Elizabeth is a phenomenal asset to the team. She understands, probably better than anybody, what a company needs to do to be successful (all around) in the lower-level Cisco training space. She’s been named our VP of Sales & Marketing and will be overseeing our sales processes & procedures and our marketing (traditional and social) efforts. She brings a wealth of sales, management and leadership experience and I’m truly relieved to have a “right hand woman” of her caliber! Expect to see some exciting things that haven’t been thought of, or attempted by traditional Cisco-focused training organizations.

Dan, a former instructor at Global Net Training, has been teaching for over ten years and has developed proprietary training curriculum for the CCNA R&S, CCNA Security, CCNA Voice, CCNP, CCSP and CCVP certification tracks. His track record is second-to-none and his pass rate is unmatched! (He’s a former Marine – as I am, so if you attend one of Dan’s classes – be ready for a challenging “Marine-like” BOOTCAMP! ;-). At IPexpert, Dan is responsible for all aspects of classroom delivery for these Associate and Professional level certification programs. He will also be instrumental in the development process and customer support for IPexpert’s various Cisco Associate and Professional level self-study products. In addition to a classroom background that’s extremely uncommon and hard to match, Dan has also been heavily involved in the field, obtaining real-world experience by actively planning, developing, implementing, monitoring and managing networks for Government and State Agencies as well as Private Corporations. For over 10 years, Dan has extensive experience managing, operating and consulting in technical support centers with customers such as ATT&T, Verizon, Secure Logix, Source Inc., Austin American Statesman, MaryKay, and The State of Texas.

Building on an already-established, overachieving team of industry-renowned Instructors, and the most-recent announcements including Amy Ryan (CCIE Voice, CCVP and CCNA Voice Instructor & Developer), Marko Milivojevic (CCNA, CCNP and CCIE Instructor – International), the team of 8 additional Support Engineers (all of them CCIE certified, most of them holding multiple CCIEs) we’ve announced over the past few months and a few additional “all stars” that we’ll be announcing in the upcoming weeks, we’re poised to deliver an extremely technical, professional, personalized experience to each and every student. Our goal is to provide a complete “end-to-end” solution for all levels – Associate to Expert beginning with quizzes, written prep, self-study materials, online hardware access and then ILT while also providing “second-to-none” online mentoring and support.

We plan on creating content that’s based on our “learn by doing” approach that we’ve mastered in the CCIE space.  We’ve trained more CCIEs than any company in the world – put simply, our “Structured Learning Approach” is proven and it works. I’m excited to be rolling this down to the Associate and Professional level. We’re going to train and create great engineers that really understand the technologies and protocols, engineers that “get it” – and aren’t “paper certified”.

Stay tuned for our new website which will showcase new product offerings – it should be up and live within the next few days!

Regards,

Wayne A. Lawson II – CCIE #5244
Founder & President – IPexpert
Mailto: wlawson@ipexpert.com
Telephone: +1.810.326.1444, ext. 701
Live Assistance, Please visit: www.ipexpert.com/chat
eFax: +1.810.454.0130

IPexpert is a premier provider of Classroom and Self-Study Cisco CCNA (R&S, Voice & Security), CCNP, CCVP, CCSP and CCIE (R&S, Voice, Security & Service Provider) Certification Training with locations throughout the United States, Europe and Australia. Be sure to check out our online communities at www.ipexpert.com/communities and our public website at www.ipexpert.com.

Marko has been working with IPexpert over the past few years developing several self-study products, and will now be more-heavily involved in product development and training (classroom training throughout Europe, Australia and Asia) full time.

With the new CCIE R&S Lab 4.0 update, which involves a large amount of troubleshooting and service provider-like content, Marko is an incredible fit.  His background and technical skills are a great match! Marko will be a double IE (adding the 4.0 R&S) very soon, and is a great addition to the team!

- Wayne

Just a quick update….for R&S, the following labs (and Detailed Solution Guides) are either published (existing members accounts) – or will be published within the next day to your accounts:

Routing & Switching – Volumes 1, 2 and 3:

• Volume 1 (Done w/ 34 mock lab scenarios)
• Volume 2: Labs 1, 2, 6, 7, 11, 12, 13, 16, 17, 18, 19 and 20 (12 out of 15 completed)
• Volume 3: Labs 1, 6, 7, 8, and 9 (5 out of 10 completed)

Security – Volumes 1 and 2:

• Volume 1: Labs 1A, 1B, 2A, 2B, 3A, 3B, 5A, 5B, 6A, 6B, 7A, 7B and 8A (13 out of 16 completed)
• Volume 2: Labs 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15 (5 out of 10 completed)

We will be updating timelines on the full suite of products soon too!  Thanks for hanging with us – this year has been filled with lots and lots of development with the 4.0 R&S, 3.0 Voice and 3.0 Security changes!

Regards – Wayne

Just a quick note to remind everyone that on occasion we push special promotions, updates, announcement, etc. – through our Facebook Fan Page, LinkedIn Group and through our Twitter Account.  Be sure to follow us – we’ve got some very major announcements and initiatives that will be announced over the next 2 to 4 weeks – that you WON’T want to miss!!

Thanks – Wayne

Kaufman will oversee IPexpert’s Sales and Marketing organizations, responsible for overall sales execution and customer satisfaction as well as all internet marketing initiatives. He will also be involved in the planning and execution of IPexpert’s future product and course offerings. In this role, he will lead IPexpert’s efforts to grow its revenues, customer base, and sales organization and internet visibility. Kaufman will report to IPexpert’s President, Wayne A. Lawson II.

Prior to joining IPexpert, Kaufman was a co-founder of Intense School, an Information Technology and Information Security training organization. There, he filled multiple roles to include Chief Executive Officer and Executive Vice President in charge of business development, strategic partnerships and marketing and was responsible for taking Intense School from startup to over 11MM in sales annually. During his tenure at Intense School, Kaufman received numerous accolades including Windows Magazine’s Prestigious Best Boot Camp award on three occasions.

“David Kaufman has all of the characteristics that you look for in a senior leader in terms of experience, leadership, dynamic personality, and a proven track record,” said Lawson. “David’s expertise allows us to expand our product and course offerings into additional vendor and technology verticals which will continue to bring the incredible growth that we’ve experienced since our launch in 2001. We’re pleased to have someone with his experience and abilities on our team.”

About IPexpert:

Founded in 2001, IPexpert is an industry-recognized, privately held, training company for computer networking engineers pursuing the highest level career certification offered by Cisco. The company has become a global leader serving its niche market, boasting the most distinguished offering of self-study products, courses and online hardware available for online equipment rental. IPexpert has appeared in Inc. Magazine’s annual list of the fastest growing private companies in America for the past two years. Visit www.ipexpert.com for more information.

There is a silver lining to this though: demand for knowledgeable workers is increasing for similar reasons. If a company can only afford to employ fewer people, then they need each of those people to be as highly skilled and adaptable as possible. Knowledge is power, and one of the many attributes of a CCIE is knowledge – after all, we’re the best of the best. In the past few months, myself and many CCIEs that I know have received more job opportunities than at any time in the past 18 months. Initially I assumed this to be an anomaly due to the contracting economy and then something clicked for me – CCIE demand by employers is booming.

The most common reasons I hear amongst students aiming for CCIE certification when I ask them why they are pursuing it include: sense of accomplishment; increased salary; better job performance; increased job security and a desire to achieve a higher level of knowledge in their chosen field. Generally I hear them in roughly that order. The average CCIE wage is over $100k in good times – in many cases significantly higher. The average CCNP wage is around $70-80k in good times.

What happens in bad economic times? As companies cut back, those at the top of their field, the CCIEs, either stay where they are whilst their team dwindles in size, or move to another company that needs the most talented workers. This effectively keeps the average CCIE wage at about the same level, with perhaps a slight decline. However, for the lower skilled CCNP level workers (and more so for the CCNA level and so on down the line) jobs become more scarce, both due to the reduction in overall networking positions and the increased competition for senior as CCIEs gradually move to take up the top roles in each organization’s network teams.

Now, this might seem bad – but there is good news. With such a large demand for CCIEs, there has probably never been a better time since the dot-com bubble burst to push yourself to upgrade your knowledge and ability to CCIE level. At IPexpert we provide the CCIE training industry’s foremost programs in the R&S, Voice, Security and Service Provider track to enable you to achieve this certification in the most compressed timeframe possible, whilst ensuring that you have that powerful level of knowledge that your job may require. Our labs and courses are designed to ensure that your time is spent most optimally with the goal of making the CCIE lab exam achievable in 3 to 6 months (after completion of the written exam).

As someone who self funded both my purchase of IPexpert’s self study products and instructor led boot camps for both my R&S and Security CCIE tracks (as well as the international flights to attend them), I fully understand the financial and time challenges that come with making a commitment to achieve CCIE certification. I can also say that from a personal development, a financial and a work lifestyle choice that was the best decision I ever made.

If you are interested in attaining your CCIE, so that you can also benefit from the additional level of security and satisfaction that comes with it, please send an email to sales@ipexpert.com and one of our Training Advisers will gladly talk to you about tailoring a program to your needs. After all, knowledge is power.

Cheers,

Jared

In the upcoming weeks we will be blogging on various techincal topics, topics relating to CCDE and CCIE-focused news and I’ll also be introducing the IPexpert team – in various posts – outlining their position / roles & responsibilities and including various pictures (employee pictures, facility pictures, Proctor Labs hardware pictures, etc.).  I’d like to know what YOU would like us to blog about.  Please reply to this post or send me a direct email at wlawson@ipexpert.com.  Thanks! – Wayne