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Executive Leadership US and Canada
BearCom’s leadership is dedicated to delivering the highest possible user experience to meet your company’s needs in voice, video and data.
Les Fry
Chief Executive Officer
Experience: Prior to the BearCom CEO role, Les joined the team in 2019 as the Senior Vice President of Sales & Marketing, overseeing all commercial aspects, including Enterprise, Inside Sales & the Rental business across North America. Previous to BearCom, Les held executive level leadership roles across multiple distribution businesses over the last 25 years. He served as SVP Sales & Marketing for United Rental/BakerCorp from 2015-2019 and SVP of Sales & Marketing for Safety-Kleen from 2011-2015. From 1995-2011 he held senior operations & sales leadership roles for Fortune 500 Ashland Inc, including the Valvoline division. Les has over 25 years of extensive experience driving growth and operational efficiencies in channel distribution and the rental industry, positioning him uniquely to lead BearCom.
Mike Owen
Chief Technology Officer
Experience: Mike is responsible for Corporate IT and new solution innovation at Bearcom. He has over 25 years’ experience in information technology, RF systems, software development and new technology innovation. Prior to BearCom, Mike was the Vice President of Information Technology at BakerCorp for five years where he oversaw the IT department and new product innovation. Mike also has many years of experience in deploying wireless and LTE systems with each of his previous companies including while serving 6 years at Nortel. Mike has been a member of the Air National Guard for 25+ years. He currently is the 147th Attack Wing Communication Flight Chief Enlisted Manager where he is responsible for enlisted force development and cyber security. Mike currently holds the following accreditations: Certified Ethical Hacker, A+, Security+, Project+, Network+, Microsoft Certified Professional, Oracle Certified Developer.
Education: Masters of Science, Cybersecurity, Western Governors University; Bachelor of Science in Information Technology from Western Governors University; Associates of Applied Science, Electronics, Community College of the Air Force
AlwaysOn Facts: Mike enjoys wood working, cars, and horses
Garrett Else
Chief Financial Officer
Experience: Garrett Else serves as the BearCom Chief Financial Officer. Based in our Garland, Texas headquarters, Garrett oversees all financial aspects of our business and is a key member of the senior leadership team. Garrett joined BearCom with more than twenty-seven years of financial and operational experience, having most recently served as the CFO of PatientNow and COO of both Trax Group and Calero. He has an extensive track record of driving process improvement, strategic planning, and leading companies through successful change.
Education: Garrett received a bachelor’s degree in Accounting from Gustavus Adolphus College in Minnesota, and an MBA in Finance from the University of Texas at San Antonio.
AlwaysOn Facts: Garrett is an avid reader, and enjoys playing sports, traveling, and spending time with his wife, two children and three dogs.
Ryan Pryznyk
President – Canada
Experience: Ryan brings a depth of operational knowledge, integration experience and change management expertise to BearCom from his previous roles as COO at 4Refuel; Regional VP, US North at Stericycle and Regional VP, US North at Shred-it.
Education: Ryan earned his undergraduate degree from University of Toronto and his MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
AlwaysOn Facts: Ryan enjoys spending his free time at the hockey rink with his family.
Jim Guscette
Senior Vice President, Commercial and Operations
Experience: Prior to joining BearCom in February 2019, Jim was President of CommUSA, one of Motorola Solution's leading Channel Partners. Jim held many leadership positions in his 24 years at CommUSA, beginning in Sales, then expanding into Marketing, Operations and General Management, ultimately culminating with the position of President. Under Jim’s leadership, CommUSA grew to become one of the Top 5 Motorola buy/sell Channel Partners in the United States. As an early adopter of online marketing and web-generated sales, CommUSA achieved breakthrough success and after nearly 30 years in operation, CommUSA was acquired by BearCom in February 2019.
Education: Bachelor of Science in Accounting from San Diego State University
AlwaysOn Facts: Jim enjoys spending time with his family, golfing, and surfing
Jerry Denham
Founder
Experience: Jerry Denham has well over 30 years of executive management experience in the wireless communications industry. Prior to the formation of BearCom, Jerry served Bear Communications for a total 14 years in the positions of co-founder, Vice President, and CEO & Chairman. Bear Communications merged with PageCom in 1995 to form BearCom.
Now with 20 years of experience leading BearCom, Jerry puts his nearly 35 years of strategic and tactical expertise in the wireless communications industry to work ensuring that BearCom delivers the right solutions to meet ever-evolving customer needs. Jerry’s focus on sales management, directing growth, acquisitions, marketing, and team building has helped form BearCom into America’s only nationwide dealer and integrator of wireless communications products and solutions. In his role as Executive Chairman, Jerry will increase his focus on Strategy and Acquisitions to ensure future BearCom success, while remaining fully engaged with the leadership team and board of directors.
While technology and infrastructure are important to Jerry, BearCom’s employees remain one of his top priorities. His belief is that happy employees help make satisfied customers.
Since 2004, Jerry has served on the Board of Directors for the Enterprise Wireless Alliance. He also served on the Board of Directors for the California Coast Chapter of the Young Presidents Organization in 2004-2005 and again in 2007-2008.
Education: Jerry has a BA degree in psychology from California State University at Long Beach, where he also attended its MBA program.
Mark Moon
Board Member
Experience: In 2016, Mr. Moon joined the Board of Directors for BearCom. Prior to this role, Mark was the President for Motorola Solutions, Inc. He left the company at the end of 2016 after an outstanding 30+ year career. Prior to his departure, he was responsible for the strategy of the company and leading all aspects of global operations including Sales and Marketing, Product Research and Development, Software and Services, and Supply Chain.
Moon joined Motorola in 1985. He held a variety of leadership roles throughout the organization culminating in responsibility for leading 10,000+ employees located in 100+ countries and serving as the face and voice of the company to customers and partners around the world. In addition, he was previously Chairman of the Board of Directors for Vertex Standard, a Motorola joint venture headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. He has also served on the Board of Directors for the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation, which was created by the U.S. Congress to lead a nationwide effort to honor America's firefighters and provide support and assistance to their families.
Mark’s past experiences and relationships have established him as an innovative thought leader on how to leverage voice and data communications and information management to increase the effectiveness of an organization. With this said, his true strength lies in his ability to coach and lead teams around developing a clear vision and strategy, creating the right leadership team and organizational structure, developing leaders and a leadership pipeline, and creating a consistent cadence to get stakeholder “buy-in”.
Moon earned a bachelor’s degree in industrial and systems engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he was named to the school’s Academy of Distinguished Engineering Alumni in 2014 and currently serves on the Advisory Board of the School of Industrial and Systems Engineering.
Mr. Moon also serves on the Board of Directors for TestEquity LLC and Lawson Products (NASDAQ: LAWS).
Education: Bachelor of Science in Industrial and Systems Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech)
Stan Cameron
Regional Vice President - West
Experience: Stan joined BearCom via acquisition, in June of 1998. Prior to moving to his current role as Regional Vice President, Stan held previous positions within BearCom including Senior Account Executive, Sales Manager, General Manager and Regional Director. Stan has been engaged in the Wireless Industry since 1995, with previous experience at NetWireless and Prime Matrix, a cellular reseller. During Stan’s leadership at BearCom, the Western Region has enjoyed continued success over the years, and has consistently proven to be a top-performer in rentals, sales and service. His customer base has grown and developed in all vertical markets and incorporates the full suite of products and services that BearCom offers. Stan has a strong conviction in the people who support the activities of BearCom and further believes these salespeople, rental teams and service teams are the best in the industry. His management philosophy, simply stated; is that by working together with customers in a collaborative environment, is the only way to assure the successful deployment of wireless communications and video surveillance technology.
Education: Bachelor of Science in Finance and Economics from the University of Wisconsin-Parkside
Always On Facts: Stan enjoys exercising, playing sports, and spending time with his family
Don DiGeronimo
Regional Vice President – Midwest
Experience: Don DiGeronimo joined BearCom in 2014 and brings 25+ years of experience in two-way radio, mobile data and BDA markets. When joining BearCom, Don first served as the General Manager of the Cleveland office, then Regional Director Midwest, and most recently promoted to his current role. His longevity in the industry, commitment to service and excellent customer relations skills has helped lead BearCom’s success in large system deployments in the Midwest over the past several years. Prior to joining BearCom, Don served as President of Independence Communications in Cleveland, Ohio. Independence served more than 1000 customers in Ohio, Michigan and Kentucky in the Public Safety and Commercial markets. Don demonstrates a true passion for the industry, a trait which he helps to evoke among his entire team. He values integrity and urgency when it comes to client fulfillment, as well as working internally to complete a project. Don resides with his family in Cleveland, Ohio, where he has been involved with a variety of charitable organizations. After having attended The Ohio State University, he served on the Board of Directors for Enterprise Wireless Alliance from 2004 until 2011 and the Cleveland Grand Prix Charities, serving as Chairman.
Education: Ohio State University
AlwaysOn Facts: Don enjoys cooking, traveling, and attending sporting events with his sons.
Kris Ashman
General Counsel
Experience: Kris Ashman joined BearCom in December of 2019. Kris has extensive experience as in-house counsel for a variety of companies and industries, including United Rentals, Inc., BakerCorp, USPS and Hyundai Motor America. Her background includes legal department management, mergers & acquisitions, commercial law, labor & employment, litigation management and data privacy.
Education: BA in History from UCLA; JD from USC
AlwaysOn Facts: Kris likes to spend her time with her family and when home, can usually be found with a book in her hand and a dog on her lap.
Amber Caufield
Vice President of Operations
Experience: Prior to BearCom, Amber was Director of Procurement at Shermco Industries. Amber brings more than 17 years of leadership success in supply chain, strategic planning, and operational management. She is known for building world-class operations across diverse industries through business process re-engineering of all supply chain functions including procurement, inventory, planning and distribution. She has a track record and reputation for outstanding turnaround leadership, crisis response, and operational excellence with strong people skills facilitating breakthroughs and integrating diverse views.
Education: Central Texas Commercial College
AlwaysOn Facts: Amber enjoys party planning, hosting, working on her yard and spending time with her big family. Her motto is "Go Big or Go Home".
Charla Crochet
VP of South Region and Rental Solutions
Experience: Charla leads BearCom’s global solutions sales teams for the industrial sector. Prior to BearCom, Charla was at BakerCorp for 15 years. She held various positions while at BakerCorp, most recently she was the Vice President of US Sales. She was responsible for leading the US commercial field team driving over $200 million in revenue annually.
Education: Bachelor of Science from the University of Texas at Austin
AlwaysOn Facts: Charla enjoys traveling, cheering for all Houston sports teams, and hunting
Michael Pietrunti
VP of Mergers and Acquisitions
Experience: Since 1989 Michael has been working with companies like Sharp, Kyocera and Xerox leading them to the next stage in their businesses. Now Michael calls BearCom his home and we are very excited to be working with him.
Education: Coming Soon
AlwaysOn Facts: Coming Soon
Amanda Firth
Vice President of HR
Experience: Prior to BearCom, Amanda held the role of Human Resources Director at Waggoners Trucking, one of the largest family owned transportation companies in North America. During her five years with Waggoners she was responsible for recruitment, employee relations, benefits, and payroll. Prior to Waggoners, she was at DynCorp International where she held the position of Human Resources Manager. While at DynCorp she spent two years in Afghanistan providing in-country HR leadership to the US Department of State Afghan National Police Training Mission and two years in Qatar providing HR leadership for both US Army and Air Force personnel. Earlier in her career, she also worked at both Neiman Marcus and Halliburton. Most notably, while at Haliburton, she spent two years in Iraq providing compliance training for employees in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait and Djibouti for the US Army Logistics Civil Augmentation Program.
Education: Master of Education in Human
Resource Development from the University of Nebraska
Bachelor
of Science in Applied Learning and Development from the
University of Texas at Austin
Professional in Human
Resources Certification from the HR Certification Institute
AlwaysOn Facts: Amanda is happily married to a retired 25-year police veteran, fosters dogs for local animal rescue, and is also a member of the Daughter of the Republic of Texas preserving Texas history.
Tim Forrest
Vice President of Analytics & Insights
Experience: Prior to BearCom, Tim was the Director of Analytics & Insights at BakerCorp. While at BakerCorp, Tim led the integration of analytics and data-driven insights into ongoing business processes and provided critical data and analytical support that led to the successful sale of the business to United Rentals. Tim also served in the same role at Safety-Kleen, where he hired and directed an analytics team responsible for line-of-business reporting and forecasting, enterprise dashboards, predictive modeling, customer segmentation, standard cost improvement, and sales enablement through analysis of market share growth opportunities and lead identification/scoring. Tim also worked at 7-Eleven as a Sr. Analyst Developing and implementing sales forecast model for new store development using site attributes, trade area demographics, predictive analytics, and quantitative implementation of qualitative factors. Additionally, he designed comprehensive analysis model for measuring cost savings on $100 million-dollar logistics transformation project.
Education: Bachelor of Science in Rangeland
Ecology and Management from Texas A&M University
Master of
Science in Geography From Texas A&M University
AlwaysOn Facts: Tim enjoys playing disc golf, board/card games, and escape rooms.
Will Borden
Vice President Service Strategy & MR Sales
Experience: Prior to joining BearCom, Will spent more than 13 years working in the public safety sector, including as a Senior Account Manager for Motorola and with the Oklahoma Office of Homeland Security/Department of Public Safety. In addition to his selling time of the Motorola portfolio as a direct representative, Will led various communication system migrations that included as many as 200 public safety entities. As a Motorola manufacturer’s representative (MR), Will partnered with Motorola to win an unprecedented number of software enterprise solutions, including the deployment of the NG911 CallWorks system across 36 public safety customers.
Education: Will is a third-generation graduate from the University of Oklahoma with a BBA in Finance.
AlwaysOn Facts: Will enjoys Thunder Basketball, coaching youth sports and has an eclectic taste in music ranging from the Turnpike Troubadours to My Morning Jacket.
James Gilman
Sr. Director, Finance and Treasury
Experience: James holds a very vital role in managing the ever-increasing demands of our acquisition on-boarding process and implementation teams. James brings a unique skill set of being able to marry financial data with operational solutions enabling BearCom to create significant bottom-line business value. James is also a certified green belt in Lean Six Sigma.
Education: Bachelor of Business Administration
in Finance from the University of North Texas
MBA in Corporate Finance from the University of Dallas
Graduate
Certificate in Project Management from Southern Methodist
University
AlwaysOn Facts: James enjoys running, golfing, and spending time with his family.
Jamie Hinely
Director of Learning and Development
Experience: Jamie brings more than 25 years of experience in learning and development to BearCom. As the Director of Learning and Development, Jamie focuses on the development of our teams, providing training that supports career advancement and technical and critical systems/processes training. Most recently, he was an independent consultant working with major corporations in the Manufacturing and Petro-Chemical space. Prior to that, he served as the Director of Global Learning Solutions at Valvoline, where his team delivered training and guidance for over 10,000 employees across four continents. Jamie has an extensive track record of creating training programs that have a measurable impact on strategic goals, individual performance and improve the overall talent of the organization.
Education: Jamie holds a degree in Marketing from the Perdue School of Business at Salisbury University.
AlwaysOn Facts: In his spare time, Jamie enjoys playing guitar and singing (both badly, he says), driving his 1965 Ford pickup truck, and spending time with his wife and two grown children.
Gabe Sbarglia
Director of Security Solutions
Experience: Gabe joined Bearcom in 2021 and brings 10+ years of experience in the physical security industry. As Director of Security Solutions, Gabe’s team is responsible for providing cutting edge video surveillance and access control solutions to Bearcom customers. Before stepping into his current role, Gabe was a critical member of the BearCom Security Solutions team, overseeing all of the Western United States from his home base of Las Vegas. Prior to joining Bearcom, he found success as a Sales Manager and Business Development Manager, as well as working as a civilian contractor for the United States Air Force and owned an Action Sports Retail Company in Upstate New York.
Education: Gabe holds a bachelor’s degree from Arizona State University’s College of Arts and Sciences.
AlwaysOn Facts: Gabe enjoys mountain biking, snowboarding, playing drums, and spending time with his family.