By Roxanne Rabich, Service Coordinator at Umbrella Managed Systems
Most of our Employee Spotlight stories are focused on new staff so we can introduce them. This month, we’re proud to share a story of six team members who have tenure of 5 or more years!
(From left to right)
Top: Lucas, Curtis, Kirk
Bottom: TJ, Sam, Roxanne
Kirk Harmon, start date September 2008
Kirk was the first official employee hired by Heath and Trent. Kirk has done nearly everything you can think of in his (almost) 10 years with Umbrella. He’s helped establish new clients, assisted in data recovery in the event of a disaster for our clients (and Umbrella).
Kirk worked as a Service Desk Engineer and has been promoted within to perform a variety of roles in a senior technical capacity. Currently, he serves as a project coordinator: quoting, procuring and scheduling the installation of new hardware.
One of Kirk’s favorite memories is when the electrical fuse box was being replaced in the Umbrella office. Kirk, James P., Roxanne and Heath were the only ones in the office at the time. We had to keep the lights on with power from a generator. It was hot outside, and he recalls several Nerf wars that were fought that day as we needed to blow off some steam. Literally.
Roxanne Rabich, start date September 2011
I joined a team of eight guys. My background before joining Umbrella was strong experience in customer service in the software industry and as a medical practice administrator. My role as Service Coordinator was to focus on growing client relationships and assist the team by answering the phones and creating tickets. I also help coordinate office events and make sure Birthdays and Anniversaries are recognized.
Trent offered the nick name “Queen of Company Happiness” and even printed this on a T-shirt for me. I have so many fond memories and truly enjoy working with these technical geeks. For more on that, check out my Slugger blog post or Christmas party blog post where everyone sang the song, “Roxanne” to me.
To top it off, I still have the privilege of bringing my dog Jenny to the office. Jenny is also celebrating more than 5 years of service and looks forward to seeing everyone when she gets to the office.
Sam Orlando, start date January 2013
Sam did Q&A work for H&R Block and was ready for technical diversity when he joined Umbrella. Sam was quickly promoted from Service Desk Engineer to the Project Team. While we greatly missed his quick witted humorous comments and excellent technical skill, we realized he was even more valuable as a Project Engineer.
Sam has continued to grow his skill set and has recently moved into a new role working on ways to manage and automate Umbrella tools and services.
Sam’s hobbies include PC gaming and competitive power sleeping. He’s impressive as a Rock Band drummer! His favorite memory is reaching his five-year anniversary and getting five additional vacation days so he can practice his power sleeping technique.
Curtis Bagnall, start date April 2013
Curtis originally went to college and has a degree in Fire Science/Paramedic. However after a couple years of not being able to land a job in firefighting, he decided to go back to school and learn a new profession. Curtis attended Centriq Training and it was there where he met Trent Peters. They started talking about the different video games they played and the rest is history.
Curtis started his career at Umbrella as a level 1 Service Desk technician. Throughout the five years here so far, he has bumped around and gathered quite the utility belt of experience in the IT field. He’s gone from Service Desk Technician, to Sr. Service Desk Technician, to a Production Engineer, to a Solution engineer, and now is sitting as a ReOps Team Lead. When asked, he said that he’s grateful for all of the opportunity and knowledge he’s been given at Umbrella, and will continue in whatever way he can to help Umbrella and their clients succeed.
His favorite memory over the last 5 years, which there are a lot of good ones, is the UMS 2016 Christmas party. We had a company-wide Rock Band Competition! Everybody had a great time, Trent dressed up as a Rock star, and by the end of the night Heath was sporting a Rock star wig.
Lucas Pieper, start date May 2013
Lucas and Curtis met during Network Administration training. Being similar ages, tastes, and skillsets, they quickly became friends during the training course. Before finishing the class, Curtis started working at Umbrella, and within the first week on the job, convinced Lucas to apply as well, because the place was that awesome!
Like the twin born a few minutes later, Lucas has always been a few weeks of seniority behind Curtis. However, Lucas started in a different department at Umbrella, as a hybrid bench and field tech, working on tune-ups, virus removals, hardware repair, and deploying new devices at client sites. It was a busy time, as Windows XP had just retired and a plethora of machines needed replaced.
Once the calm of that Microsoft generated storm passed, Lucas moved into a Senior Service Desk position for a while, and eventually transitioned into another hybrid roll, working in Operations and reporting to Heath. Lucas helped Heath and Umbrella with business analysis, process development, employee training, and other internal projects and initiatives. Most recently, Lucas has transitioned back into the field and is working with clients again. He’s helping develop and define technical standardization and best practices, working as the Team-Lead of Umbrella’s new Proactive Operations team.
TJ Nguyen, start date June 2013
Prior to working at Umbrella, TJ spent 3 years at HealthNet, 9 years with Intel, and 5 years with Cerner. After almost two decades of being in IT and working for big corporations, TJ was ready for a change and signed on with Umbrella with a mission to help the company be the “Google of the Midwest”. It was a tall order, but we all believe that this company is special and we need to dream BIG.
Through the years, TJ has been in various roles; Technical Project Manager (led the Professional Services team), Director of Technology (helped drive the standardized technology offerings, tools, and standards), Director of Operations (Managed the Network Operation Center, Service Desk, and Professional Services), and currently the Director of Business Operations (manage daily administration such as payroll, AP, invoicing, hiring, and performance reviews).
TJ’s favorite memory is when Trent gave him an awkward hug when he signed on to join Umbrella. Two grown men who were complete strangers prior to the interviews hugging each other because they both believe it was a start of something cool. Fast forward 5 years, it proved to be a great decision!
We’re so proud of the team we’ve built and continue to grow here at Umbrella. If you’re reading this blog post, there’s a good chance that you have contributed to our success, and we appreciate it so much. Thank you for reading, and thank you for supporting Umbrella!
