Meet Our “Team Better”
It sounds simple, but “better teams” deliver better results. Even the best teams can get better. And it’s not always about hiring the best, most knowledgeable person. It’s about making teams that work better together. Our team truly makes a difference. Not only do we have the brightest minds in the industry, but our team practices our “team better” approach to collaboratively and exponentially increase the value we deliver to our customers.
Forty8Fifty Labs Leadership
Forty8Fifty Labs “Team Better” is led by the best in the industry. Our experts are dedicated to creating the best possible opportunities to encourage self-improvement and provide a collaborative work environment for our team to deliver industry-leading solutions to our customers.
The Forty8Fifty Labs executive leadership team offers over a century of combined real-world, hit the ground running, industry experience including engineering, operations, architecture, sales, marketing, and IT leadership.
A founding partner of four separate companies that grew to be successfully acquired, Steve was part of the Converge Technologies Group after the acquisition of Corus 360. He also served as Senior Vice President of Solutions and Architecture for Softchoice after the acquisition of Optimus Solutions, and he led the data center build for ITC DeltaCom (now owned by QTS) following its acquisition of Bay Data Consultants, of which Steve was a founder. Previous to that, Steve led the sales efforts at Universal Data Consultants which was acquired by GE where he became the leader of Network Services, a startup venture within GE Capital.
Also serving as CTO for Verinext®, Steve is passionate about technology innovation. He was an early pioneer of hybrid cloud infrastructures and the delivery of advanced shared infrastructure storage ‘utility’ services. For more than 30 years, his vision has inspired collaboration, development efficiency and team agility for thousands of organizations. Steve is also a published expert and frequent industry speaker.
A seasoned channel and sales executive, Ben has more than two decades of experience, specifically with DevOps and Atlassian-powered solutions. As Vice President of Sales and Business Development, he drives Forty8Fifty Labs’ strategies for growth and new service and delivery areas. Chou most recently was Senior Director of Global Alliances and Business Development at Contegix, where he was responsible for global channel strategy, sales leadership, and partner strategy. Prior to Contegix, Ben served the last seven years in business development and channel roles with companies including Risklens Inc., and Nexus Systems, Inc. where he developed and drove strategies that achieved impressive growth. He has also held various sales and sales leadership positions with Anybill Financial Services and Rational Software. Ben holds a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from University of Maryland, College Park.
Darren is an Atlassian expert focused on helping companies get the most out of their Atlassian software investments. From custom integrations to Atlassian deployment strategies, Darren has a passion for technology transformations that deliver dramatic business impacts. Prior to joining Forty8Fifty Labs, Darren held senior test and quality assurance positions with Turner Broadcasting, NCR, Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMMS) and RWD Technologies. He is a Scrum Alliance Certified ScrumMaster.
With nearly a decade of Atlassian experience, Kenesha oversees Forty8Fifty Labs’ Atlassian managed support services, engineering and operations teams. An applications administration and ITSM system configuration expert, she is passionate about delivering the personal, proactive and customized support services customers need to optimize the intensely customizable nature of Atlassian solutions. Before joining Forty8Fifty Labs, Kenesha was a JIRA application administrator and BI analyst for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. With three Atlassian certifications, ACP-JA, ACP-JSD and ACP-CA, she also holds an ITIL® Foundation V3 certification.
The Verinext Family
Forty8Fifty Labs was born under our parent company, Verinext. We continue to be a part of the Verinext family and partner with them to deliver the best IT solutions to our customers, anywhere. Verinext’s continued support of the Forty8Fifty Labs entity expands our capabilities through cross-team engagement, including sales, pre and post engineering geniuses, human resources, marketing, accounting, IT, and their executive leadership team.
