Leadership Team

Jay Whitchurch

Chief Executive Officer

Jay Whitchurch is the Chief Executive Officer at Custom Computer Specialists.  Jay has over 25 years of experience driving business growth and successfully leading organizations through change. His career has been defined by his work in helping clients through digital/technology change, creating and managing SaaS-based products and technology services, and empowering teams to grow. 

Prior to Custom, Jay was the President of Scantron and drove growth across the Scantron business through acquisitions, alliances, and new products/services. An accomplished entrepreneur, he also 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 and served in senior executive roles with some of the Education industry leaders including Senior Vice President for Pearson’s Educational Assessment business and Senior Vice President/Chief Information Officer 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 (University of Texas at Austin), graduating with honors, and a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration also from McCombs.  He has served as an advisor and/or on the boards of 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 travelling in his free time.

 

John Lundy

Chief Financial Officer

John Lundy is a seasoned executive with over 10 years of experience in leading Finance, HR, and IT functions.  As the CFO of Custom Computer Specialists, John is responsible for overseeing the company’s financial, people, and internal IT operations and strategy.

Prior to joining Custom, John held several executive roles contributing to his expertise in reporting, corporate taxation, government compliance, and process improvement.  He is knowledgeable about emerging accounting and compliance issues and prides himself on his ability to transform complex business concepts into understandable, actionable information. 

As CFO, he is committed to ensuring the financial health and growth of Custom, while maintaining the highest standards of integrity and transparency.

John is a Certified Public Accountant and holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Administration from Northeastern University. 

 

Tom Franson

Executive Vice President, Service Operations

Tom Franson joined Custom 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 Custom, Tom has held many leadership roles including, Project Manager, Senior Manager, Associate Director and Director. He currently serves in the role of Executive Vice President of Service Operations and is responsible for Custom’s Managed Services, Project Services and Consulting Services operating units.  These responsibilities includes our Service Delivery teams, Quality of Services, Customer Satisfaction and Service Development. 

Tom has served as the President of the Long Island Chapter of the Help Desk Institute since 2007 and is a frequent speaker on the subjects of building and managing high-performing IT support teams, managing with metrics-based KPI’s and quality management systems.

Tom earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology from Saint Joseph’s College, and a Master’s Degree in Statistics and Organizational Development from Columbia University.

Kyriakos Kaimis

Executive Vice President, National Accounts

Kyriakos Kaimis is an accomplished technology executive with over 25 years’ experience identifying best-in-class technology solutions for Custom’s 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 for his clients.

As a strategist and accessible leader, Kyriakos’s strong client management skills have been directly attributed to improving client communications and shortening resolution times for customers.

He specializes in designing security solutions, disaster recovery and network architecture for both public and private sectors. Under his leadership “Custom Academy” was born – An internal training program designed to keep Custom’s 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 is frequently featured as a guest speaker and panelist at industry conferences, seminars and webinars on topics such as cyber security, disaster recovery and cloud migration.

Suzanne McLaughlin

Executive Vice President, Sales and Marketing

Suzanne McLaughlin is the Executive Vice President for Sales and Marketing.  Suzanne is passionate about technology, but more importantly compassionate in her approach. She understands the unique challenges our customers face and many see her as not only their solution provider, but more importantly, as their trusted advisor.

With more than 25 years of technology consulting and management experience, Suzanne focuses on infrastructure design, networking and collaboration technologies. She works closely with Custom’s education, government and corporate clients to map technology solutions to improve their operational processes and develop strategies to produce high-impact technology solutions.

Suzanne leads Custom’s 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 is a member of the Cisco Technical Leadership Council and of Tech-Collective.

Suzanne is a sought after speaker, frequently presenting on topics such as E-Rate, networking and security at industry seminars and conferences.

JP Nel

Executive Vice President, K12 Software Solutions

JP Nel joined Custom Computer Specialists 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 with him. Prior to working for Custom, JP worked at Goodyear in South Africa and Philip Morris in New York City.

While at Custom, 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 to clients and educational partners. Since 2004, JP has filled many key roles on the Infinite Campus team.

An avid sailor, JP is a member of the Masthead Cove Yacht Club in Huntington, New York.

JP holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics and Computer Science from the Nelson Mandela University in Port Elizabeth, South Africa.