Staffs of smaller and mid-size associations must often feel like they have entered the Olympic decathlon. Assigned to handle 10 very different tasks, they probably excel at a few, are O.K. at a few more and survive the rest.
Expecting a small staff to perform like Olympic decathletes just isn't realistic. Or necessary. Our management team brings together decades of association, membership, finance, marketing and technology expertise.
With Virtual, instead of one person or a small staff struggling to cover everything, you get a skilled team of specialists, managed by seasoned professionals and supported by the most advanced tools and technologies available to manage association business operations and performance.
As our clients would tell you, going "Virtual" is frequently a more cost-effective approach to operations management, even in cases where an association has used a traditional staffing model for decades.
Bruce Rogers, President
Bruce launched Virtual, Inc. in 1999 after a decade of building and running an award-winning public relations firm, Rogers Communications. He has provided leadership and counsel to associations in technology and other industry sectors, and has worked with founders to initiate more than a dozen industry associations. Under Bruce's direction, Virtual's client programs have garnered more than 45 national and international awards for management, marketing and communications excellence. Before starting his own PR agency, Bruce worked for the global public relations firm Burson-Marsteller, and earlier managed corporate public relations for Lotus Development Corp. He has a bachelor's degree from Colby College, and a master's degree with distinction from Boston University.
Andy Freed, Executive Vice President & COO
As Virtual's Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Andy oversees the company's client teams, along with the organization's overall service quality and management practices. He has more than 20 years of experience working with associations, non-profits and political organizations, and has managed a wide range of entities from small startups to multi-million dollar organizations with members spread throughout the globe. With Virtual for the past 10 years, Andy previously served as Vice President and CIO of the Massachusetts Hospital Association. He is a graduate of Harvard College, and received his master's in public policy from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.
Cindy Adams, Vice President, Client Services
Cindy joined Virtual in 2009 after more than 20 years of progressively greater IT management responsibility in the financial services, technology, communications, healthcare, insurance and manufacturing sectors. Before joining the company, Cindy was Vice President, IT Program Manager at State Street Global Advisors. Previously, she worked at Perceptive Informatics as the Director of e-Services, and earlier at Fidelity Investments as a Director of IS. Cindy has a bachelor's degree from Catawba College, and is a candidate for a master's degree from Virginia Polytechnic Institute.
Janice Carroll, Vice President, Client Services
Janice is responsible for overseeing all aspects of membership and event operations, managing Virtual client teams and ensuring conformance with industry best practices and service quality. She joined Virtual in 2000 following a decade of program management experience. Janice earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Notre Dame, where she was a member of the 1987 NCAA Championship fencing team and a two-time NCAA All American.
Ruth Cassidy, Vice President, Communications, NFC Forum
Ruth has two decades of technology sector public and industry analyst relations experience. She has worked for high-tech companies and PR firms, and ran her own PR practice for more than a decade before joining Virtual. Ruth has collaborated with C-level executives to establish brand recognition, increase sales leads, generate positive media coverage and build customer references. Corporate clients have included EMC, Forrester Research, HP, Imprivata, Juniper Networks, Lotus Development and Sun Microsystems. She holds a bachelor's degree summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, from Boston College.
Ann Geary, Director of Human Resources
At Virtual, Ann is responsible for all of the growing company's human resources efforts, including recruiting, benefits and payroll administration, career development, performance management and employee communications, among others. She brings more than 15 years of HR experience to Virtual, and joined the company from Administaff, the country's leading Professional Employer Organization (PEO). Previously, Ann served as Human Resources Manager at the Boston Center for Adult Education, and earlier worked in HR positions of increasing responsibility at Putnam Investments and AT&T. She earned a B.S. degree in Business Administration from Northeastern University.
Greg Kohn, Vice President, Client Services
Greg joined Virtual, Inc. from the IEEE Industry Standards and Technology Organization (IEEE-ISTO) where he most recently was staff director. Over the course of his 13-year career at both IEEE-ISTO and earlier the IEEE, Greg guided dozens of standards-setting groups. During this time he also served in leadership roles for several industry associations, including the MIPI Alliance, the Wireless Village Initiative and Blade.org, among others. Greg earned his B.A. in Journalism and Professional Writing from The College of New Jersey, and a M.S. in Professional and Technical Communications from the New Jersey Institute of Technology.
Russell Kuhl, Vice President, Technology
Russell leads the development and management of Virtual's leading-edge integrated solutions for managing membership, e-commerce, workflow and client collaboration. He also manages all facets of Virtual's technology infrastructure, from the company's communications systems to its document production center. Russell came to Virtual in 2000, and has more than a dozen years of IT experience—both as an in-house expert and consultant. He is a graduate of Allegheny College, and holds the Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) and various Microsoft certifications.
Terry Lowney, Vice President, Finance & Administration
With Virtual for more than seven years, Terry manages all client financial operations, including budgeting, AR and AP management and work with outside auditors. She has 25 years of finance, accounting and management experience gained at a broad range of organizations, from startups to billion-dollar, multinational corporations. Terry has worked extensively with independent accounting firms — including the nation's largest and smaller, more specialized practices. Previously, she managed a multi-geographic staff of more than 60 people and an annual budget of more than $6 million. Terry attended Northeastern University where she majored in accounting.
Clare Madden, Senior Client Program Director
Clare provides the day-to-day operational oversight and strategic counseling to a number of clients, plus leads several internal teams. She has more than 10 years of association experience, including serving as director of membership for a health care trade group where she gained valuable experience in all facets of association management. Clare also has political and governmental experience, having served as a Congressional Aide for several years. She earned a bachelor's degree from Fordham University.
Mary McRae, Vice President, Technical Committee Support
Mary brings 20 years of standards development, management and implementation experience to Virtual's burgeoning technical committee management service endeavors. Her focus is on areas essential to the success of technical consortia and associations, including: development of Rules of Procedure, Process and IPR policies, management of technical committees and implementation of tools and technologies. She joined the company from OASIS — a not-for-profit, global consortium that drives the development, convergence and adoption of various open standards — where she was the Director of Technical Committee Administration and Standards Development and responsible for the oversight of more than 70 Technical Committees. Previously, Mary was Senior Vice President/Principal XML Technologist at Document Management Solutions, Inc. where she led numerous projects implementing structured information authoring and production systems, participated in standards committees and served on the OASIS Board of Directors. Mary is co-author of Office 2003 XML and attended the University of Phoenix and the University of Lowell.
Steve O'Neill, Vice President, Business Development
Steve is responsible for all of Virtual's sales and business development efforts. He has more than 25 years of experience in business development, sales, marketing and general management, primarily in the technology sector. Throughout his career, Steve has built and nourished strategic relationships with such industry leaders as AT&T, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Intel and Microsoft, among others. Before joining Virtual, he held executive positions with Omtool, Ltd. and Trellix Corp., plus senior-level sales and marketing roles at Lotus Development, Banyan Systems and HP. Steve earned his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of New Hampshire.
John Ricciardone, Vice President, Communications
John is a senior-level communications leader with extensive public relations, media relations, analyst relations, marketing and branding experience. He has helped effectively position and promote various technology products and services at several early stage and multinational organizations. During the course of his 25-year career, John has worked at leading public and private companies in their fields, including Q1 Labs, Brix Networks, Lucent Technologies (via acquisition of Prominet), Chipcom, and Progress Software. He has successfully launched several startups, repositioned other firms to take advantage of changing market dynamics and also guided other entities through explosive growth phases via various communications initiatives. John earned a B.S. degree in Journalism from Suffolk University.
Judith Vanderkay, Senior Client Program & Editorial Services Director
Judith has decades of experience in technology association management, public relations and marketing communications. Before joining Virtual, she managed the software consulting and training practice of Index Technology, a Cambridge, Mass.-based ISV. A seasoned editor and writer, Judith's experience spans both electronic and print media—from news releases, to collateral, newsletters and books. She has a bachelor's degree from Smith College, a master's degree from the University of Wisconsin and an MBA from Simmons Graduate School of Management.
