Our Team

Patrick Casey

President and CEO

Curtis Hicks

Chief Technology Officer/Chief
Product Officer (CTO/CPO)

John Bamberger

VP MSP Sales

Laura Hays

CFO

Jeff Newson

Partner

Claude Epperson

Director of Professional Services

Del Ingalls

VP of North Territory/Sales/
Partner

Brian Brimm

Director of Managed Services

Taya Johnston

Director of Human Resources
Pat

Patrick Casey

President and CEO
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Before merging with Centaris, Patrick Casey was the President and Founder of VisiCom Services. He has more than 35 years of thought leadership in IT strategy and management. Pat is actively involved in building cybersecurity and technology solutions for the SMB market.
It was announced in February, 2024 that Pat was named the next President/CEO at Centaris.
Pat has a Master of Business Administration (MBA) with a concentration in Finance from the Ross
School of Business at the University of Michigan and received his Bachelor of Science in Management Information Systems from Oakland University.
Pat has been an active member of the EO Network for over 20 years, including serving on the Detroit Chapter board. In addition to helping companies leverage technology, in his spare time he has been a leader with the Boy Scouts of America since 2005 and enjoys outdoor activities like winter camping, adventure travel and maintaining a 450-gallon reef aquarium.
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Curtis Hicks

Chief Technology Officer/
Chief Product Officer (CTO/CPO)
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With a drive and determination to help businesses solve their problems using technology as a tool, Curt Hicks joined Centaris in 1992. Through his visionary leadership, Centaris has become one of Michigan’s top IT companies over the past two decades.

In February, 2024, after an inspiring 31-year tenure leading Center for Computer Resources (CCR) and Centaris, Curt announced a new journey as our Chief Technology Officer/Chief Product Officer (CTO/CPO). This shift allows Curt to focus more on his passion for technology and solutions development, a field he has led for many years.
After receiving his degree from Michigan State University, Curt worked for an automotive decal manufacturer where he completely computerized their quality control department. That is when he was bitten by the technology bug.
Curt needed to move to the technology industry and became the Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Xytec, a software development company focused on wholesale distribution software and international letters of credit tracking software. He helped Xytec grow from a tiny startup to a staff of 15 employees before it was sold.
At Centaris, Curt worked as a software designer, business analyst, application specialist, account manager and Executive Vice President before being named President in 1997 — just five years after joining the company. He was instrumental in transforming Centaris into a company that specialized in providing Microsoft-based solutions, and drove Centaris to become an elite Microsoft partner in 1997. In 2000, Centaris was awarded the Microsoft Small Business Solution of the Year award. Under Curt’s leadership, Centaris grew from a 10 person company to a 35 employee organization over a 10 year period.
Over the years, Curt has been very involved in different professional organizations. From 1998 to 2009, he served on the Microsoft Small Business Server Advisory Council. He was a feature presenter at the Microsoft Small Business Server 2000 International Launch Event in Atlantic City, NJ. He was the keynote presenter at the first SMB Nation conference in Indianapolis, Indiana in 2003, and later chair of the 2008 SMB Nation conference in Seattle, Washington. He served on the ConnectWise Advisory Council for four years and is currently a member of the invitation only national technology industry peer group, True Profit Group. He is also an accomplished public speaker, having presented many times at industry events such as the Microsoft Fusion, Microsoft Worldwide Partner, Microsoft Small Business Symposium, SMB Nation, and ConnectWise conferences.
Curt has also been featured in Beatrice Mulzer’s book “Making it Big in Small Business 2006” where he is recognized as one of the top 15 SMB consultantsresellers in the world.

Curt lives in Macomb, MI with Carol, his wife of 36+ years. He has two daughters, 2 grandsons and 1 granddaughter. He enjoys family time, hanging out at the cottage in Caseville, Red Wings hockey and Michigan State University football.

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John Bamberger

Partner | VP MSP Sales | CRO
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John Bamberger heads the company’s Sale’s Department. He joined Centaris in April 2010 and brings with him over 30 years of sales experience.
His past experience includes serving as CCO with gloStream where he managed a Physician consultant sales force and was responsible for growing and maintaining gloStream’s Partner network. He spent much of his time working alongside sales team members with Partners and with Doctors to keep the sales process moving while simultaneously working with the client support team to ensure client satisfaction remains high.
Recognizing significant market potential in reselling vendor products to small and midsized companies, John founded SequoiaNET.com in 1991. The company specialized in designing, installing and maintaining e-commerce infrastructures and Web-based applications. Under his leadership SequoiaNET.com grew from a one-man entity to a 600-consultant organization in just nine years, and was named Microsoft’s Partner of the Year. John also was named Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year for his efforts.
In 2000, John sold SequoiaNET.com to Analysts International, a leading publicly-traded e business application developer and network solutions provider. He first served as the company’s senior vice president of sales and operations before becoming its chief operating officer and senior vice president. In these roles, John developed and managed a dynamic sales force whose efforts brought fast and profitable growth to Analyst’s bottom line.
John is very active with local Southeastern Michigan charities and philanthropic institutions. John holds a bachelor’s degree from Michigan State University. Aside from work, John enjoys spending time with friends and family including the newest additions to his family, his three grandchildren.
Laura

Laura Hays

CFO
Laura Hays is the CFO at Centaris. She started with the company in July 2022 and came to us with 15 years of experience in accounting, auditing, and finance.
She began her career at HP Enterprise Services, working in procurement, accounting, and supervisory functions. She left HP after 5.5 years to pursue a career in public accounting and obtain her CPA license. She worked for Plante Moran for 2 years but knew her true passion was working in industry practices, where she felt she could make the most impact driving results for a company.
She left Plante Moran to head to KUKA where she spent 7.5 years building her career. She started as a Senior Financial Analyst, and worked her way up to Regional Finance Director, where she worked as part of the executive team for over 3 years. Laura is a powerful and positive force in the workplace and enjoys mentoring and coaching others to work hard and succeed.
In her free time, Laura likes to travel both domestically and internationally. She has been to 15 different countries, with her favorite being Thailand.
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Jeff Newson

Partner
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Jeff Newson started in sales at an early age of 12 with the Advisor newspaper route and then Detroit Free Press route. Jeff’s father, Bill Newson, started Business Communication Systems, Inc. in 1975 and would bring Jeff into the office on weekends at the age 14. This then progressed to Jeff working in the service department throughout high school as a co-op job. He learned everything thing from cabling, splicing, selling light bulb kits for phones, prepping system installations and taking customer service calls. During his college summers he went door to door prospecting sales leads for the sales team.
After graduating from Northwood University in 1990, he began his career in sales at BCS and in 1995 purchased BCS from Bill Newson with his business partner. Jeff and his business partner propelled BCS from a small business technology and service provider to one of the top Siemens resellers in the SMB market. In 2008, they transitioned their products/solutions to NEC, to provide a better solution for their clients. Within a year BCS became one of NEC’s top 10 channel partners in the country which has continued to date. In addition to making the switch to NEC in 2008, they also decided to make a transition from reselling carrier voice & internet services through an agent to becoming a direct agent for all the carriers they choose. As a direct agent reseller, BCS grew their carrier service division to over 30+ carriers providing clients with the best voice, data, fiber and internet service options.
In December of 2020, BCS (VoIP company) merged with Centaris (IT company) to form Centaris. The merger brought the opportunity to not only become one Michigan’s largest IT Technology Solution providers but also provide BCS clients IT products and services and provide VoIP hardware and carrier services to Centaris clients. “This has been a very exciting time for our newly formed company Centaris, and we look forward to providing our 77+ years of combined technology experience to your company,” said Newson, Partner of Centaris.
Jeff lives in Rochester Hills, MI with his wife Dawn, 7 kids combined and 3 Pomeranian fur babies. He enjoys skiing, golf, pickleball, beach time, Florida travel and spending time with family & friends.
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Claude Epperson

Director of Professional Services
As Director of Professional Services, Claude works collaboratively with our team to maximize overall client experience. As an IT executive with more than 25 years’ experience, he brings a wealth of knowledge to our vCIO services.
Prior to joining Centaris, Claude has worked as an industry leader with many other high paced and rapidly changing technologies in a variety of business environments. He has held several senior IT management roles across multiple industries including Group IT Director, Global Organizational Change Manager and Project Lead for several multisite SAP migrations.
Claude has a BS in Business Administration and Accounting from Bucknell University and maintains an active CPA license.
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Del Ingalls

VP of North Territory/Sales/Partner
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Del joined the Centaris team in May of 2013 with the acquisition of Power IT, LLC, a successful Northern Michigan IT Service provider firm. Del founded Power IT in 2000 and under his leadership the company grew to 11 employees serving northern Michigan businesses from offices in Petoskey and Traverse City. Leveraging Del’s 25+ years of experience delivering systems and technology solutions to both enterprise and small business, Power IT rapidly evolved with the fast-changing times to offer leading Managed and Cloud services.
To stay abreast of industry thought leadership, Del participated in HTG Peer Groups, a national IT Service provider peer group focused on industry education and Board of Director peering. With strong alignment of vision and culture to Centaris, the merged organization is broader, deeper, and uniquely positioned to deliver technology expertise to all of North and Southeastern Michigan.
Del began his career with top-notch educational experiences, receiving BS in Physics and MS Electrical Engineering degrees from Alma College and the University of Michigan, respectively. Del then started his work career as an Avionics Systems Engineer with San Diego-based General Dynamics, Space Systems Division. This amazing professional experience taught Del to think critically and systematically to ensure successful NASA and US Air Force launch and mission objectives were achieved on $100M+ Atlas-Centaur space booster launches.
In 1992, Del decided to return to his roots in Northern Michigan and subsequently started the Boyne USA Resorts IT Department. As CIO, Del managed the explosive growth of technology at Boyne through the dawn of the internet and email age. Del successfully designed and implemented an enterprise-grade voice and data communications network for Boyne across all US locations. During this time and since, Boyne has been recognized as a pioneer and leader in the hospitality vertical for effective use and leveraging of technology for business success.
In 2000, seeking to follow entrepreneurial passions and to leverage business technology expertise gained at Boyne and General Dynamics , Del founded Power IT. With hard work, determination, vision and character, Power IT grew organically to a position of leadership in technology services delivery. In 2003, Del also began a dual career position as National Accounts Executive with Cross Telecom, an enterprise-focused Avaya Communications Partner. Leveraging systems architect expertise, Del delivered trusted and strategic account management services to many large businesses in Michigan and regionally during his 8 years at Cross.
Del resides in Petoskey Michigan with his wife and 3 children. He is actively involved in the community and his church and passionately enjoys coaching and teaching area youth the skills and life lessons learned through athletics and sports.
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Brian Brimm

Director of Managed Services
Brian has been with Centaris since 2004 and has served as the Director of Managed Services since 2015.
His career in IT began with the U.S. Navy where he worked with office computers in Washington, DC and mainframe systems at sea. A native of St. Clair Shores, at the end of his enlistment, he returned home to Michigan and continued his IT career in roles such as Field Service Technician, System Administrator, CAD/UNIX Administrator and Infrastructure Engineer.
At Centaris, he found his passion was in working with clients to understand their business needs and helping to improve their experiences when working with us. As the Director of Managed Services, he has the pleasure of shaping the way our clients interface with Centaris and the way we deliver our service to them.
Brian lives in Shelby Township with his wife and three kids and enjoys music, spending time with family and being outdoors hiking, biking, gardening, golfing, and fishing.
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Taya Johnston

Director of Human Resources
Taya Johnston joined Centaris in March 2023, establishing the role of Director of Human Resources.
She has been leading, developing, and mentoring teams of HR professionals in the technology industry for 25 years. In 2010, Taya was named the HR Executive of the Year by the American Society of Employers.
Taya has a Bachelor of Science degree in Human Resources Development from Oakland University and maintains her PHR and SHRM-CP certifications. In her free time, she enjoys traveling with her husband and two sons, crafting, writing, and podcasting.
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