THE (FULLY FUNCTIONAL) OST FAMILY

We feel more like a family than a corporation. We don't blow out candles stuck in cupcakes on our birthdays, but maybe we should start. We're all on the same page. We know each other's strengths and weaknesses, we know how to work together. We believe our customers have a sixth sense for consistency and stability. We think big, aim high, shoot for the stars, go for the gold...you get the idea. Since we focus on complex environments, we only hire technical people with senior level skills. Brainiacs. Ubergeeks. Technical All-Stars, if you will. We're confident you'll be impressed with our line-up. We sure are.



Dan Behm

Dan Behm

President

Dan Behm has been president of Open Systems Technologies since he started the company in 1996. In the beginning, OST was a $5 million hardware sales company that depended heavily on one partner. Dan diversified OST, transforming it into a $33 million leader in the industry. Today, it's a technology company driven by software and service.

After graduating with honors from Michigan State University's Eli Broad School of Business with a BA degree in business administration, Dan began a career with IBM that lasted ten years. At IBM, he was Senior Buyer, Manufacturing Engineer, Systems Engineer, Advisory Sales Rep. Dan spent one year at IBM's world-renowned marketing school for Sales Reps and Systems Engineers. He joined G/S Leasing Inc., where he was part of the leasing team for five years before birthing two technology companies and eventually OST. Over the past two decades, Dan has worked with over 500 customers and partners in the technology marketplace and now uses his broad scope of experience to meet the needs of each of his clients.

Dan currently serves on the Advisory Board for the HP division of Arrow ECS, an $800 Million distributor of HP hardware and software. In addition, Dan was named to the Board of Directors of the Metro Health Foundation in 2009 for a three year term.


Meredith Bronk

Meredith Bronk

Vice President, Client Relations and Internal Operations

Meredith Bronk joined OST in 1998, serving customers directly to ensure timely, efficient responses to their needs. Meredith sees to it that customers' needs are understood, respected, and fulfilled. Of course, our customer retention rate is high as a result.

After earning her BA in Business Administration from Alma College, Meredith went on to work in Accounting, Recruiting, Human Resources and Project Management. She managed a large accounting staff in Arizona before returning to Michigan to manage accounting and human resources for a manufacturing company, where she also assisted with the implementation of an ERP package. Her mixed experience has created a unique combination of financial and interpersonal skills. Meredith is an excellent representation of OST's dedication to its employees and customers.


David Gerrity

David Gerrity

Director of Professional Services

David Gerrity has led the ERP Practice since joining OST in 2003. David plays a key role in expanding the scope of services OST can provide to the ERP community. He has developed OST into a one stop shop for all ERP related needs.

David earned a degree in Management Information Systems from the University of Notre Dame, where he was also captain of the Track & Field team, breaking the school record in the pole vault. Prior to OST, David lead Technical Services and Technical Pre-Sales in the Baan practice at Crowe Chizek, one of the nation's top 10 accounting and consulting firms.


Scott Dare

Scott Dare

BMC Practice Manager

Scott Dare has been the lead BMC Sales Representative for OST since joining the company in 2003. Scott has successfully made the BMC practice a large part of OST's portfolio and strategic alliance.

Scott holds a degree in Business from Hutchinson College. Prior to joining OST, he managed the Insurance and Accounts Receivables Departments at the Diagnostic Clinic of Houston for six years. He also worked as an Account Manager for BMC Software, giving him a unique, in-depth perspective on the work he does at OST. He is highly trained, having successfully completed the BMC Sales Certification and Product Knowledge Training, Sandler School of Sales Training as well as multiple BMC sales strategy planning sessions.

John Thayer

W. Scott Montgomery

Security Practice Manager

Scott Montgomery joined OST in the spring of 2009 as the Manager of the OST Security Practice. Scott comes to OST with over 25 years of IT and IT Security related experience. Within the last ten years, Scott has personally performed more than 500 Security Assessments for several hundred organizations. Using a proprietary and unique assessment approach, developed by Scott and used since 1998, the OST Security Team has the ability to gather, analyze and assess the security of any organization. The Montgomery Method ™ guarantees comprehensive security results for even the most complex of computing environments.

Scott has a Degree in Computer Information Service from Ferris State University. Scott's articles and quotes often appear in trade publications and he is regularly invited to speak publicly about Computer Security, Identify Theft and Technology Trends.



James VanderMey

James VanderMey

Chief Technology Officer

Jim VanderMey has served as VP of Technical Operations for OST since the very beginning. Jim is a technology visionary who sets the long and short-term direction for OST. He specializes in seeing the “big picture” of technology, the computer industry, and the business objectives supported by IT. As OST has gained an international reputation, Jim has taught and spoken at conferences in Europe, Japan, and throughout the US.

Jim attended the Grand Rapids School of Bible and Music as a pastoral ministries major, and went on to manage large scale applications running on UNIX and Windows for healthcare, manufacturing, and insurance industries. He has served as a consultant to many large organizations such as Herman Miller, Boeing, Priority Health, Magna-Donnelly Corporation, Hewlett Packard, Komatsu, Alticor, Meijer, Navistar (International Truck), the US Navy, Mercedes, Targus, Bio-Rad and Spectrum Health. Jim has senior level skills in Informix, Oracle, Baan Tools, HP-UX, AIX, high-availability clustering, SAN design and implementation, systems architecture and design, and the application of ERP to the manufacturing environment. He holds many active industry certifications including the HP Master Accredited System Engineer in High Availability and Storage, SNIA Certified Architect (Level 3), and Certified System Administrator for HP-UX and AIX.


Tom Lawson

Tom Lawson

Enterprise Storage Practice Manager

Tom Lawson joined OST in 2004 as the Practice Manager for Enterprise Storage. Tom has lead the growth of the Storage Practice to offer services such as Infrastructure Rationalization and Information Lifecycle Management. He also heads up strategic partnerships with industry leading providers of storage infrastructure, software and IT services.

Tom earned a BA in Economics from Arizona State University and a MA in International Management with honors from Thunderbird. Tom began as a Sales Representative with IBM before spending 15 years in Sales and Sales Management at Hitachi Data Systems. There, he played a major role in HDS's market share growth and sales revenue increase in the 1990s. Hewlett Packard recruited Lawson in 2000 to augment their sales force. Tom has acquired a broad range of experience working with all customer segments to deploy cost effective technology solutions in pursuit of their business goals.


Chris van Nieuwenhuyzen

Chris van Nieuwenhuyzen

Blade and Server Practice Manager

Chris van Nieuwenhuyzen joined OST in 2005 as the mid-west ProLiant and Blade Server authority. Chris is recognized as one of the top Blade Server technologists in North America, having worked with many Fortune 500 companies to architect multimillion dollar blade server deployments. He has extensive technical insight into ProLiant Servers, BladeSystems, and their associated management tools in large enterprise environments.

Before joining OST, Chris worked for Compaq and Hewlett Packard. Chris has assisted over 100 customers in planning and maintaining their enterprise ProLiant and Blade Server implementations in areas such as provisioning, systems management, and facilities planning.

John Thayer

John Thayer

Director of Sales

John helps OST Sales Executives achieve their aspirations within the context of OST's culture. He supports OST's entrepreneurial spirit of independently run businesses within the sales team. In addition, he has responsibility for co-determining strategic direction and achieving company-wide goals.

Over the past 26 years, John has held and performed a variety of roles in the technology industry. After earning his BS from Grand Valley State University, he became Lead Systems Consultant and Manager of Support Services at Technicraft in Virginia. Later John held Sales Engineering and Sales roles at Data General. After 5 years as VP of Information Services at a private firm in the Detroit area, John enjoyed being a Sales Executive with Sun Microsystems. Having been recruited away from Sun, John spent 9 years in direct sales and management with EMC. John later joined HP, where he met OST. The ensuing great relationship led to a subsequent decision for John to join OST as the Director of Sales.

Mike TenHarmsel

Mike TenHarmsel

CBS Practice Manager

Mike TenHarmsel joined OST in 2008 as the CBS Practice Manager. The CBS practice provides IT consulting services primarily focused on, but not limited to, software development.

After earning his BA in Finance from Central Michigan University, Mike started his career selling software for a Chicago-based firm. While Mike lived in Chicago, his position in Sales and Sales Management had him traveling extensively. When a publicly-traded IT consulting firm known as Whittman-Hart approached Mike with an opportunity to start a branch office in Grand Rapids, Mike jumped at the chance. Mike started the Grand Rapids office of Whittman-Hart with zero clients and zero revenues. Within the first few years, he was responsible for increasing revenues to over $20 million. Ultimately, through merger, the company was renamed as marchFIRST. Mike left shortly thereafter to start his own IT Consulting and Software Development firm, named CBS Solutions, Inc. CBS started in 2001 and grew quickly with revenues exceeding $5 million annually. OST and CBS had great complementary businesses and in March of 2008, CBS Solutions, Inc merged with OST.