Impact’s New Partners 2021
One of Impact’s core values is based around giving employees the opportunity to learn and grow into tenured positions. Over the years, a handful of employees have earned the title of “Partner” due to their abilities to grow their teams, bring in revenue and lead the innovative initiatives that keeps Impact on the rise as a managed service provider.
We’re excited to announce three new partners starting in 2021. They have each demonstrated not only leadership abilities, but creativity, perseverance and tenacity.
Watch this short video below to hear about the journey these employees have taken to become new Impact partners!
Congratulations to Alex Zaban (Sales Manager in Brookfield, WI), Cynthia Bennett (Vice President of Talent Acquisition in Lake Forest, IL) and Patrick Scully (Vice President of Expert Services in Chicago, IL).
Video Transcript
AZ: I discovered Impact through an interesting journey from Rick Ray. At the time, my girlfriend Sierra was a nanny for Rick’s kids, and because she was enjoying her job so much with the Rays, she wanted me to meet them. So I went over to Rick’s house and I met them over dinner. Rick really tried to sway me into the Impact journey, and I left that night thinking like, “Wow, this guy’s nuts”, and next thing I know, I’m interviewing at Impact and officially starting.
CB: So when I first started at Impact, I was the receptionist at our corporate headquarters, and that’s when we were in Waukegan, Illinois, so it was a tiny office, nothing compared to the beautiful office that we’re in today. And when I started as a receptionist, it was really my gateway into the company. Before I started, I had no idea who Impact was or what they were about, but as I started to work for the company, I realized very quickly how special of a place it was.
PS: So I’ve been here since the beginning of 2008, and at the time, I started off for what was called Systems Integrator for Strategic Services, and over the years, I realized I couldn’t just do all that by myself; it was basically me and Frank DeGeorge, and as the team continued to grow, I moved into a Technical Manager position, and then over the summer last year, I moved into the vice president role, and that’s when I started working with the ES99 developers as well.
AZ: When I started as an Account Manager, I did not know that partnership was an opportunity, but as I quickly excelled as an Account Manager and really saw other people grow in Impact and go up the ranks and become partners, it really inspired me to take a step back and see what those people were doing to excel in their careers. And it motivated me. It made me want to do the job above and beyond, and be the best, and that’s the competitive nature in me. And I think for me, as I developed and grew and had more success, I inquired about “How do I become, you know, a loyal, considered partner”, and so yeah, it was on my career path, and it’s been on my mission and business plan for the last three years to continue to personally develop myself to set myself in a position to hopefully one day earn this right that I am now a partner.
CB: So when I think about the memories that I’ve had an Impact and the moments that I really remember, I think for me it was a couple years ago when I was promoted from Recruiter to Director of Recruiting. That was a huge milestone for me because, at that point, I was just an individual contributor, and I was doing my job for Impact, and, you know, I always knew I wanted to be a leader for the recruiting team, and, you know, when I was given that opportunity to build a division and not just go to a manager level, but go straight to a director level and build a team, that was very exciting, and to this day, I still remember getting my comp plan for that, getting my promotion, and again, it was just an affirmation of all of my hard work and there was definitely some tough days, and, you know, it’s all worth it.
AZ: I would like to thank, first and foremost, my family; been very supportive through the sacrifices that it takes to have a very career-driven mindset. And finally, I’d like to thank the Partners of Impact.
CB: I would like to thank all of the Partners of Impact for believing in me and giving me the opportunity. And, you know, I’d like to thank my parents for instilling, you know, hard work ethic at a young age. And I’d like to thank all of my employees that I’ve had over the years.
PS: So in terms of who I would like to thank, obviously the Partners for giving me this opportunity to continue my growth here. I would also like to thank my wife because she gets it. She understands the late nights, the missed trains, the working on the weekends. But most importantly, I want to thank my dad. He gave me this opportunity because he found it in a half-page advertisement in the Tribune in 2008, and I looked at the job description and I said, “There’s no way in hell that I’m qualified for this position. No way”, and I came in and interviewed on a Monday, got the offer on Friday and started that following Monday, and here we are 13 years later and I’m a partner.