This month we welcomed Tom Coke to our Iserv family! A little background – Tom is a native West Michigander and Kalamazoo College alumni. After tackling people on the field during football season, he went on to graduate from law school at MSU and tackled cases in the courtroom. Tom’s experience in sales and branding for large tech firms and small startup companies led him to Iserv as our new VP of Sales.
Tom will be primarily focusing on our Cloud technologies within the Switch Pyramid. Iserv is the only company in the Midwest that is currently partnered with Switch for Managed Cloud solutions. He is also steering the formation of the Midwest CIO group, a forum for CIO’s around the region to discuss emerging trends they are seeing. Tom’s background will help us utilize the resources of our 22-year-old company and reinvent ourselves as a future-focused startup geared toward the Cloud.
Q & A
1. How did your childhood prepare you for your job today? “I grew up in a house run by tech salesmen. My father specifically. At 7 years old, I had a dream of being the CEO of Digital Equipment Corporation.”
2. Do you have a hidden talent? “ I know how to operate a John Deere 4044R tractor.”
3. What’s the one accomplishment you are most proud of? “My Eagle Scout award, 1994 at Mackinaw Island.”
4. How did people describe you in your high school yearbook? “ I would say funny and outgoing. I was friends with many different groups of people.”
5. What is your favorite place to travel and why? “Ghana was the most exciting. I did a mission trip there. I had always wanted to go to Africa for a long time and the people were amazing.”
6. Lightning round:
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Favorite food? pizza
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Favorite color? blue
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Nickname? Friar (as in Friar Tuck)
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Pets? 1 cat (technically my wife’s)
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Favorite movie? The Goonies
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Play any instruments? Saxophone and guitar (not well)
7. Why are you excited about working at Iserv? “Four main reasons. 1. The Cloud is the next 5 years of technology and it is exciting to work in what’s new in tech. 2. I have the opportunity to take a good local company that’s been around forever and give it new life/move Iserv in the right direction. 3. I get to apply startup principles to an established company. 4. Getting the chance to work with a fellow Kzoo College alum (Jeff Royce-President of Iserv).”
Jeff had a few words to say about Tom as well. “I’m excited to have Tom on board. He brings to the table the mentality of a lean startup entrepreneur with the sales experience to help us build out our team. I’ve personally known Tom for five years and his track record of success in that time has been great.” We are very excited to have Tom on our Iserv team! Can’t wait to see what we can build in the next few months!
