Director – Client Services West
Genzyme Genetics, Inc.

Email: Mary.Cruse@hdila.org

Telephone: 310-482-5316

Passionate about customer service, Mary Cruse has led teams for Fortune 500 companies for more than 25 years, in the airline, healthcare and health club industries.  She has extensive experience in leading both technical and non-technical customer service centers, with an expertise in software implementation and deployment, call center design and technology, workflow definitions and design, metrics, and SLA design and implementation.

Mary's primary responsibility at Genzyme Genetics is to lead the activities of 5 external customer support centers, supporting the medical community in oncological and prenatal diagnostic testing. There are a total of 50 customer service representatives in her centers around the Southwest.  Mary carries the HDI certifications of Help Desk Analyst, Help Desk Manager and Certified Training Instructor as well as the CIAC Call Center Operations Manager Certification. Mary is President of the Los Angeles Chapter of HDI, as well as Member Emeritus of both the Global Member Advisory Board and Strategic Advisory Board of HDI.

Email: Mary.Romo@hdila.org

Telephone: 310-342-3529

Mary started working in the IT field in 1988 for Computer Factory, where she sold Computer Training services.  She was soon promoted to Regional Training Manager for Computer Factory’s Southern California stores. She had a good reign with Computer Factory until they went out of business in or around 1992.

Following Computer Factory, she launched into a computer hardware sales position until she discovered market research. From the mid 1990s until early 2000, she worked as a Market Research executive in the Entertainment business. She was Director of Operations and co-founder of the Screening Division for MarketCast Inc. and Vice President of Operation Screening Division at OTX.

Mary returned to the IT world, about a year ago where she took a position at New Horizons Computer Learning Center as an Account Executive offering technical and application computer training to businesses within the LA Basin.

Customer Support Manager
MemorialCare Medical Centers

Email: Brian.Gould@hdila.org

Telephone: 562-933-9617

Brian is responsible for the evaluation, installation, operation, and support of computer systems for the Information Services Departments throughout MemorialCare. He has enjoyed a 20 year career in the information technology industry, with experience in software development, project management and customer support. With a Bachelors Degree in Business Administration from California State University Fullerton, Brian uses his data analysis strengths to provide management with strategic information for decision making. He has proudly been part of the MemorialCare “team” since 1990 and strives to make the work environment fun!

Brian is a devoted family man who spends his time outside of work with his beautiful wife of 20 years, Kristie, and their three children, Jeff, Kaylee and Tanner. His personal pursuits include sports, gardening, community theater and travel.

Senior Information Center Manager
Pioneer Electronics Inc. (USA) North and South American IT Services

Email: Rodney.Perkins@hdila.org

Telephone: 310-952-3041

Rodney's career began with International Business Systems (IBM) in New Jersey where he was a field technician, followed by working for KPMG LLP as a network engineer.  Following that, he managed projects for Alltel Inc.

After moving to California, he was a Supervisor for Countrywide Home Loans Technology Solution Center (TSC) call center. Three years later, he moved on to Pioneer to become manager of the help desk and is now their Sr. Information Center Manager.

He thrives on his ability to lead diverse teams of professionals to new levels of success, with strong technical and business qualifications from more than 15 years of hands-on experience in strategic planning, business unit development and project management.

Rodney received his Bachelor of Arts in Information Systems and Science from
Richard Stockton State College, Pomona, New Jersey

Email: Karen.Segawa@hdila.org

Telephone: 310-725-9734

Karen is the Operations Manager for a Technical IT Help Desk at En Pointe Technologies and has been in the information technology field for 17 years.

Karen's career in IT began in the US Air Force where she started as a Communications Computer Systems Operator. Since then, Karen has had the opportunity to work in various IT related positions at Mattel, Vivendi Universal Games, Fox Networks Group, American Honda Motors and En Pointe Technologies. Karen’s experience has been with desktop support, systems/network engineering, project management and customer support. Karen has proudly been part of the En Pointe Technologies team since March 2007.

Email: Steven.Fuhrman@hdila.org

Telephone: N/A at this time

Steven's passion for computers started as a hobby in 1980, but did not become a career for him until 1996 when he joined Andersen Consulting (now known as Accenture) supporting laptops and desktops.  Within five years, his responsibilities grew to include Novell Network Administration and then to Project Management.

More recently Steven worked for International Rectifier from 2001 to as recently as September, 2008.  In his rather diverse role, he not only handled supporting a user community of up to 800 PCs, but he took on additional tasks such as maintaining the department's Share Point website, drafting corporate policies for review and adoption by Management, and was the primary person which handles PC product review and vendor pricing negotiation for the entire company.