Fast Lane Management

WORLDWIDE Management

Torsten Poels, CEO & Chairman of the Board

Torsten has worked in the IT Industry in Europe for 25 years. He started with Technical Training and Consulting Projects and founded his first company specializing in high-end networking services in 1990. Since then he has gained comprehensive Executive Board and …Read moreSales experience leading several Cisco Learning Solutions Partners and IT Training companies. He has a proven track record of growing companies quickly and profitably and developing successful strategic partnerships. Torsten joined Fast Lane in 2003 and is responsible for Fast Lane’s outstanding growth in Europe, Russia/CIS, Central and Eastern Europe, Americas and Japan. Torsten has a degree in Computer Engineering from PTL Physikalische Technische Lehranstalt, Fachhochschule Wedel/Hamburg.

Chuck Terrien, SVP Americas

Chuck founded Fast Lane Americas in May of 2005. He has been in the Cisco Training Business for over 20 years. Mr. Terrien was responsible for the general management of a large multi-national …Read more Cisco delivery business as well as a WW Cisco training business development position. Prior to that, he held various technical and managerial positions in the IBM Networking Hardware and Software Divisions. He has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business from Michigan State University and a Masters of Science in System Science from the State University of New York at Binghamton.

Eckhart Eichler, VP Professional Services, IoT & Security

Eckhart Eichler has an education as well as strong working experience in communications engineering and he has worked in the IT industry in Europe for more than 25 years. He started as a system engineer for telecommunications and …Read morefounded his own company in 1991 offering consulting and training services. Since then he’s also involved in the Cisco training business.
Working for his own company as well as some high-tech consulting & training companies, he has more than 15 years of management experience ranging from company management to director of business development on a global basis. Based on his understanding of advanced technologies he has a track record of developing and expanding the high-tech services business and is very well known in the Cisco training industry. Besides that, he is the author of a book about routing and routing protocols and of numerous articles published in a variety of technical magazines. Furthermore, Eckhart has been chairman, speaker and instructor at a number of international events.

Alan Lee, VP NetApp Line of Business

Alan has been involved in sales and sales management for his entire career. He entered the IT industry in 1989 managing a regional sales team for a US computer manufacturer and network integrator. In 1995, he joined a US-based IT training organization …Read morethat grew into an international operation. As a National Accounts Director, Alan was responsible for managing relationships with several of their largest accounts on a national and international level. He joined Fast Lane in 2005 as VP of US Sales. In 2009, Alan was asked to take his current role having worldwide responsibility for Fast Lane's business relationship with NetApp.

James Furneaux, VP APAC & Wordwide BLP Management

James has been working in IT for 15+ years. He began running sales in 1998 for a high tech start up in APJC that was purchased by a large Networking vendor in 2000. At that company over his 7 years he served as Product Manager, Sales and Business Development in various technologies for the whole of APJC …Read morewith particular geographic focus on China, Japan, India and Australia. James started his own professional services company that worked with many of the leading IT vendors across the theatre. Since then he has served as the GM of APJC for a number of US and European based companies entering the APJC region. His last role before ITLS was GM, APJC for a high end Data Center Consultancy outfit.

Andy Turner, Managing Director UK |

Andy has worked in the Telecommunications and IT industry for over 20 years. Initially with the Philips Electronics Group responsible for the Commercial & Business Development of mobile and …Read moredata products in Western Europe, Middle East and the emerging markets of Eastern Europe and India. During this period a multitude of business experience was gained in driving Product Business Units and associated Sales & Marketing programmes achieving positioning Philips as the new market entrant and taking to market leadership in many of the developing markets of Eastern Europe by negotiating multi-million dollar contracts with Service Providers & intermediaries via both a direct and an indirect sales channel. Over the past 10 years Andy has held Senior Commercial Director roles with a number of IT Education and Consultancy businesses in the UK and EMEA. This has encompassed periods of rapid growth, mergers & acquisitions as well as assisting companies to sell their business. Andy has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Electronics from Brunel University, a post graduate diploma in Sales & Marketing and a Fellowship from the Chartered Institute of Marketing.

Rüdiger Weskamm, Director Germany |

Rüdiger has worked in the IT Industry in Germany since 1980 including management roles for Nixdorf Computer, Siemens Nixdorf AG and Siemens Business Services.
…Read more He has worked in the training and educational sector as Line Manager for customer and employee training, as project manager for European community projects and as the responsible manager for the Siemens Internet Academy. As Business/Managing Director Germany since 2005, Rüdiger is responsible for Fast Lane’s Business Development and major key accounts Germany.

Herman Goedman, Managing Director Benelux |

Herman has worked in the IT Industry in The Benelux since 1983. He worked as software developer, project manager and business manager at different System Integrators.
…Read more As of 1998 Herman has been involved in Networking training as General Manager of a Cisco Learning Partner and UNIX Consulting Company. Before starting Fast Lane Benelux he was board member for a large International Training Company, responsible for business and partner development, sales and marketing management in many areas including Cisco, Microsoft, and Linux/UNIX.

Francesco Dell’Apa, Managing Director Italy |

Francesco has worked in the IT Industry in Europe for 15 years. He started his professional career in Italy as Project Manager and then spent 10 years at a large international training company where he held different positions, he started as Sales Support Manager of Italy and then …Read more became Operations Manager of Italy & Spain. Francesco joined Fast Lane in 2009 through the acquisition of GKI, where he was Director of Operations. Before taking the position of Managing Director he held the position of Sales Operation Manager. Francesco has a degree in Electronic Engineer from University Politecnico di Torino.

Jesús Álvarez Gallego, Managing Director Spain & Portugal |

Jesús has 25 years of experience as Sales Account manager, Sales group manager, Managing Director and member of different Boards. Before he started the position as Managing Director for Fast Lane Spain, he held several Managing director positions in France, Italy, Portugal, …Read moreSwitzerland and Spain during 20 years in international companies such as Digital Equipment Corporation, Dow Jones Corporation or Global Knowledge Network.

Richard Nowak, Sales Director France |

Richard has 35 years of experience as an Account Manager, Sales Manager, Alliance Manager, Business Development Manager, Marketing Manager, and Member of the Board. Before he started the position as Commercial Director for Fast Lane France, he held several …Read moresales management and business development positions in international companies such as Digital Equipment, Peregrine Systems, and Network Associates, and Xerox.

Torsten Poels

Torsten Poels, Managing Director Switzerland |

Anders Oxelcrantz, Managing Director Scandinavia |

Anders has worked in the IT Industry in the Nordics since 1990. He started as a salesman in the Telecom area and then became Sales Manager in the area of value added services. He also worked as Maintenance Manager for one of the Swedish market leader System Integrators …Read morewhich led him into the training area.
Anders founded a Cisco and Nortel training division in 1994 and expanded that business across the Nordics over the following five years. Anders has spent the last 13 years in different leading roles for Nordic and Pan European training organizations primarily focused on Cisco Training.

Paul de Reuck, Managing Director South Africa |

Paul has been working in the IT industry for 17 years, initially in technical roles, including time as a trainer on IBM hardware systems. He has worked for Dell and IBM, as well as locally listed IT companies. He has been involved as a sales executive, mostly in the Telco and …Read moreBanking environments in South Africa, and has run the Storage business as Platform Manager for IBM in Sub-Saharan Africa for several years. Paul is joining Fast Lane as MD for South Africa in July 2011.

Emma Lobley, EMEA Business Development Director Cisco LoB |

With over 15 years experience in the IT industry, 12 of which directly involved with Cisco Training, Emma has a wealth of experience building relationships with large corporate and Cisco Partners. Her key strength is to build relationships at various levels within …Read morean organisation and help them design and execute training programs for their staff or end customers. She has directly managed a host of training programs involving sales staff, pre-sales and post sales engineers whether this is through on-line learning or a traditional instructorled classroom experience.

Michel Sabry, General Manager ITLS/Fast Lane Dubai UAE |

Michel has worked in the IT industry for more than 10 years. He started his career in the financial services sector in Egypt in 1998. He held different sales, business development and management positions at international IT training companies like Arrow ECS and …Read moreGlobal Knowledge. In between he was Channel Manager and Business Development Manager at Cisco. Michel has a B.Sc. of Accounting degree from Alexandria University in Egypt.

Adel Albert, Managing Director Fast Lane Egypt |

Adel has worked in the IT industry for over 30 years. He was working in both private and public sectors, in many specializations, holding different positions in the IT field. He was also a Technical Services Director at Global Knowledge for more than 5 years, a Senior Consultant in …Read moreSoftware Engineering Competence Center (SECC), and a Regional IT Manager in ARCHIRODON Construction Overseas. Adel is a certified ITIL Expert and has a B.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering from Ain Shams University.

Oleg Feldman, Vice President Russia and CIS |

Oleg has 10 years of experience in the Cisco training business with several of the world’s leading CLSPs. He has worked as Sales Manager, Partner and Key Account Manager and Partner Development Manager. Also, he has managed 2-Tier partners (CLPs and Sponsored Organizations) …Read moreacross EMEA for over 4 years. Oleg knows the Russian and CIS market very well and worked also for years in the development of all CEE countries. He is fluent in Russian, German and English.

Tilen Rozman, Managing Director CEE |

Tilen brings over 10 years of experience in IT education field with extensive international experience in educational program development, business development, sales & marketing, customer relations, business operations and new technology initiatives.…Read moreHis professional path began with Compaq educational services where he was in charge of delivery and development of programs for European and African regions and continued with Program Management for Micro-soft and Hewlett Packard Educational Services through European Learning Partners. Tilen was in the past working for a Hewlett Pack-ard and Microsoft Training center as well as for Cisco Learning Solutions Partners. Tilen is now on a position of Managing Director at Fast Lane Slovenia, responsible for Central and Eastern Europe. His current position combines all his previous experiences and gives him an opportunity to develop new business, such as IBM (implementation of N-series courses), VMware (implementation of training into Central and Eastern European region), etc.

Durdica Strunjas Kurt, Sales Director CEE |

With 10 years' experience in sales in the IT learning industry, Durdica brings a wealth of knowledge, skills and energy to her role as Sales Director for Fast Lane Central Eastern Europe. She is responsible for driving business development …Read moreand sales activities in the region, establishing key accounts, management of projects and strategic planning. She has a keen awareness of the market and ability to anticipate customers' needs in diverse regional and technological setups, and works to provide learning and development opportunities to help each reach their business goals. In addition to this leadership role, Durdica is the Business Development Manager for NetApp ad VMware, working directly with both, partners and customers. Her aim in this role is strengtening the relationships with vendors as well as focusing on importance of education on keeping up with emerging technological advancements. Finally, Durdica is leading the marketing team for the CEE region, overlooking technical and creative marketing team, ensuring efficient and effective marketing results.

Ula Kepezinskaite Duric, Cisco Business Development Manager CEE |

Ula has been working in the IT industry for more than 18 years. She has vast experience working in diverse capacities for IT System Integrators, IT Distributors and finally for the last 13 years in the IT Learning …Read moreIndustry. Ula's experience contributes to successful International Learning projects and Solutions that fit customers needs and bring their learning experience to a new level. Her main focus at Fast Lane is Cisco business development in the region, creating partner enablement programs and driving learning to new levels.

Chuck Terrien, SVP AMERICAS |

Dan O´Brian, COO US, Managing Director Canada |

Dan O’Brien joined Fast Lane in Oct of 2010 as the COO Americas, responsible for business operations in Canada and the USA. Dan has an extensive background in training operations and services, …Read moreprior to Fast Lane he held the Position of VP Managed Learning Services at MicroTek a provider of learning solutions. While in that role he was responsible for building a global service line of business and for launching many new service offerings that supported high quality training delivery. Dan also spent 10 years at a very large global technology training company from 1996 to 2006. He started in Canada running Canadian Operations then spent 3 years running US operations and then 2 year running European operations; he left the company as the Global VP of Operations and Planning. In the past 17 years in the private training industry Dan has been instrumental in defining plans and strategies to manage growth and to drive efficiency and profitability in all countries where he has had management responsibility.

Barry Kaufman, PLM Enterprise Networks & Security |

Barry has been working in IT and Security consulting and training for 17 years, as well as holding a Master's Degree in Education. Over his career, Barry has had the experience of growing and selling a successful training business, …Read moredirecting and expanding professional services for an IT Security Firm, and continually working to innovate courses on security and advanced networking technology. He has a passion for bringing the "new" to market; this includes accelerating vendors' Go-To-Market plans by envisioning and delivering on cutting edge technology training. He is also the author of several publications, including co-author of the "Official Certified Ethical Hacker Review Guide".

Kori Needham, Director Business Development Cloud, SDN/NFV, Collaboration & DevOps Fast Lane |

Kori is an experienced Business Development and Technical Marketing leader who has held various engineering, marketing and business development roles during his 20 year IT career. He is a passionate,…Read morecreative, results-oriented, servant-leader skilled in empowering C-level executives to leverage industry-leading transformative technologies in order to achieve their expected business outcomes. Kori is experienced in uncovering creative ways to drive new business expansion for Service Providers, Enterprises, vendors and partners in a manner that is mutually beneficial for all parties. He has defined multi-phase global field marketing campaigns, emphasizing thought leadership and new solution launches for Internet of Things as well as Cloud-based software and services (SaaS). Kori oversees Cloud, SDN/NFV, Collaboration and DevOps related training and consultancy services within Fast Lane’s Enabling Digital Strategies portfolio.

Zaki Mohammad, BDM IoT, Fast Lane US |

Zaki is Fast Lane’s catalyst for enabling Digital Transformation in the Consulting, Learning and Training industry. His unique 15 year career evolution starting as an Accountant, CCIE certified Systems Engineer, Solution Architect, Instructor, Course Developer, and finally Data Scientist leading …Read moresuccessful consulting and project engagements. Zaki has experience with a number of industries such as Energy, Manufacturing, Service Provider Finance, Public Sector and Utilities which has made him the jack of all IoT trades with a deep business acumen and technical expertise. Coupled with his love of learning and decades of long teaching experience addressing business and technical audiences alike which has given him a unique insight in defining and enabling our customers’ IoT and Digital Transformation journeys. Zaki has also been an IoT Evangelist, speaker, and instructor at past international events.

Derrick Fishwick, BDM Sales, Fast Lane Canada |

Derrick has worked in the IT learning and development industry for over 20 years. He has held various management and sales roles within IBM, Global Knowledge, Compuware, New Horizons and IP Solutions prior to joining Fast Lane in 2011. During this tenure he was …Read moreresponsible for driving revenue through strategic partnerships and developing major accounts such as Cisco, Bell Canada, Royal Bank of Canada, Google, BMO Financial, Microsoft and IBM. With his focus on collaborative and innovative solutions, Derrick has helped organizations become more aligned with their strategic goals. He received an Honors Bachelor of Science degree from University of Toronto and received the designation of Stanford Certified Project Manager from Stanford University in California.

Luis Campbell

Luis Campbell, VP Latin America

Luis has worked for Unisys Corporation most of his career in Executive Management positions, leading technical and consultant business groups and providing value add in complex technical Integration Projects in several Latin America countries. Also, he is an expert …Read morein business planning and organization, and a consultant expert in business process transformation in banks and business alignment. He also had direct sales roles coordinating sales groups of technological products across Latin America. Luis is a Computer Science engineer and has an MBA with a Marketing major and post-graduate degree in Tele-communications. He was appointed Information Services Director since 1999, Certified Principal since May 2000 and Certified Partner since 2003. In 2004 he was responsible for the consultant practice of Retail Banking for Latin America including Mexico and Brazil. He had the responsibility of over one hundred consultants and 23 managers, and had a total services quota over USD$7.5M.

Michelle Valenzuela, BDM Sales Argentina, Chile |

Michelle has worked in the area of management and education of Information Technologies for over 8 years. She developed her profession with Licencias OnLine, a market leaderin the sale of software licenses in Latin America. She worked as Product Manager…Read more of LOL Education and developing an education based portfolio with Cloud & Virtualization, and Security. Primarily support your virtualization strategy with VMware Authorized Training Center. Of her abilities, what most stands out are her skills of forming and leading high-outcome groups, as well as managing geographically distributed groups, both with creativity, a solid base of knowledge, and an innovative attitude. She is committed to her relationship with clients and business partners, development of solutions value-add with formation and IT certification. Since 2014 her responsibility is Commercial Director of Southern Cone (Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and Paraguay).

Jesús Sanchez Ferrer, Manager Peru |

Jesus is a System Engineer of the Universidad Nacional de Ingenieria and Administrative Engineer of the Univeridad Inca Garcilaso de La Vega with more than twenty years of experience in the area of management…Read moreand education of Information Technologies at level superior, he has experience on the management of development projects and implementation of Information systems with wide experience in the direction of training centers of Networking and IT with responsibility in the Commercial Corporate area. In the area of training centers of information and communication technologies, he has more than fifteen years of experience. He has taken part on the creation of the first Cisco Learning Partner in Peru in 1998 and he also participated in the creation of the first Cisco Networking Academy in Peru in 2003. Nowadays, Jesus is the Country Manager of Fast Lane, Peru with commercial responsibilities in the countries of Ecuador, Bolivia and Peru.

Claudia Lasso; BDM Sales Colombia-Venezuela |

Claudia is an experienced education sales professional, with emphasis on training needs analysis and employee performance improvement methodology. She is certified on DACUM process, …Read morewith high level ability to design training plans and evaluate employee performance through competence assessments.

James Furneaux, VP APAC |

James has been working in IT for 15+ years. He began running sales in 1998 for a high tech start up in APJC that was purchased by a large Networking vendor in 2000. At that company over his 7 years he served as Product Manager, …Read moreSales and Business Development in various technologies for the whole of APJC with particular geographic focus on China, Japan, India and Australia. James started his own professional services company that worked with many of the leading IT vendors across the theatre. Since then he has served as the GM of APJC for a number of US and European based companies entering the APJC region. His last role before ITLS was GM, APJC for a high end Data Center Consultancy outfit.

Madhu Sudhan, Director - India |

Madhu has over 15 years of experience in various industries covering IT, Finance, Stock Market, Banking and Manufacturing. He has a proven track record of growing business quickly, profitablly and developing successful business strategies. …Read moreHis exposure has been immense in the field of Business Development, Sales & Marketing, People Management, Strategic Alliance, Quality Assurance & Project Management. He has handled Direct Sales responsibility for IT Majors, SME’s, Defence and all types of channels in the IT Environment. Madhu has a Research Degree in MPhil in Management with MBA. Madhu is responsible for iTLS India & SAARC.

Barathi Raja C, Director of Sales India |

Barathi has around 14 years of work experience in the fields of IT and Event management. After finishing the graduation in Electrical and Electronics Engineering, he started the career with an Event management company organizing Educational Expos across India focusing …Read more Educational Institutions providing professional and Technical education. There he gained experience in Business Development, Sales and Organizing events. He entered IT Training Industry in 2009 and served Fast Lane Asia Pacific for more than 7 years as Country Manager for India. During this period managed both Sales and Operations and proved the Multi-tasking capability. Over the years worked with many esteemed Organizations and Top Management people in the IT Industry. His wide exposure, contact base and customer relationship in the region and Training Industry pave way to ambitious growth. Recently took responsibility in ITLS as Director of Sales – India.

Linda Belina, COO Singapore & Operation APAC |

Linda joined Fast Lane in 2010 as COO and Operations Director for ITLS South APAC out of Singapore. Previously she has been working in Singapore as Regional Manager for NIL Data Communications where she gained experience in the training industry.…Read moreLinda has a strong business experience in Asia, she has worked as Project Manager and Operations Chief in China as well as Business Consultant for the APAC region. Linda worked for four years in Shanghai and was responsible for pavilion operations. Linda is fluent in Mandarin.

Rachel Chan, BDM Hong Kong & Greater China |

Rachel served as COO for ITLS for the last 5 years before the merger with Fast Lane took place. She has over 15 years of experience in mul-tinational corporations and private enterprises Rachel is Managing Director for ITLS/Fast Lane in Hong Kong …Read moreand leads sales and business development for Greater China.

Baoqi (Derek) Lu, BDM Sales Greater China |

Derek has been involved in sales and sales management for his entire career. He entered the IT industry in 1991 managing a regional sales team for a US based IT Company. In 2000, he joined Cisco China as a Senior Sales Manager in Cisco China FSI team. …Read more Derek was responsible for managing relationships with several of their largest accounts on a national level. He joined ITLS in 2016 as Director of China Sales.

Paul Athanasakos, MD ANZ |

Paul undertook a career change in 1998 after a successful career in Banking and Finance and entered IT education. Since that time he has taken on various roles; Sales and Account Management…Read more exceeding target consistently; Sales Manager which led to a successful number one position for vendors such as Citrix, Microsoft, VMware Novell, CompTIA in the ANZ marketplace; Strategic Alliance Manager which resulted in local and global award recognition and since joining Fast Lane group has undertaken a Region Vendor Manager role for APJC. For the past 2 years he has been General Manager A&NZ and assisting to enable the APJC region with high end technical skills and aligning IT to business outcomes both for channel partners and customers. Paul has a passion for IT education and has contributed on many panels and vendor councils to continually improve knowledge transfer and the IT learning sector at large.

Jenny Moris, Sales Manager ANZ |

Jenny has worked in the technical training business for over 25 years. Began at IBM as a System i instructor, over the years the role and structure of the team developed into a more training consultant role. Jenny was …Read moreteam leader for the IBM STG Technical Training Team Australia and New Zealand for over 13 years prior to this current position. As part of that position at IBM Jenny not only looked after IBM Hardware Portfolio of courses she was also responsible for the yearly IBM STG Technical Symposium Australia and New Zealand which catered for over 300 attendees