Meet The Team
John Dolan - Chairman of the Board of Directors
Born in Galway, Ireland and an accountant by profession, John has almost 40 years experience in industry and business. Following 8 years with Ford in Financial management, John began a 30 year long career in the new, exciting and fast growing computer industry. Working with Digital Equipment, Wang Laboratories and Compaq Computers, John held primarily direct operational management roles in various positions. John's last 10 years with Compaq Computers was as Vice President of Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), responsible for Manufacturing, Logistics, Customer Service and Support activities.
During John's tenure in the industry he has managed a number of start up assignments in Scotland, Ireland and the Netherlands, including 3 Manufacturing plants, 2 Logistics centres, 3 Service Operations, and a Regional Customer Support Centre. John has much to offer and is motivated to pass on to others his knowledge and many years of experience in management especially in business development ventures.
Chaz Mirza - Chief Executive Officer
Chaz Mirza is the CEO and founder of Kaptec. He has world-class experience in the design, setup and management of contact centres. Over Chaz's nearly 30-year career, he has worked and lived in the UK, Ireland and USA and has extensive management experience within leading IT and Telecommunications companies including British Telecom, Dell Computers, Compaq and Hewlett Packard. Prior to founding Kaptec, Chaz was a Senior Manager for contact centre technologies at Hewlett Packard where he helped to establish contact centres in the Americas, Europe and Asia.
Phyllis Brady - General Manager
Phyllis began her career in the early nineties in a technical support role with computer giant, Dell before quickly moving into a technical training role. As the company grew, Phyllis was keen to expand her knowledge and experience and successfully applied for a role in Marketing as product manager for the Dimension product range for UK and Ireland.
She was subsequently promoted to Group Brand Manager for Dell's UK & Ireland's Small and Medium Business Division, managing a team of product managers, responsible for the pricing and promotion of the entire Dell product suite. Always looking for new opportunities, Phyllis moved to the U.S. in 2001 and took up a post with HP in Texas as Proliant Server Product Manager for the Americas, where she gained valuable experience in channel sales and marketing.
In her current position as General Manager of Kaptec, Phyllis' goal is to share her expertise to help customers promote and grow their business.
Brian O'Connell - Sales Director
Brian has over 25 years sales experience, operating for major multinationals, including a period of 10 years with Dell's Direct Sales operation, where he was head of UK and Ireland Sales for mid market, managing a team of over 150 sales executives.
Brian also served as Director for Oracle's EMEA sales centre. He has advised many companies on how to implement outbound sales and customer acquisition tactics, including Apple, Digiweb and APC. Brian's specialities include, sales channel development, business partnerships, go-to-market strategies, software development, multimedia, web video, business start-up support, market entry expertise, outsourced sales and web marketing.
Mark Steptoe - Manager Engineering & Applications Development
Mark brings his engineering and leadership experience to both Kaptec's Applications Development and the US Engineering teams. He is a strong believer in personal growth and excellence. He has a long-held philosophy, "Reliability is everything." Reliable people, solutions and systems are what make the world work.
Mark joined Kaptec in May of 2008 as a Professional Services senior solutions architect. Initially dedicated to one of Kaptec's key accounts, Google, Mark worked to stabilize the contact center infrastructure, implemented Google's first customer IVR platform and application, and developed a custom CTI desktop application for Google's highly profitable AdWords business unit. He also worked as a key member of the Kaptec team on designing and implementing Google's next generation VoIP contact center environment with increased resiliency and redundancy. Mark assumed his management position in the spring of 2010.
Mark's prior experience includes over 9 years at Hewlett-Packard/Compaq. The early years there were as a telecom engineer working in the multimedia and contact center telephony systems and applications space. The two massive mergers of Compaq – Digital Equipment and then Compaq – HP provided for growth opportunities and experience on the highest scale. His success in this global role earned him a management position leading the engineering team responsible for HP's world-wide contact center infrastructure transition from TDM to VoIP.
Mark's drive for learning is demonstrated by his formal education. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering Technology – Telecommunications from Texas A&M University. He also holds an Associate degree in Electronics Technology. Both were awarded with honors along with the Outstanding Senior Award from the school of engineering at Texas A&M.
Ronnie Gilfillan - Non-Executive Director
Ronnie Gilfillan has world-class experience in senior leadership positions covering general management and Human Resource Management (HRM). Ronnie holds a Degree in Economics and Diploma in Human Resource Management and is a qualified business and life' coach.
Over Ronnie's 30-year career, he has worked and lived in the UK, Ireland, USA and Germany for internationally renowned companies such as British Leyland, Digital Equipment, Wang Laboratories and Compaq Computers. Ronnie's most recent position was Vice President of Human Resources for Compaq Europe Middle East and Africa (EMEA). Ronnie also runs and operates a successful consultancy business.
Abid Mirza - Quality Director
Abid is a committed individual with over 10 years of experience in the global IT industry and has worked for and with organisations including Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC), Canon Inc. and Tarmac Construction Ltd. Abid has held senior analyst and consultancy roles within the above. Abid is an ambitious individual with tremendous drive & energy. He has managed the development of ISO and Six Sigma implementations within large corporate organisations. His core background includes system development, the evaluation of internal systems, procedures & processes, and the management of new bid projects which include such organisations as the NHS, Inland Revenue and Airbus. Abid holds a BSc Hon's and Masters Degree from the University of London.