Spanlink’s Distinguished Board of Directors

Scott Christian is Spanlink's president and CEO. Christian joined Spanlink in 2007 serving as CFO. In October 2008 Spanlink's board of directors appointed Christian as president and CEO. He previously served as vice president and general manager for Black Box’s Voice Services North Business Unit. During his tenure at Black Box, Christian was instrumental in integrating several Black Box businesses into the Voice Services North Business Unit. By doing so, Christian improved Black Box's customer relationships, expanded market coverage, gained share and increased profitability. In January 2005 Black Box acquired Norstan where Christian served as president and CEO. Additionally, Christian's positions at Norstan included executive vice president and chief financial officer.

 

Christian has also held executive leadership positions at Ceridian, Automatic Data Processing (ADP) and Caterpillar Equipment. He earned a master's of business administration from Pepperdine University and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Dayton.

Tom Kieffer is CEO of Virteva, an IT consulting and services firm, based in the Twin Cities. A technology entrepreneur for more than 20 years, Kieffer had previously founded and was CEO of Agiliti prior to merging the company with Houston, TX based Vericenter in February 2005, and remains on the board of directors. In 1986, Kieffer founded Connect, an information technology consulting and services company, which grew to $25M in revenue, five Midwest offices and more than 200 employees. Following Connect’s merger with Norstan in 1996, Kieffer served as its Executive Vice President of Strategy and Business Development until 1998.

Kieffer is an active early stage investor and serves on several Boards of Directors, and enjoys coaching and mentoring entrepreneurs and growth companies. Kieffer is past Chair and current board member for the Minnesota High Technology Association and is a member of the Itasca Project group, an employer lead economic development initiative for the Minnesota region. Kieffer is a technology device Patent holder and also the author of Get Connected, A Guide to Telecommunications, published by Prentice Hall/Ashton-Tate Publishing Group in 1983. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Iowa State University.

Thomas Madison is the President and chief executive officer of MLM Partners, a small business investment and consulting company in Minneapolis. Before joining MLM Partners in 1993, Madison held various positions with Northwestern Bell Telephone Company previous to becoming President and CEO. He later held numerous positions with US West Inc. and its predecessor companies, retiring as president of US West’s Communications-Markets division in 1992. Mr. Madison also served as the chairman of Aetherworks Inc. and Communications Holdings, Inc. and was the Vice Chairman and Office of CEO for Minnesota Mutual Life Insurance Company. He has served as a director to a variety of public, advisory, and investment boards, including Banner Health Systems, on which he was Chairman. Madison is involved in a multitude of business and civic activities and enjoys golf, fishing, hunting, and skiing.

Tom Erickson is a co-founder of BlueStream Ventures, a technology venture fund with offices in Silicon Valley and Minneapolis. He has worked with venture-backed technology startups for the past 15 years. Prior to founding BlueStream, Erickson was one of Wall Street's leading voices in network technology research where, over 10 years, he built a dominant institutional research franchise at Dain Rauscher Wessels and its predecessor, Wessels, Arnold & Henderson. Erickson holds a bachelor's degree from St. Olaf College, and an MBA from Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University.