Team
Evaluator Group team members have an average of more than 20 years of experience in the information technology industry. Our knowledge base combines experience in the engineering, marketing and sales disciplines, though the core of our expertise comes from a thorough, hands-on knowledge of architectures and engineering of data centers and storage.
Camberley Bates
Camberley joined Evaluator Group as Managing Director in 2009 responsible for corporate leadership. She brings over 20 years of executive experience, formerly leading teams at VERITAS, GE – Access and EDS as well as mid size companies – COPAN and FalconStor.
Previously for 5 years she led her own consulting firm, Bates Strategy Group serving the Global 250 and startups with go-to-market strategies. As Vice President of Marketing and Business Development for COPAN Systems she established a new data storage category – MAID – a key technology for long term archive. As Vice President at VERITAS she led a 65 person worldwide marketing team to restructure the channel program gaining award winning market recognition and drove strategic marketing with alliance partners. At GE Access, a $2B distribution company, she grew a new division from $14 to $500 million in revenues through a solution practice methodology for storage, web and security, winning awards from Oracle, StorageTek, Checkpoint and VERITAS.
Early-on in her early career, Camberley led her own IT Services company specializing in manufacturing and distribution implementation for mid-size businesses. She came into the IT field working with very large data centers as a director and management executive with EDS and IBM.
She holds a BS degree in International Business from California State University – Long Beach and executive certificates from Wellesley and Wharton School of Business. Camberley can be contacted at Camberley@evaluatorgroup.com .
A passion for the outdoors, when not IT driven, she can be found skiing, hiking and riding her bike around Colorado.
Russ Fellows
As a Senior Partner, Russ is a key contributor to Evaluator Group’s ongoing research into data storage technologies. His focus includes Data Center Transformation and virtualization, security, and data protection. Most recently Russ has been working on storage for VDI implementations and directing lab efforts within Evaluator Group. Russ has over 20 years of high technology experience including product design / development, systems engineering, competitive analysis and portfolio management. His experience encompasses a broad perspective of the storage industry and comes from roles as an IT data center engineer, storage product manager and storage analyst, Prior to joining Evaluator Group, Russ held strategic positions in Sun Microsystems’ storage division identifying key technology trends. He held several positions at Fujitsu ranging including IT management, engineering management and marketing strategy. Russ has also held high tech positions at Solbourne Computers, Qwest Telecommunications and the US Department of the Interior. Russ is a frequent contributor to InfoStor and Internet.com and speaks regularly within the SNIA community and at Storage Networking World events. A true Colorado native, a skier and outdoorsman, Russ holds BS degrees in Applied Math and Computer Science from the University of Colorado and an MBA in International Business and MIS, also from the University of Colorado. Russ can be contacted at Russ@evaluatorgroup.com.
Randy Kerns
In his role as Senior Strategist at Evaluator Group, Randy Kerns brings expertise that ranges from virtualization everywhere to very long term archive. He draws from over 35 years in the computer industry helping storage companies design and develop storage system products for their markets as well as advising technical professionals on how to build the best storage infrastructures to streamline their business processes. Prior to joining Evaluator Group, Randy served as CTO for ProStor where he brought products to market addressing long term archive for Information Technology and the Healthcare and Media / Entertainment markets. He was vice president of storage strategy and planning at Sun Microsystems; led engineering organization in designing disk and tape systems for mainframe attachment at IBM and StorageTek; he designed disk systems for attachment to open systems and proprietary computer platforms at Fujitsu and Tandem Computers; and he developed tape and disk systems for two VC-backed companies. Randy Kerns earned a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from the University of Missouri at Rolla and a master’s degree in engineering computer science from the University of Colorado. An educator and presenter, Randy Kerns has written numerous industry articles and papers and is the author of Planning a Storage Strategy, a book that offers step-by-step guidance on how to build an information storage strategy as part of a larger business process and most recently is the author of Information Archiving – Economics and Compliance, the first book of its kind to explore in depth the archiving of digital information. He also contributes regularly to the TechTarget blog, Storage Soup and is a member of TechTarget’s Editorial Speaker Bureau. Randy Kerns teaches classes on storage technology regularly in the United States and Europe. Currently he is the presiding Chairman of the Board for the Triangle Education Foundation.
Leah Schoeb
Leah joins Evaluator Group as a Senior Partner bringing expertise ranging from cloud infrastructure and virtualization to storage performance. She draws from over 20 years of experience in the computer industry helping systems companies with performance optimization, marketing positioning, benchmark evidence creation, and guiding industry standards development for server, virtualized, and storage solutions.
Prior to joining Evaluator Group Leah has served in several leadership roles both on the engineering and marketing sides for performance for companies, such as, VMware, Sun Microsystems, Dell, Intel, and Amdahl. Recently she has developed and executed long-term plans for the generation of new cloud computing performance evidence and used novel means to disseminate it to the industry. Leah has also participated and provided thought leadership for industry groups such as, Transaction Performance Council (TPC), Storage Performance Council (SPC), and the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA). She currently serves the SNIA as the Vice Chairperson of the Technical Council and the Chair of the Green Storage Initiative. Leah earned a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from University of Maryland (College Park) and a MBA from University of Phoenix. She can be contacted at leah@evaluatorgroup.com .
John Webster
John Webster is a Senior Partner and contributes to Evaluator Group’s ongoing research into data storage technologies including hardware, software and services management. His specialties include storage and big data analytics, data management, virtualization, and analysis of storage infrastructure acquisition alternatives.
Mr. Webster has over 30 years experience in IT and is the author of numerous articles and white papers. He is also the co-author of a book entitled “Inescapable Data – Harnessing the Power of Convergence,” published in April, 2005 by Prentice Hall. He contributes regularly to Forbes and is often quoted in business and trade publications. Mr. Webster has also been a featured speaker at Storage Networking World and Storage Decisions events.
Mr. Webster has held the positions of Principal IT Advisor, Illuminata, Senior Analyst and Founder of Data Mobility Group, Director of Computing Research with Yankee Group’s Management Strategies Planning Service, and Senior Analyst with International Data Corporation. He is a member of the Storage Networking Industry Association and founded the SNIA’s End User Council. He is also past Chairman of the Greater Boston Regional Computer Measurement Group. He is a graduate of Boston University. See John’s blog, Inescapable Data on Forbes. Follow him on Twitter. John can be contacted at John@evaluatorgroup.com.
Jane Wood
Jane rejoins Evaluator Group in a Client Relations role for business development as well as communication and client support. Past experience includes data center development, storage product management, strategic planning, technology sales and support, client relations and marketing. She also leverages over 25 years in IT as the founder and principle consultant of LTS Company, specializing in targeted technologies and processes focused on increasing efficiency and reducing costs in IT.
Prior to Evaluator Group and LTS, Jane held various positions at Hitachi Data Systems including District Storage Manager, Senior Systems Engineer and Operations Specialist providing liaison between customers and corporate for strategy and direction. She also held positions at IBM ranging from programming, pure customer support, sales and marketing.
Originally from the Midwest, Jane holds a BA in Business from Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota located in Winona, Minnesota. Having resided in Colorado for many years, she almost qualifies as a native. Jane can be contacted at Jane@evaluatorgroup.com.
Laura Crow
Laura joined Evaluator Group as Project and Marketing Coordinator in February of 2013. Her focus includes establishment of marketing efforts for the company, project planning, scheduling, and development and implementation of media strategies.
Laura’s passion for advertising started with a passion for art. She enjoys music, as she has been in a cappella chorus groups for 10 years and has been a classical pianist for 12 years. She demonstrates a love for visual arts and graphics in her painting, pencil drawing, and frequent visits to art museums. Laura is also an astronomy enthusiast, and enjoys creating graphics in Photoshop that incorporate images of the cosmos.
During college, Laura did visual merchandising at Whole Foods Market and held several internships involved with brand development and social media. As a result, she has experience working in marketing with companies ranging from small startups to large enterprise corporations.
After college Laura completed a Retail Leadership Development Program with Verizon Wireless, where she got a comprehensive behind-the-scenes look at what is involved in running a retail store.. She was known by corporate to be the “Queen of Connecting” to customers, and was counted on to develop and maintain client relationships.
Laura attended the University of Colorado at Boulder, receiving her BS in Strategic Advertising with emphasis in Business and Philosophy. The focus of her studies was brand development and marketing strategy.