Leadership 

Jeremey Zela is co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Northridge. Mr. Zela focuses his attention on operations, delivery methodology, solution development, and technology best practices. Mr. Zela is continually involved with researching emerging technologies in order to evaluate which technologies may have the greatest potential impact for clients.

 

While at Northridge, Mr. Zela has led the development of the firm's robust Microsoft.NET class library, designed and built the firm's Liquid Content solution, deployed development processes and tools leveraging Microsoft Team Foundation Server, and created the firm's True North Methodology for reliable and repeatable technology project success.

 

Mr. Zela has over fifteen years of professional technology experience including consulting, technical architecture, systems engineering, and software engineering. Jeremey has held senior technology roles with several leading firms including IBM, MCI Telecommunications, and Wang Laboratories. Mr. Zela is a leading expert in the areas of .NET solution architecture, software methodologies, Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), and related tools and technologies on the Microsoft platform.

Walter Rowland is Chief Revenue Officer at Northridge and heads up marketing, sales, and partner management for the firm. Mr. Rowland and his team are charged with crafting and informing the marketplace of Northridge capabilities and solutions, building relationships with new clients, managing the Northridge/Microsoft relationship, and forging and managing relationships with other complimentary partners.

 

Mr. Rowland has over 14 years of consulting and management experience in the areas of project and project portfolio management, IT, internet custom application development, interactive marketing and design, software package implementation, and technology business development across multiple industries. Prior to joining Northridge, Walter worked for UMT Consulting Group – a project and portfolio management consulting firm and a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner – as Senior Vice President Business Development; for Commerce One – a business-to-business ecommerce software firm – as Regional Vice President Business Development; for AppNet – a 1,500 person technology management consulting firm – as a Practice Director leading custom ecommerce application development engagements for large commercial clients; and for NMP – a new media consulting firm – as a Team Leader building internet systems for commercial and non-profit clients.

 

Walter received his undergraduate degree with honors from Harvard University, and holds an MBA in finance from Columbia Business School.

Stephen Love is the Group President of the Northridge Interactive division of Northridge and also works with key accounts as Client Practice Director. In the capacity of NRi Group President, Mr. Love is responsible for the strategic direction of the interactive design and marketing offerings of Northridge. As Client Practice Director, Stephen partners with clients to ensure business goals are being met by the solutions developed by the Northridge team across all service areas. Key accounts include Time Warner Cable, AGL Resources, Holder Construction, JAS Forwarding, Emory University, and Lowe’s Racing.

 

Previously, Stephen was President & CEO of Vervos, Inc. (acquired in 2005 by Northridge). While at Vervos, Stephen worked with many leading companies and non-profit organizations including HBO, EMC, the Christopher and Dana Reeve Paralysis Resource Center, Time Warner Cable, and Verizon.

 

Prior to founding Vervos, Stephen served as Executive Creative Director of the Commerce One Design Center (previously AppNet and NMP, Inc.). In his six years with the company, he built and managed a team of 40 brand consultants, designers, copywriters, and interface engineers. Stephen was responsible for representing the Design Center in sales engagements as well as ensuring the successful delivery of projects. He also served as Interactive Marketing Consultant and Creative Lead on several key client engagements, including Cablevision, Discovery Communications, BellSouth, Worldcom, BET, Wall Street Journal, and World Wildlife Fund.

 

Stephen annually serves as a judge of the Web Marketing Association’s WebAwards. He also has presented at various conferences on topics such as usability, design & branding, and online fundraising. Stephen was also contributing author to Fundraising on the Internet, the ePhilanthropy Foundation’s Guide to Success Online.

 

Stephen holds a bachelor’s degree from Brown University in American Civilization, focusing on cultural trends and how they impact society.

As Senior Vice President of Sales for Northridge, Jim Straub serves on the senior leadership team, focused on fostering stronger client relationships, managing the sales force and performing in the role of executive sponsor to Microsoft. 

 

Over the span of Jim’s 20 year career, he has enjoyed multiple roles in direct sales and executive leadership positions that have allowed him to gain vast knowledge around the selling of information technology products, consulting services and solutions to upper mid-market and enterprise organizations. Throughout his career, Jim has focused heavily on performance excellence and holds himself to a very high standard. Jim has a strong work ethic and values integrity very highly. Jim understands the importance of achieving business goals and the criticality of the soft skills required to lead and influence a team of individuals.

 

In Jim’s previous position as President, co-founder and the driving force behind ThoughtBridge, he was responsible for the firm’s vision and strategy, overall sales and marketing efforts, development of strategic relationships, and employee, client and partner satisfaction.  

 

Jim has a degree in Business Administration and has completed continued education courses such as Masters of Business Dynamics, Leadership Forsyth and multiple Executive Sales programs. Jim also participates in his local community by serving on multiple boards of directors, contributing to technology associations, and giving time and energy to community organizations.

 

Jim believes in a balanced quality of life. In addition to his commitment to his professional career, Jim places a tremendous amount of focus on his family. Jim has been married for 12 years and enjoys raising his five children with his wife Gina. Jim’s interests and hobbies include playing golf and tennis, biking and coaching his children’s sports activities.

Matt Barman is Senior Vice President and Practice Manager for Northridge’s Managed Services offerings. Mr. Barman is responsible for the delivery of value-added services and solutions to clients through the formation of a lasting, sustained partnership which enables the client to focus on its core business and leave the execution and management of other initiatives to Northridge. Matt has extensive experience with application lifecycle management and project management methodologies, as well as software engineering frameworks such as Agile Software Development and the Microsoft Solutions Framework (MSF). With considerable programming and Microsoft infrastructure expertise to complement his knowledge of solution lifecycle and project methodology, Matt has a unique set of skills that enables him to be keenly aware of all aspects of a solution’s workings and helps him ensure the successful ongoing delivery for those engagements.
 
Prior to joining Northridge, Mr. Barman was a senior consultant for both Cambridge Technology Partners and Semtor where he developed his proficiency in designing and delivering large-scale software development projects on time and within budget.
 
Matt received his Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration with High Honors from the University of Florida.

Tony Egl is a Senior Vice President and Practice Manager for Northridge’s Enterprise Technology Solution offerings. Mr. Egl and his team are focused on the development and successful delivery of business solutions, building and continuing relationships and providing strategic consulting to Northridge’s largest, most strategic clients.

 

Mr. Egl has over 15 years of consulting and management experience specializing in the areas of Practice Management, Systems Implementation, Project Management, Business Process Optimization, Resource Management and Portfolio Management. Prior to joining Northridge, Tony was a founding partner at BE Consulting (acquired in 2009 by Northridge) and served as Director of Outsourcing and Consulting Operations at Alliance Data, Vice President of Consulting at ADERANT, and in several key management positions at Sabre. During his tenure with these companies, he focused on helping clients to visualize and successfully implement complex, culture changing initiatives balancing their people, process and technology resources.  Mr. Egl’s experience spans multiple industries including transportation, legal, utilities and consulting/advisory including work with some of the largest, most recognizable companies in the Consulting and Advisory, Legal and Transportation industries. He also has extensive international experience, with work completed in Europe, the Middle East, Australia and New Zealand. 

 

Tony received his Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Engineering from the University of Central Florida.

Scott Burba is Northridge’s Senior Vice President of Delivery. Mr. Burba is responsible for the delivery operations at Northridge and ensuring the successful execution of all solution engagements for Northridge’s clients.

Mr. Burba has over 17 years of consulting and operations management experience. Prior to joining Northridge, Mr. Burba was a founding partner at BE Consulting (acquired in 2009 by Northridge) and served as Vice President of Outsourcing and Consulting Operations at Alliance Data. Mr. Burba has been part of many companies over his career including Capstone Consulting, Excelergy, Computer Associates, and Accenture. Mr. Burba has served in numerous roles with these companies including managing business operations and professional services groups, leading technical programs, and implementing business efficiency programs for multiple clients. His experience crosses many industries and includes driving operational excellence through identification, assessment, and mitigation of business challenges via implementation of the right combination of People, Process, and Technology components.

Scott received his Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Duke University.

 

Scott Middlebrooks is the CIO at Northridge. In this role, Scott is responsible for strategy, delivery, operations, and technical sales support aspects of enterprise infrastructure projects as well as hosting, collocation, and managed services. Mr. Middlebrooks has extensive experience in network design and architecture, systems engineering and infrastructure security. Scott was originally responsible for architecting the Northridge hosting network infrastructure to ensure stability, redundancy and scalability.
 
Prior to joining Northridge, Scott served as a senior network engineer at Harry Norman Realtors where he was responsible for network design, implementation, and administration. Scott is a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) on both the Windows NT 4.0 platform as well as the Windows Server 2003 platform. In addition to his deep expertise with Windows operating systems and enterprise applications, Mr. Middlebrooks also has significant experience with network appliances from major vendors including Cisco, Juniper, SonicWall, Watchguard, Barracuda Networks, and others.
 
Scott holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in Management Information Systems from the University of Georgia. In his time away from the office, Scott enjoys time with his family and friends, pursuing his private pilot’s license, and is an accomplished grill master.

Dave Tangren is the Business Intelligence Servic Director at Northridge. Dave oversees and coordinates projects, pre-sales, customer relations, and best practices for business intelligence and collaboration solutions based on the Microsoft platform. Mr. Tangren has extensive experience in building business intelligence solutions for large and small companies around the United States, and is leveraging this experience at Northridge to bring the Microsoft business intelligence product suite to the Georgia market.
 
Dave's business intelligence background includes work for companies such as Coca Cola, MBNA, the Army/Air Force Exchange Service (AAFES) and the US Navy. Prior to the emergence of Microsoft Analysis Services and the MS Business Intelligence suite, Dave designed and built BI solutions for the Oracle Express OLAP product suite. Dave also spent a stint as an web/application developer in MS .NET and SQL Server for an Atlanta firm, Transport4.
 
Mr. Tangren has a bachelor's degree in General Business from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, where he graduated with honors Summa cum Laude. Dave started his consulting career as a temp working for First Tennessee Bank in college, where he built a database for First Tennessee Bank's Estate division. Ever since, he has leveraged his business knowledge and technical experience gained on-the-job to develop soup-to-nuts BI applications that closely fit the needs of his clients.

Jason Barrett is the Software Consulting and QA Services Director at Northridge Systems. In this role, Jason is responsible for overseeing and coordinating projects, resources, pre-sales, and delivery. Further Jason organizes the Office of Software Architecture, which is responsible for defining and implementing architectural initiatives and development best practices and standards at Northridge.

 

Jason holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in Management Information Systems from the University of Georgia. Jason has an extensive background in consulting, technical architecture and software development, and has held a senior role in all facets of software engineering.  In over 12 years of professional experience in the Information Technology field, Jason has successfully architected, developed, deployed, and managed solutions on a variety of platforms for organizations such as NASA and Ernst & Young.

 

In his time away from the office, Jason enjoys spending time with his wife Julie and their son Logan, playing tennis, watching Bulldogs football, and he is an avid music fan.