About Us
HDI Minnesota
endeavors to provide a forum which facilitates the exchange of information between help desk professionals to promote and enhance the help desk industry, resulting in improved customer service.
Help Desk Institute (HDI) Minnesota Chapter provides targeted information about the technologies, tools, and trends of the help desk and customer support industry in Minnesota.
We offer a variety of services to meet the evolving needs of the customer support professional. Since our inception, hundreds have attended our annual Minnesota Vendor Fair, learned through our networking sessions, and attended our monthly chapter meetings.
Minnesota Chapter meetings are generally held on the third Wednesday of each month. In August and December, we do not have regularly scheduled meetings.
Feel free to browse our
events for more information, including upcoming meetings, or contact us directly.
President
Email:
president@hdimn.com
President's Job Duties |
Kathy Raph
U.S. Bank
(651) 205-1446
Kathy currently leads the Client
Services Business Management
organization for U.S. Bank. She has
management responsibility for Finance &
Reporting and Process & Document
Management for Client Services
organization. Additionally, she is
responsible for focused efforts on
leadership, strategy and workforce
engagement. Kathy has served as an
evaluator for the Minnesota Council for
Quality 2007 and currently serves on the
advisory committee for the Council’s
Performance Improvement Network.
From
1998 to 2006, Kathy lead the St. Paul
location of the Client Service Center
for U.S. Bank. She had management
responsibility for Information
Technology support of over 2,300 U.S.
Bank branch locations and proactive
monitoring support for the Company’s
fleet of 7,000 ATMs and their
corresponding network components.
During this tenure, she acquired
certification in ITIL foundations and
attended the HDI Support Center Director
Training. She has been an active member
of the Minnesota Local Chapter and
National Chapter of Help Desk Institute
since 2000, was VP of Programs from 2005
to 2007, and is a 2002 alumna of the
Minneapolis/St. Paul charter of
Menttium100.
Prior to
US Bank’s Service Center, Kathy held the
position of Branch Manager at U.S.
Bank’s Pine River and Brainerd Offices.
Prior to Branch Management, Kathy held
the position of State Funding
Administrator/Network Administrator for
the Pine River/Backus School District.
Prior to the School District, Kathy held
various positions within U.S. Bank
including many operational and retail
service positions.
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Vice
President of Membership
Email:
membership@hdimn.com
VP of Membership's Job Duties |
Tom
Aguilar-Downing
Ecolab
(651) 795-4304
Tom is a Senior Service Desk Associate
and has been at Ecolab since 2003. He has
worked as a contractor in the Twin Cities
since 1996 for Robert Half Technology and
Alternative Resource Corporation,
providing support for clients including
Target, Integris Metals, Medica, the St.
Paul Companies, 3M, Smead, and Damark.
Prior to his arrival in St. Paul he had
been with Ben Franklin Retail Stores where
he started as a Project Leader and
Database Programmer, before moving up to
Help Desk Manager. A three year stint as
a Software Instructor in New Jersey
preceded that. Tom started his
professional life with a dozen years
working for the YMCA serving in
Cincinnati, New Jersey, Japan, Chicago,
and New York.
Tom has been involved with HDI since
1995, has been the Webmaster for the
chapter from 2002 to 2008, and also is a
volunteer on the International Committee
of the St. Paul YMCA. |
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Vice
President of Finance
Email:
treasurer@hdimn.com
VP of Finance's Job Duties |
Brian Tigges
EcoLab
(651)
795-5445
Brian
has worked in Information Technology for
15 years and has been working at Ecolab
for 10 years. He is currently a Lead PC
Analyst focused on metric reporting and
software asset management. Brian has been
part of HDI for 8 years and the VP of
Finance for the local chapter since 2003. |
Co-Vice Presidents of Programs
Email:
programs@hdimn.com
VP of Programs' Job Duties |
Micky Tapp
Health Partners
(952)
853-8619
Micky has worked in the Information
Technology arena for 15 years and has been
working at HealthPartners for the past 11
years. She has been working as a Lead with
HealthPartners' support center. They
support around 10,000 employees plus
external HealthPartners members and
affiliated clinic referral staff.
Micky has been part of the local HDI
for several years and has previously
served on the Board as the Librarian.
Gina Montague
Dorsey & Whitney
(612) 492-5910
Gina has been the
Manager of the Technical Support Center at
Dorsey & Whitney since 2001, at which time
she became a Help Desk Institute member.
Gina manages 8 full-time employees that
provide 24x7 coverage to over 1,800
employees in a law firm that spans the
globe. She is an active HDI member and
enjoys attending the local chapter
meetings and national conferences. Gina
was VP of Membership from 2005 to 2008. |
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Vice
President of Communications
Email:
communications@hdimn.com
VP of Communication's Job Duties |
Carol Hoffarth
Blue
Cross/Blue Shield
(651)
662-0771
Carol is the manager of the BlueCross
BlueShield of Minnesota Service Desk. The
Service Desk provides technical support to
primarily internal employees at
approximately 80% of the call volume with
the other 20% from external callers. The
Service Desk averages 12,000 calls per
month.
Carol has been involved in IT since 1997
in a variety of roles, including: Service
Desk Support, Desktop Support, Change
Management, and Service Desk Management.
Carol became a member of HDI in 2007. |
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Webmaster
Email:
webmaster@hdimn.com
Webmaster's Job Duties |
Neil
Peterson
Knowledge Peak
(952) 431-2999
Neil worked in the
staffing industry for 2 years and helped
to provide help desk outsourcing and full
time placements. He created training
development programs for career changers
and new entrants into the job market.
Neil is currently
working in the training and consulting
industry and has been selling training
services for eight years. He is the owner
of Knowledge Peak Inc., a locally based
training and consulting company. He has
worked with many local organizations and
help desk staffs to provide technical,
soft skill, and ITIL process based
training. He has been a member of HDI for
8 years and was VP of Programs from 2004
to 2008. |
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Librarian
Email:
librarian@hdimn.com
Librarian's Job Duties |
Mike Dockham
Merrill Corp.
(651) 632-4134
Michael is the Help Desk Manager at
Merrill Corporation. His team provides
24x7 support for both internal and
external customers with a total call
volume that averages over 8,500 calls per
month. The Help Desk is comprised
of 20 agents staffed across three
different shifts.
Michael has been
involved with IT support officially
since 2002, after he received
his Bachelors Degree in IT Management from
Concordia University. HDI has helped him
grow as a professional and he looks
forward to giving back to the
organization. |
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Vendor Relations
Email:
vendors@hdimn.com
Vendor Liaison's Job Duties |
Rachel Hogan
Robert
Half Technology
(952) 831-6888
Rachel has
been a recruiter since 2000. She started
her career recruiting administrative,
clerical, and light industrial individuals
for temporary positions. Rachel then
spent 3 years working as a corporate
recruiter for collection and customer
service positions with Allied Interstate.
In 2004, she decided to go back into the
staffing industry and joined Robert Half
Technology. In Rachel's current role, she
is responsible for recruiting
infrastructure IT professionals for
contract and contract to hire positions.
Rachel has been a part of the local HDI
chapter since 2006. As the Vendor
Relations Coordinator she plans to help
facilitate the communication with vendors
and members and be able to use her
abilities as a recruiter to help grow this
local HDI chapter. |
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Past
President
Email:
PastPres@hdimn.com
|
Julie Thorndycraft
Faegre & Benson
Julie is the Technical Services Manager
at Merrill Corporation. Her team includes
the Service Desk and Desktop Services. The
Service Desk provides 24x7 support for
both internal and external customers with
a total call volume that averages over
7500 calls per month. The Service Desk has
one Supervisor, two Leads and 21 Service
Desk agents. In addition, Julie has
overall responsibility of the national
Desktop Support team of 15 and two Desktop
Architects.
Julie has been involved with IT support
since 1984 in roles ranging from Customer
Support to Project Management. She has
been directly involved with Help Desk
support for fifteen years at various
corporations in the Twin Cities. She has
been a member of HDI since 1990 and was
Vice President of Membership for the
Minnesota HDI chapter for a year before
becoming President of the chapter in 2005. |
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