft in 2016. In his current role he is responsible for onboarding and enablement of Teams for Fast Track Customers. He has over 23 years of experience in IT, and has been focused on Unified Communications for the last 12 years of his career. In his free time he enjoys spending time with his family, racing, and anything geeky.
Chicago, IL · Jeff Schertz
Cleveland, OH & Columbus, OH · Eric Marsi
Eric is a Microsoft MVP and Systems Engineer that Leads the Teams Meeting Room Practice at Cloud Revolution. Eric works directly with customers on-premises and cloud-based deployments to bring new meeting, calling, & device experiences to all. He bring over 7 years of experience from the different IT industry areas and can communicate effectively with network engineers, systems engineers, end users, and business leaders.
Eric has different personal hobbies such as reverse engineering/security research especially around hardware, electronics engineering, skiing, and four-wheeling. Eric also spends a lot of his free time working with products such as Microsoft Teams, Skype for Business, Exchange, Hyper-V, System Center, and more in his home lab! Eric strives to empower others to do more by providing guides and assistance to everyone on his blog (www.EricMarsi.com) or via his Twitter at (@EricMarsi)
Dallas, TX · Jeff Beckham, Anne Jones
Detroit, MI · Britt Baubie
Britt Baubie is a Principal Consultant with CDW. With over 20 years of experience in Microsoft products. Britt assists large enterprises with deployments of Skype for Business and Cloud PBX and currently works with enterprise organizations to design voice solutions around the Skype for Business platform. Britt’s specialties include PBX integration with systems such as Avaya, Cisco Call Manager, Asterisk, Mitel, Shoretel as well as mobile devices and AudioCodes and Sonus gateway design and configuration.
Britt also specializes in the monitoring and management of Skype for Business infrastructure, voice and video performance as well as video integration.
In his spare time, Britt enjoys sailing, woodworking, home improvement, travel and playing and listening to music. Britt can be reached on Twitter @vexillus74.
Kansas City, MO · Henry Creagh, Nick Elniff
Henry has been in the IT services industry for the past 29 years and has spent the last 21 years working for Horizons Consulting as an architect, integrator, and tier-3 support focused on helping our customers implement collaborations solutions. He was a member of the Microsoft JDP for each version of LCS, and Microsoft TAP for each version of OCS, Lync, and Exchange.
He became a Microsoft Certified Master for OCS 2007 R2 in November 2009.
Nick is a Unified Communications Consultant at Modality Systems – with a focus in Skype for Business/Lync, Exchange, and the Office 365 suite. Nick has been a part of a number of Skype4B/Lync projects spanning Higher Education, Non-Profit, Finance, Health, and Engineering organizations. Nick’s has 7+ years of IT experience that spans across the IT landscape: leadership/management, communications, virtualization, data storage, server and network systems. Outside of IT he enjoys to stay active with running, golfing, and other sports.
Los Angeles · Sergey Goloshchapov
Sergey Goloshchapov works at Microsoft as a Senior Program Manager. He joined Microsoft in 2011 as an Exchange support engineer and switched his focus to Unified Communications in 2012. Originally from Russia, Sergey moved to Irvine, CA in 2016 and joined Skype for Business Users Group as a local chapter organizer for LA/OC area. In his spare time he enjoys playing guitar, bodyboarding and gaming.
Milwaukee · Andrew Bronstad
Andrew is a Unified Communications Managing Architect in Concurrency’s Infrastructure Practice. Andrew is expert in design and deployment of Microsoft Skype for Business solutions that meet clients’ unique needs. Andrew has facilitated upgrades from a wide range of communications platforms including TDM and IP based PBX. He is also expert in Microsoft Exchange Server technologies and coordinates deployments comprehensive solutions encompassing both Exchange and Skype for Business. In addition, Andrew helps clients plan and migrate server functions to the cloud, in Microsoft’s Office 365, Exchange Online and Skype for Business Online solutions.
Nashville, TN · Joe Goodwin
Joe Goodwin is a Unified Communications Architect for a 75k+ user deployment of Lync 2013/Skype for Business. Joe has over 15 years of experience involved with Lync through LCS, OCS 2007, Lync 2010/2013 and most recently Skype for Business of experience.
New York, NY · Scott Rendell
Scott has been at Microsoft since 2012. He has been a consultant, technical seller, post sales technical resource and most recently found himself in the Global Partner Solutions group at Microsoft helping partners build offers for their customers. He has spent more than 30 years in telecom and has an equal number of years managing the same.
Philadelphia, PA · Bhargav Shukla
Bhargav works as a Director of Technology for Strategic Alliances Group at KEMP Technologies. Having worked in the IT industry for more than 19 years, he’s worked on multitude of technologies including Microsoft SfB, Lync, Exchange, Azure and VMware. Jeff has held several systems engineering positions for companies small and large MNCs.
In field of UC, Bhargav provided technical guidance to many large customers of Microsoft Premier Field Engineering. He is also one of the very few worldwide MCMs to hold the prestigious dual Microsoft Certified Master certification for Microsoft Exchange and Lync as well as MCSM for Exchange 2013. He is current Microsoft MVP for Servers and Services.
Bhargav started Philadelphia UC User Group 6 years ago and continues to make positive contribution as the founder of the group to local communities in tristate area.
Portland, OR · David Hasenstab
David has spent nearly two decades in the Microsoft Partner Community supporting the productivity needs of customers. In his current role, he oversees practice development and solution design for the Microsoft UC portfolio at Cerium Networks. His responsibilities take him all over the Northwest and offers a panoramic view of the UC needs of its diverse user community.
St. Louis, MO · Phil Sharp
Phil is a Microsoft Unified Communications and Collaboration consultant at Modality Systems. He also co-authored the book “Skype for Business Unleashed.” With over ten years of experience in the field, his career in Microsoft UC began with one of the first Office Communications Server 2007 telephony deployments in the US. Phil has extensive experience architecting, implementing, and supporting Microsoft Skype for Business and Microsoft Teams for organizations of all sizes and verticals.
San Francisco, CA · Chad McGreanor
Chad McGreanor is the co-founder of Cloud Revolution a Microsoft Modern Workplace focused Microsoft partner. Previously Chad held senior roles in Practice Management, IT Management, Managed Services, Consulting, and Presales. Previously, Chad was the Senior Director of Microsoft Solutions at a large systems integrator and was responsible for the Microsoft business globally. Chad and the Microsoft team transformed a traditional telephony-focused organization to a globally recognized Microsoft Gold solutions provider. Chad is a 3-time Microsoft Most-Valuable Professional and Microsoft Certified Master. He is contributing author of Lync Server Unleashed. Chad has been part of 2 San Francisco Bay Area Microsoft consulting startup companies – and was part of a successful sale of one of those companies in 2015. Chad has worked directly with partners in the Microsoft industry and closely with Microsoft for over 20-years. Chad launched the San Francisco chapter of the Microsoft Teams User Group. Chad lives in Folsom, CA with his wife and children. Chad enjoys the opportunity to travel to new locations around the world.
Seattle, WA · Mark Vogl
Silicon Valley, CA · Adam Jacobs
Adam Jacobs works at Polycom as Principal Microsoft Architect, he regularly presents/blogs about Skype for Business and has been co-managing Microsoft UC user groups in both London and San Jose, CA. Adam has been a Skype for Business MVP since 2010.
Spokane, WA · Mark Vogl
