Authors and Contributors

Darren Waldrep
Vice President of Alliances and Marketing

Darren is the vice president of alliances and marketing for Datatrend Technologies. He has been with Datatrend for over 20 years filling various roles including MIS director and controller. Darren enjoys helping individuals, teams, and companies develop to their full potential through team building, results-driven strategic planning, accountable workplace execution, effective communication, impeccable customer satisfaction, and a commitment to excellence all around. He has a solid understanding of communication and collaboration approaches and technologies, and has even earned an industry certification in social software. In past lives Darren dabbled in computer programming, UNIX administration, and database management. Darren is a proud Longhorn (University of Texas graduate) and likes to volunteer, travel, read, bike, and play tennis competitively.

Phil Turner
Business Development and Systems Architect

Phil is the Director of Business Development and Systems Architect for Datatrend Technologies. He has been with Datatrend for 5 years. With expertise in server hardware architecture and implementation design, systems performance, and virtualization & cloud computing, Phil has assisted hundreds of customers in a variety of project capacities, most notably a virtualization platform for large financial institution, a High Performance Computing (HPC) cluster for a northeastern university, a web commerce platform for a major airline, and a high performance appliance for Internet traffic security. Formerly a mechanical engineer with systems automation & research and a systems engineer & architect for IBM, Phil has a lot of experience with platform solution & systems design, virtualization, systems performance, and HPC. Phil graduated from the University of Alberta with a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering. He lives in the Raleigh, North Carolina area and enjoys watching sevens rugby.

Britton McGinn
Senior Technician

As Senior Technician on the integration and technical sales support team, with over 10 years experience at Datatrend, Britton is a key contributor on many projects. Britton has over 8 years of IBM hardware experience, including Power Systems, Storage, x86 & BladeCenter. Britton is also System X, BladeCenter, and Power Systems certified. Britton resides in the Minneapolis, MN area. In his spare time he enjoys golf and hanging out with his family.

Bill Roberts
President of Network Services

Bill is the President of Network Services at Datatrend Technologies. He has been a part of the Datatrend team for over 18 years. Network infrastructure services project implementation and business development are Bill's areas of expertise. With a TPMA (Telecommunications Project Management Association) certification, Bill has been instrumental in the implementation of networking infrastructure at thousands of sites in several vertical markets including Retail, Hospitality, Healthcare, Financial and Manufacturing. He enjoys golf, hockey and watching the English Premiere Soccer League.

John Henderson
Senior Vice President of Network Services

John joined Datatrend Technologies with 20 years of experience at IBM and is a veteran of the US Navy Submarine Service. He is currently the Senior Vice President of Network Services at Datatrend. John's expertise in networking field science and technology (John holds certifications including RCDD, TPMA, and CWNA), along with his network and information technologies experience, makes him a valued member of Datatrend. He has been a member of the Datatrend team since 1993. Among his projects, John played a vital role as a strategic IT consultant for a major international hotel chain. John values his family and has a long legacy of seven children, sixteen grandchildren, and one great grandchild.

Charlie Cox
President of Technology Infrastructure Solutions

Charlie is President of Datatrend's Technology Infrastructure Solutions division, one of IBM's largest and most successful Business Partners. With over 10 years of service at Datatrend, Charlie has spent most of his time working with enterprise level customers helping them understand how to leverage technology to solve business problems more efficiently and at a lower cost than they experience today. Charlie has developed strong brand and executive relationships within IBM which Datatrend can leverage on behalf of clients. Utilizing his expertise in business analysis, consulting, strategy, and planning, and experience in the UNIX, x86, and Storage realms, Charlie helps customers optimize their IT infrastructure environment. Prior to Datatrend, Charlie ran sales for the Banta Direct Marketing Group, a large publicly traded print and information management company. He also was an EVP at Merrill Corporation where his responsibilities included managing sales, marketing and strategic planning for different divisions. Immediately prior to Merrill Corporation, Charlie was President of Response Communications Group, a large New York area based direct marketing agency. He started his career in banking in advertising and marketing. In his free time, Charlie enjoys golf, sailing, traveling, and rock and roll.

Mark Waldrep
Chief Executive Officer

As Co-founder and CEO of Datatrend Technologies, Mark has been with Datatrend from its beginning in 1987. He has worked in IT since 1978 in a variety of roles including working with clients to design custom software, acquiring and developing technology and tools to aid in application migration, and working with business leaders in a variety of organizations to find pragmatic ways to optimize information technology. Mark enjoys helping clients identify and minimize/eliminate potential project risks, develop successful project plans which identify critical path elements, and provide solutions tailored to specific customer paradigms. Over the years Mark has leveraged his experience in numerous application migration projects, providing infrastructure solutions for mission critical applications, and assisting clients in resolving performance issues. Mark is an advocate for Datatrend clients working with manufacturers to improve their offerings in concert with end user needs. Mark began his IT career in 1978 working for a software development firm. In 1982, he joined an IBM Business Partner firm specializing in the Series/1 platform, and in 1987 he started Datatrend. Mark is an avid bowler, taking up the sport when his parents started him in a youth bowling league at age six. Today, Mark is a scratch bowler, but he finds that most clients prefer golf.