VARportal™

After spending nearly twenty years working in various roles within Information Technology, Joe Gilbody became heavily involved in the management of an emerging technology called Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) with companies such as Rowenta, Inc. and the Stride Rite Corporation. It was through this experience that Gilbody realized the value of inter-company data exchanges and saw the potential in forming his own company. In 1994, Gilbody took that vision and started a one person EDI/E-commerce staffing and consulting company. Today, EDI Specialists owns a twenty thousand square foot office building in Raynham, Massachusetts and has evolved into a full service E-commerce company with consultants working for clients across the US.

In 2002, Gilbody took the sales and marketing techniques that EDI Specialists developed and started a separate company, B2B Contact. In 2009 he co-founded VARportal to provide a collaborative community for the Technology Services Market.

Erik Frantzen is a twenty year technology channel veteran having spent nine of those years at Alpine Computer Systems in Boston, Massachusetts. Alpine was one of the most successful VARs in the country consistently achieving a spot on the VARBusiness Magazine VAR 500 List and others accolades from Inc. Magazine and D&T Fast 50. Erik was responsible for Business Development which included Vendor Technology Partners and Strategic Partnerships with national organizations such as Software Spectrum, Stratus Computer and Microsoft. He is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and received his Masters Degree in Business Administration from Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts.

In 2008, Frantzen decided to take his experience creating partnerships within the Technology Services Community and develop a more formalized approach. His vision for VARportal is a “one stop shop” providing the ability to “Locate, Connect & Collaborate.”

George Donovan has 16 years of technology channel experience. As Vice President of Sales for Corporate Software, a $1.5B software reseller, George drove significant revenue growth that positioned the company for a profitable merger with Software Spectrum. With $3B in revenue, Software Spectrum became the world’s largest software reseller servicing enterprise and mid market business.

While with Software Spectrum, George’s team drove the global expansion of the channel partnership program in Latin America and Europe.

George is a graduate of Saint Anselm College.

Jay is a technology visionary with a long history of spotting developing trends and applying them to business. After a twenty-year stint at the technology consultancy that he co-founded, Jay left to pursue a new vision based on the idea that business could benefit from the growing trend of social networking.

Unhappy with the "flat" peer-to-peer approach that social networkers were using, Jay created a new paradigm empowering businesses to drive value from their networks.

Prior to VARportal, Jay led the technology vision at Leveraged Technology (LTI), a technology consulting firm, and spearheaded many of its key product development projects including Telerate’s TTS global trading system - later acquired by Dow Jones. Jay also created the insurance underwriting product A-Plus (now owned by ISO). A-Plus is currently used by over 90% of America’s insurance companies.

Jay is a graduate of St. John’s University.