HostingCon Advisory Board

Ditlev is an Internet and hosting industry veteran, with more than 15 years’ experience leading hosting and technology companies.

As CEO of OnApp, he has led the company’s dramatic growth from its launch in July 2010 to become a leading provider of software for hosts.

After a few years in roles for the European Parliament, Ditlev moved into the rapidly-growing Internet sector in the mid-1990s. He quickly developed a reputation as an entrepreneur and a specialist in start-up and turnaround scenarios.

Before founding OnApp, Ditlev led UK2 Group’s hosting companies as MD and CEO, and spearheaded the launch of VPS.NET, which now operates one of the world’s five largest public clouds.

Ditlev has an MBA in International Business from the European Institute for Public Affairs and Lobbying in Brussels, and a degree in Economics from AAU, Denmark. Ditlev is Danish, lives in the UK but travels frequently to speak at events around the world.
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Christian Dawson joined ServInt in 1998. He was appointed Chief Operating Officer in 2009. In his current role, he is responsible for the overall management of ServInt’s business operations, including sales, marketing, business development and customer support. His focus on ServInt’s product and service offerings, integrated with his cultivation of the company’s public presence, have helped ServInt increase its market share every year.

Dawson also created and introduced the ServInt Green Hosting Initiative in 2008. A board member of the United States Internet Industry Association (USIIA) since 2004 and chair of its Hosting Council, his insights and ideas have been published in leading industry publications, including Virtualization Journal, Bandwidth Properties, and Web Host Industry Review.

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George Karidis joined SoftLayer in January, 2008, and is responsible for overseeing the company’s strategic growth which includes business development, running international expansion efforts and managing the direction of the company’s product portfolio.

Prior to joining SoftLayer, Mr. Karidis spent seven years with Devonshire Investors, the private equity arm of Fidelity Investments. There he drove the strategic planning efforts of portfolio companies focused on the telecom, hosting, and software markets, taking active roles in each company from inception through domestic growth and international expansions. Previously, Mr. Karidis led business development for a startup serving the SME market, and spent more than 6 years with the Yankee Group as an industry analyst covering the telecom and IT sectors. He holds an Honors Bachelor of Commerce Degree from McMaster University with majors in finance, accounting, and economics, and an MBA from the University of Ottawa.

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Aaron Phillips is a HostingCon Veteran with 100% exhibitor status since its inception. While employed by FastServers.Net, Mr. Phillips was one of the first vendors that believed in the overall concept of a hosting based industry event which became a key sponsor in 2005.

Mr. Phillips has been in the hosting industry since 1996 and has focused on search engine marketing, branding, operations, automation, and product development through FastServers.Net where he was Vice President of Sales and Marketing. During his tenure as VP of Sales and Marketing Mr. Phillips has participated in various advisory roles including Ping! Zine and HostingCon.

Recently Mr. Phillips has joined the ranks as a global provider of automation tools at cPanel. The move from consumption to distribution of the cPanel products/services will provide Mr. Phillips with new challenges while utilizing his past experience and relationships to help excel an already tremendous company.
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As the hosting marketing manager of outbound programs within the Communications Sector at Microsoft, Monish Sood is responsible for driving the awareness and adoption of the Microsoft products and solutions for Hosting, as well as the worldwide marketing strategy for the company’s hosting channel business. Prior to joining Microsoft, Sood served as the director of marketing at HostMySite.com, where he was responsible for the planning, direction, and implementation of all marketing strategies, including product positioning, advertising, customer service and technical support.

Sood holds a Bachelor’s degree in advertising from the University of Kansas.

Anders Trolle-Schultz is the founder and Managing Director of SaaS-it Consult, the internationally renowned Software as a Service (SaaS) business enablement consultancy. Anders has pursued a long and successful career in Sales, Marketing and Business Development across various industries including Telecom, IT and FMCG. He uses his profound insight into cross-industry partnerships to help create strong, viable businesses within the emerging SaaS eco-system. close bio

Ian Clark is president of boutique B2B IT services firm 3Peaks. He formed 3 Peaks in 1995 out of necessity for internal IT requirements for a national distribution company of automation products that he owned. Between 1995-2000 3 Peaks supported and coordinated the IT systems for this firm during years of fast growth, as well as for other local firms in Southern Ontario.

In February 2000 the ownership of this firm was sold. Since then Ian has worked full-time growing 3 Peaks to be a strong provider of “Business Solutions.” For over 20 years Ian has been applying his business and technical skills to businesses, that started when he graduated from Ryerson Polytechnical Institute in 1984 in Electrical Engineering. Ian applies a strong mix of both business and IT skills sets when developing solutions for your company, which makes 3 Peaks unique within the IT industry.
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Jeff Kaplan is the Founder and Managing Director of THINKstrategies (www.thinkstrategies.com), a strategic consulting firm which helps its clients capitalize on the business opportunities created by today’s on-demand services, including Software-as-a-Service, managed services and cloud computing. Kaplan is also the founder of the Managed Service Showplace® (www.msp-showplace.com or www.thinkmsp.com) and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) Showplace® (www.saas-showplace.com or www.thinksaas.com) free, online directories. THINKstrategies’ online directories provide an easy-to-use listing of SaaS solutions by application and MSPs by service category, and extensive information and insight about industry best practices to help organizations fully leverage the growing array of SaaS solutions and managed services. Prior to forming THINKstrategies, Jeff served as Vice President of Marketing and Business Development at InterOPS Management Solutions, an Internet Operations Management Services Provider. Before joining InterOPS, Jeff was Director of Strategic Marketing at International Network Services (INS) and subsequently Lucent Technologies, which acquired INS. Jeff also spent thirteen (13) years as a leading industry analyst at IDC, Dataquest and META Group. Jeff is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and contributing columnist for many business and technology publications.
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Ryan is currently the CEO at GearHost, a scalable and reliable high-end cloud hosting company that specializes in Microsoft technologies and a strong focus on customer service. Beginnings don’t get much humbler than starting a company in your Mom’s basement, and that’s just what Ryan did. A major computer nerd and techie since childhood, Ryan built his own computer and didn’t bat an eye at creating software from scratch to save a few bucks. It’s no big surprise that he started his career at Microsoft, before eventually leaving the technology giant to start his own web hosting company. Take it from Mark Zuckerberg and Sean Parker, turning down Microsoft is an indicator you are on the brink of something big! While GearHost has since grown from being a one-man show to a leading provider of web hosting, Ryan’s commitment to his customers and to providing the best technology there is, has remained the same. GearHost has kept their basement-casual attitude and mixed it with corporate-level business practices, because that’s just who they are. And you can count on that.

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Mr. Snead is an attorney in private practice in Washington D.C. His practice focuses exclusively on representing companies and other entities active in the internet infrastructure. In his 13 years in this area, Mr. Snead has represented these companies both in-house and as outside counsel. These companies include multinationals, middle tier hosting companies, and two guys, a server, a T-1 and a huge MasterCard balance. He has spoken extensively on subjects of importance at over 50 conferences. His views on the impact of Federal legislation on small-to-medium internet businesses have been quoted in the Washington Post and San Jose Mercury News. He is also a columnist and blogger for the Web Host Industry Review. Mr. Snead received his J.D. in 1991 from Georgetown University Law Center and is a member of the bars of the District of Columbia and State of New Mexico.

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William Toll, VP, Marketing at Yottaa, Inc., has held Marketing and Product Management positions in the Web hosting Internet infrastructure industry since the late 1990s. At this time William will be driving the marketing for Yottaa fast growing, venture funded startup. Yottaa’s innovative cloud-based Web performance services customers to assess, benchmark, monitor and optimize their websites and applications. Yottaa’s Web performance optimization service improves the online users’ experience and overall Web ROI for SMBs. Most recently William was at the leading managed hosting services provider, NaviSite, where William was responsible for developing and marketing the company’s hosted product lines, including managed cloud services, managed hosting, managed business applications and more. In past positions at companies such as Affinity Internet, Inc., Intermedia.NET, and NTT/VERIO, William was the driving force in launching and enhancing successful SMB focused services including: Shared Hosting services, Microsoft Exchange and add-on services like Online Marketing and Web Design. William received a BA in Marketing from New England College in Arundel, England. William Toll can be found on Twitter: @utollwiclose bio