Leadership Team
Leadership Team
United by decades of IT experience, the CCS leadership team is committed to operational excellence and is passionate about client success. We continuously improve our delivery capabilities, technical DNA, and strategic alignment.
Jay Whitchurch
Chief Executive Officer
Kyriakos Kaimis
Executive Vice President National Accounts
JP Nel
Executive Vice President K12 Software Solutions
Suzanne McLaughlin
Executive Vice President
Sales & Marketing
Tom Franson
Executive Vice President
Service Operations
Jay Whitchurch
Chief Executive Officer
Jay Whitchurch is the Chief Executive Officer at CCS. Jay has over 25 years of experience driving business growth and successfully leading organizations through change. His career has been defined by his work helping clients through digital/technology change, creating and managing SaaS-based products and technology services, and empowering teams to grow.
Before CCS, Jay was the President of Scantron and drove growth across the Scantron business through acquisitions, alliances, and new products/services. An accomplished entrepreneur, he founded and led campus2careers, an innovative Education Technology company focused on college and career readiness. After driving substantial growth and winning various awards, campus2careers was acquired in 2013. He previously led other organizations, serving in senior executive roles, including Senior Vice President for Pearson’s Educational Assessment business and Senior Vice President & CIO with Harcourt Assessment.
Before embarking on his work in education technology and technology services, Jay was a senior leader with Booz & Company as part of a long and successful career in strategy consulting, advising global organizations and C-level executives on key strategic initiatives. He has an MBA from the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin, graduating with honors and a bachelor’s in business administration from McCombs. He has served as a board member and advisor on various organizations, including CTB McGraw-Hill’s Innovation Board, Edfolio, GYLO, Moolah U., Circular Energy (chair), AlertMedia, and the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce Ed Tech Committee. Jay enjoys coaching youth sports, golfing, basketball, and traveling in his free time.
Suzanne McLaughlin
Executive Vice President, Sales & Marketing
Suzanne McLaughlin is the Executive Vice President for Sales and Marketing. Her passion for technology is second only to her compassionate approach. She understands our customers’ unique challenges; many see her as their solution provider and, more importantly, as their trusted advisor. With over 25 years of technology consulting and management experience, Suzanne focuses on infrastructure design, networking and collaboration technologies.
Suzanne works closely with CCS’ education, government, and corporate clients to map technology solutions to improve their operational processes and develop strategies to produce high-impact technology solutions. She leads CCS’ E-Rate program for the Northeast and has been instrumental in working with school districts and libraries to maximize their E-Rate funding.
Suzanne holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and a Bachelor of Arts in Scientific Mathematics. She is Cisco Systems, Intel and Comp-TIA certified in Network Design and Solution Architecture and a member of the Cisco Technical Leadership Council and Tech-Collective. Suzanne is a sought-after speaker, frequently presenting on E-Rate, networking, and security topics at industry seminars and conferences.
Tom Franson
Executive Vice President, Service Operations
Tom Franson joined CCS in 2006 as a Technical Project Manager. He began his career at Aon Consulting as a business analyst and went on to lead a consulting group providing services to American Express and the financial services industry. From Aon, Tom moved to Bloomberg Financial Markets, where he managed a support operation for Bloomberg terminal installations and led a team of Regional Operations Managers.
At CCS, Tom has held many leadership roles, including Project Manager, Senior Manager, Associate Director, and Director. He serves as Executive Vice President of Service Operations and is responsible for CCS’ Managed Services, Project Services and Consulting Services operating units. These responsibilities include our Service Delivery teams, Quality of Services, Customer Satisfaction, and Service Development.
Tom earned a master’s in statistics and organizational development from Columbia University and a bachelor’s in psychology from Saint Joseph’s College. He has served as the President of the Long Island Chapter of the Help Desk Institute since 2007. He is a frequent speaker about building and managing high-performing IT support teams, managing with metrics-based KPIs and quality management systems.
Kyriakos Kaimis
Executive Vice President, National Accounts
Kyriakos Kaimis is an accomplished technology executive with over 25 years of experience identifying best-in-class technology solutions for CCS’ clients. Kyriakos understands the importance of technology in helping clients improve outcomes and is committed to being a life-long learner to ensure the best results.
As a strategist and accessible leader, Kyriakos’s strong client management skills have been directly attributed to improving client communications and shortening customer resolution times. He specializes in designing security solutions, disaster recovery and network architecture for public and private sectors. Under his leadership, “Custom Academy” was born – an internal training program designed to keep CCS engineers and sales teams informed on emerging technologies and solutions.
Kyriakos earned his Master of Science and Bachelor of Science degrees from the New York Institute of Technology. He frequently speaks and participates in panel discussions at industry conferences, seminars, and webinars on cyber security, disaster recovery, and cloud migration.
JP Nel
Executive Vice President, K12 Software Solutions
JP Nel joined CCS in May 2001 as an experienced systems and network administrator, software developer, and project manager. JP brought more than 15 years of diverse information technology and industry experience. Before working for CCS, JP worked at Goodyear in South Africa and Philip Morris in New York City.
While at CCS, JP was involved in multiple large technology projects at Philip Morris before joining the Infinite Campus team as a project manager. JP was instrumental in establishing implementation methodologies and ensuring high-quality service standards for clients and educational partners. Since 2004, JP has filled many key roles on the Infinite Campus team.
JP holds a Bachelor of Science in Physics and Computer Science from Nelson Mandela University in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. An avid sailor, JP is a Masthead Cove Yacht Club member in Huntington, New York.
Board of Directors
Our board of directors ensures CCS maintains a sharp strategic vision, high operational efficiency standards, and effective pursuit of corporate goals. Together, we strive to improve the quality of IT services.
Gregory G. Galdi
Chairman
Nathan Chandrasekaran
Co-Founder/Partner Columbia River Partners
Pooneet Goel
Co-Founder/Partner Columbia River Partners
Gregory G. Galdi
Chairman
Gregory Galdi is an accomplished entrepreneur, philanthropist, and information technology visionary. As Founder and Chairman of Custom Computer Specialists, headquartered in Hauppauge, NY, Greg has helped transform the adoption of outsourced technology services in healthcare, education, commercial and non-profit businesses, and local government.
Greg was first introduced to technology when he began his career as a chemist at Brookhaven National Laboratory. Four decades later, his technology solutions firm has grown to over 400 full-time employees with locations in New York, North Carolina, Ohio and Rhode Island—including a 100,000 sf facility on Long Island.
With his visionary perspective, Greg has earned the Long Island University Southampton College’s Distinguished Alumnus Award, is a three-time Entrepreneur of the Year finalist, and is a Young Presidents’ Organization honored member. He is a board member of the International Motor Racing Research Center, HIA-LI, and the Long Island University Board of Trustees.
Impassioned with giving back to the communities he serves, Greg has been frequently recognized for his philanthropic efforts, supporting Long Island’s associations, hospitals, schools, and museums. He was also recognized at Parker Jewish Institute’s annual gala for his accomplishments, values and ethics. Greg is an avid auto racing enthusiast and resides on Long Island with his wife Linda.
Nathan Chandrasekaran
Co-Founder/Partner, Columbia River Partners
Nathan has been in private equity/finance for over 15 years. He holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and a Bachelor in Neuroscience from Bowdoin College.
Nathan spent over ten years at a NY-based middle market private equity firm with $1.5 billion of assets under management before starting Columbia River Partners. He was a board member of numerous companies, including Lift Brands, The Dwyer Group (now called Neighborly), DLT Solutions, and BQ Resorts.
Earlier in his career, Nathan spent several years at Merrill Lynch in the media and telecom investment banking division as a telecom strategy consultant at Code Wireless (now a subsidiary of Ericsson). He started his career as a business analyst at Deloitte Consulting.
Pooneet Goel
Co-Founder/Partner, Columbia River Partners
Pooneet has been an entrepreneur and investor in the technology space for over twenty years. He holds an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and a bachelor’s in computer science from Stanford University.
Pooneet started his career as a software developer before spending several years at Booz & Company advising Fortune 500 CEOs on operations strategy. He then invested in, built, and operated ten megawatts of solar farms in India and Spain and continues to operate today. Sample investments include Aera Technology, Punchh Inc., PowWow Mobile, LeanData Inc., and True Green Solar.