Northwest Information Services is a team of extremely competent and creative professional staff that comes from senior positions in private industry and all have rich life experiences along with meaningful technical and practical insights.
Glenn Sexton
Glenn serves as the President and CEO of Northwest Information Services. Glenn is an honors graduate of the University of Maryland and a Viet Nam era veteran who served in the United States Air Force. He has been with NIS since 1990. Prior to coming to NIS, he served as a vice president of a major national bank where he directed network administration activities. Before the bank, Glenn was responsible for computer and network operations at a national wholesale grocery distribution company.
At NIS, Glenn is responsible for casting the vision that continues to make this company successful. As a father of four grown children who all attended public schools, he has great passion for seeing technology deployed in a meaningful way, particularly in the education arenas. His clients include many K-12 school districts as well as several colleges and universities.
He sits on the TR42 Engineering Committee for the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) and actively participates in five major subcommittees dealing with deployment of copper and fiber optic telecommunications cabling systems. In addition, Glenn is active with committees dealing with data center design, customer owned outside plant systems, to include bonding and grounding. He is also a member of Institute of Electronic and Electrical Engineers (IEEE), the National Fire Protection Agency (NFPA) and an allied member of the American Institute of Architects (AIA).
When not at NIS, Glenn enjoys his family, riding his Harley-Davidson with the Patriot Guard , 1960's muscle cars and dining at fine restaurants like Al Amir in Portland, Typhoon in Beaverton, and Elements in Whistler, B.C. He also sits on the board of Pure Life Alliance - a Portland based organization dedicated to sexual purity.
Jeff Cazel
Jeff serves at the Chief Technology Officer at Northwest Information Services. He graduated from the University of Illinois with highest honors. He has been with NIS since 1988 and has more than twenty-five years of experience in the design and installation of local- and wide-area networks and data processing systems. Jeff is certified by the Project Management Institute as a Project Management Professional. His engagements benefit from a unique and extremely thorough style of project management and structured systems development methodology.
He generally focuses on designing and directing large scale wide-area networking and network security implementations. His projects typically involve private WAN designs using frame relay and/or point-to-point connections, and they almost always include secure, reliable Internet access. He has extensive experience in configuring and deploying various technical components. Jeff has a high level of expertise with Cisco routers, Ethernet switches, and firewalls in organizations of all sizes. He has performed many projects integrating various systems with Microsoft Active Directory.
Jeff can quickly assess the needs of an enterprise and can articulate the design and cost/benefit trade-offs of various architectures at the detail level appropriate for any audience. Jeff is very conversant with the relevant network protocols and transport mechanisms pertinent to and available in modern networks and is experienced in data center technologies.
He has substantial experience in analyzing technology infrastructures and in making detailed recommendations for improvements. He can then project manage components of these implementations per the client’s direction—from creating budgets and project plans to commissioning system implementations, and anything in between.
Jeff is an accomplished technical writer and has generated detailed documentation files and contract and RFP language for many clients.
Also an accomplished musician, Jeff can be found with his gospel band on Sunday and playing good ol' rock & roll for relaxation and enjoyment.
John Curalli
John is a Vice President and the Director of Business Development for Northwest Information Services. John has a proven track record that characterizes him as a dynamic, top-performing executive with entrepreneurial experience in creating effective strategic and tactical plans, and negotiating strategic alliances. He possesses a valuable and broad business background that includes sales, engineering, and marketing that brings extraordinary business marketing insight and creativity. He has passion for excellence that is contagious. John is highly skilled in business analysis and has an exceptional understanding of client’s business needs and issues.
John also acts as our Quality Control expert and takes opportunity to build relationships with our clients for the purpose of gathering candid feedback on the performance of our consultants. This process enables us to continually evaluate and improve our services.
Prior to joining the NIS team in 1992, John held executive positions at Electric Lightwave and Verizon. He is a MBA graduate from Portland State University and holds a BA in Business from the University of Washington.
A skilled writer, John is the author of a series of children's books soon to be published.
Cliff Roper
Cliff is a Senior Consultant at NIS providing local and long distance network services procurement, telecommunications management, expert project management, Sarbanes-Oxley technology audits, and strategic planning services. He has over 25 years experience in the information technology and telecommunications industries. He is certified by the Project Management Institute as a Project Management Professional.
His areas of focus include design, procurement, implementation and quality assurance consulting services for voice, data and wireless technologies. Additional areas of focus include supplier management. Cliff’s project experience includes audits, cost analysis, development of RFPs, vendor analysis and he is an expert in negotiation of service contracts and the implementation of networks.
Prior to joining NIS, Cliff spent two years as Senior Consultant at Analysts International with a focus on Strategic Telecommunications Sourcing. He was responsible for managing project schedules and cross-functional teams, formulating RFPs, analyzing emerging technologies for voice, data and wireless networks. Typical client engagements to optimize telecommunications costs result in client savings of 20 to 40 percent.
Mr. Roper spent the prior eighteen years working for Tektronix, Inc. He held various positions at Tektronix including Voice and Video Services Manager, Telecom Engineering Manager and Network Planning and Operations Manager.
Another of NIS' Harley-Davidson club, Cliff spends his leisure time cruising on his customized Road King with the Portland Chapter of the Christian Motorcycle Association (CMA). Cliff is deeply committed to the mission of CMA and has traveled to Guatemala and Columbia to present dual-sport motorcycles to local pastors.
Mike Smith
Mike is a senior consultant at NIS specializing in technical procurement consulting, project management, technical support, and strategic planning services. He has over 22 years experience in operations, marketing, management and engineering for voice technology.
Mr. Smith’s areas of focus include design, procurement, implementation and quality assurance consulting services for voice technologies with an emphasis on VoIP conversions. Mike has been the Project Consultant for several large VoIP conversions and has contributed extensive field expertise.
Mike attended University of Oregon and Portland State University. His professional certifications include Nortel Meridian 1 Systems Engineer, Nortel Networks Certified Support Specialist, Avaya IP, and 3Com IP. His academic and business experience combines with his operational and technical background to produce great insight into technology projects by translating business requirements into empowering technologies.
Prior to joining NIS, Mike spent 18 years developing client applications through marketing efforts with Executone and Qwest Communications where he provided solutions in voice (including IP applications), data and networking services. Over the years, he worked with large accounts in every private and public sector serviced by Qwest.
A dedicated husband and father, Mike enjoys his twin grandsons and serves on the Core Leadership Team Member at Cedar Mill Bible
Darren Herrick
Darren serves as Senior Design Consultant at NIS specializing in structured cabling systems. He is a twenty year veteran in the telecommunications industry and has designed literally hundreds of projects. He is accredited by BICSI as a Registered Communications Distribution Designer. This internationally recognized certification guarantees our clients have a standards compliant design that meets or exceeds the requirements of today’s demanding telecommunications transport and integration environment. Darren is also licensed in the State of Oregon as a Journeyman Electrician with many years of field experience installing low voltage and telecommunications cabling systems.
He has extensive knowledge of telephony, outside plant cabling, network management, energy system estimation, access control systems, A/V presentation design, premises cable distribution, and fiber optic deployment, as well as construction project management.
Darren's major areas of responsibility include designing, drafting and reviewing wiring and structured cable plant designs with a focus on large construction projects. Darren also crafts CSI compliant specifications and drawings using AutoCAD®.
A man who truly serves those less fortunate, Darren recently became a new father of four adopted children. He and his wife Connie have renovated their historic Forest Grove house and turned it into a home full of children. Another musician, Darren is a "bass man/keyboard master" and enjoys working with youth at his church.
Kathy Hammond
Kathy was recruited by NIS in 2003 to expand our service offerings and proactively enhance NIS’ client support programs. She has 20 years of experience in the telecommunications industry. Her previous work experience uniquely qualified her as it included a balanced compliment of management experience and a high degree of excellence in developing client relationships. At NIS, Kathy provides a high level of project management expertise which includes; technical consulting, complex research, client and vendor relationship management, and RFP development. In addition, Kathy is responsible for making technical and business recommendations regarding the purchase and implementation of voice system replacements.
Her daily tasks involve management of ongoing deployment of telecommunications services for NIS’ national accounts. She is responsible for all aspects of coordination with regulated and non-regulated Local and Interstate Exchange Carriers as well as vendors and technicians physically installing cabling and telecommunications equipment. Her project management responsibilities encompass all aspects of telecommunications service requests requiring in-depth knowledge and the ability to verify proper application of Presubscribed Interexchange Carrier (PIC) codes.
Kathy is an accomplished telecommunications analyst with experience in Microsoft Access Database, optimizing local service billings to reduce cost and, pricing verification of services from telecommunications vendors. Kathy’s responsibilities have included the analysis of billings which has resulted in annual savings in excess of several thousand dollars for her clients. She has managed the telecommunications services for approximately 300 assisted living communities throughout the United States.
Before working for NIS, Kathy held several account management positions at organizations such as MCI WorldCom, TouchAmerica and Intel. She performed numerous technical, sales and project management functions including, office relocations, sales of telecommunications services, resolution of client problems and issues, leading highly technical teams and managing project schedules, cost, risk and quality.
Kathy and her husband also own a local Papa Murphy's Pizza. She is the mother to two girls and sings "near Grammy" country western.
Leslie Elliott
Leslie came to NIS after a twenty plus year career with Verizon. Leslie serves our clients as an analyst and is largely responsible for conversion and change management. Her attention to detail and impeccable data collection and management skills are great asset to our overall operation and noteworthy among as she assists our clients.
While at Verizon, she has held a variety of positions including Corporate Account Manager where she fostered large business accounts. Her indepth knowledge of telephony and deliver systems uniquely qualify her quickly analyze and assess customer systems and needs.
Emily Higgins
Emily serves as our Office Manager. Hers is the voice that is typically a "first contact" for many of our clients. Her polite, positive and professional demeanor promotes a harmonious environment in the NIS office!
Speaking of harmony, Emily spends her free time with the Conchords Choralle where she lends her incredible voice in performing show tunes, jazz standards and seasonal music to audiences in the greater Portland Metro area.