Richard Sears, RSTG’s founder, President, CTO, and a former U.S. Marine, started Web Communications Concepts (WebCC) in early 1996 and became one of San Diego’s earliest Internet service and colocation providers. In 2000, WebCC merged with another communication company and leveraged the ‘dot bomb’ crash to purchase multiple bankrupt Internet companies, eventually growing the company to become one of the largest privately held colocation service providers in Southern California – American Internet Services (AIS). Richard was Executive Vice President and CTO for AIS.

Starting with a single Cisco 2501 and a 56K ISDN line, WebCC began providing dialup Internet service utilizing an Ascend Max 4000. By the time AIS sold to a Wall Street firm, the company had over 100 employees and five different data center locations. While managing a staff of around-the-clock network, facility, electrical, and HVAC engineers and subcontractors, AIS maintained unprecedented uptime and system reliability.

Holding multiple engineering certifications including Cisco CCNA, CCNP, CCDA, CCDP, CWLDS, CWLSS, F5 Networks Certification, Asterisk dCAP, and Digium dCSE, dCSP, dSSE, and dCAA, Richard was responsible for the design, building and day-to-day operation of the entire AIS data center footprint, including all of the hydro, mechanical, electrical and network systems.

In addition to managing the technical side of the house, Richard was also the chief pilot for AIS, often utilizing helicopters and turboprop aircraft to take clients and sales engineers for tours of the out-of-state data center located in Phoenix, Arizona. Richard has been a pilot for almost 34 years and holds the highest attainable pilot rating, an Airline Transport Pilot certificate in Single and Multi-engine Airplanes and in Rotorcraft (Helicopters). He flies the UH60 Blackhawk, MD500 helicopter, Gulfstream G550, Cessna Citation CE-560XL, and the Citation CE-560 Ultra. He is single pilot qualified in the Cessna CitationJet CE-525 and holds a Single Pilot Waiver in the CE-560 Ultra.  He holds flight instructor certificates for single and multi-engine airplanes and is also an instrument instructor.

In 2010, Richard was awarded the coveted “IT Executive of the Year Award” by the San Diego Business Journal.

William Lolli, a certified Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE), has provided IT services for 17 years. An IT consultant, author, reseller, and technician, William has expertise in high-performance server design for small businesses, local and wide area network integration-design, and Microsoft application technologies.

William has vast experience with Citrix Server Farm Solutions, and has designed and installed small and large server-farm environments using RAID and Serial ATA SSD HDD drive arrays on brand-name server platforms or custom Intel-built solutions.

As the author of Backup 2 Disk Now! Advanced Design and Scalability Guide for Backup for Workgroups, William is a recognized industry expert in the Lockstep Systems’ Backup for Workgroups disk-to-disk backup software. William authored the guide to emphasize the need for small businesses to abandon obsolete tape-based backup systems and use superior D2D (Disk-to-Disk) standards. Many small businesses have adopted William’s multi-layered disaster recovery methods and have avoided costly downtime.

William additionally has ancillary experience with Apple MAC OSX to Windows operating systems; integration of mobile technologies with server platforms, AVG, Trend, Symantec AV, Malwarebytes software; DR recovery methods to repair or restore AD, local registry, and other issues related to catastrophic failures or virus infections.

William’s approach to integrated IT design problem-solving includes a natural temperament toward collaborative leadership with an emphasis on end-user productivity. He has worked with all levels of management in a variety of industry-specific groups, and has experience in the strategic planning and deployment of network technologies with a focus on the global view.

William is a former member of the U.S. Air Force.

Penny Houim, a data center and IT industry veteran, brings a wealth of knowledge and refined management skills to support the leadership team here at RSTG. Penny’s career started in 2002 with American Internet Services (AIS) as a customer support technician. Penny’s unwavering dedication to deliver above-and-beyond client experience and technical support earned her multiple promotions throughout her 11-year tenure at AIS.

Among her positions, Penny was a CSE-I team leader and a CSE Tier 2 supervisor. As a CSE T2 supervisor, she was responsible for data compiling and mining within the company’s ticketing system, which allowed the management team the ability to make timely and knowledgeable decisions concerning the largest department in the company. Penny also assisted in making and updating the processes, policies, and procedures that were needed to meet the ongoing needs of the organization.

Immediately prior to joining RSTG, Penny was quality assurance and control manager where she was responsible for compliance of all client interfacing processes, policies, and procedures. She compiled reports that consisted of critiquing of client service engineers (CSEs) in their ability to follow the processes, policies, and procedures within their respective levels and skill sets.

Her technical knowledge spans multiple technologies, including Colocation, T1, DS3, Optical circuit management, DSL, DNS, mail server management and troubleshooting, installation and provisioning management, and finally overall management of a team of CSEs in a state-of-the-art data center network operation center.