Neil Issa
President & CEO

Neil Issa is the President & CEO of Catalyst Technology Group, which he founded in 2002 and which has since become a leading provider of IT services in the SMB market. Under his leadership, Catalyst has evolved from a small startup to a company supporting over 700 business clients and running IT operations around the world through its Indianapolis, Chicago, and Denver locations.

Neil is regarded as a thought leader who takes enterprise-class solutions and streamlines their delivery so that smaller organizations can take advantage of a high level of support at a fraction of the cost of building the same systems out internally. He is passionate about helping small businesses thrive, fueled by his extensive experience working with startups and small businesses. In addition, he regularly mentors other entrepreneurs.

Neil maintains a high level of technical understanding of emerging technologies, which comes in handy as he helps guide Catalyst to provide best-of-breed competitive solutions to train Catalyst staff and educate his client-base on new developments in the IT industry.

Prior to founding Catalyst, in 1999, Neil co-founded and served as President of one of the industry’s first IT managed services companies, Velocity Integration, which he sold to a larger organization managing data center space to which his company had provided services. He also served as Director of Professional Services and as a Network Engineer and Infrastructure Project Manager earlier in his career.

Jim Issa
Vice-President, Professional Services

Jim Issa is the Vice President of Professional Services for Catalyst Technology Group, which he helped co-found. He is responsible for service delivery, and oversees Catalyst’s team of support engineers. Jim strives to maintain the highest level of support standards for Catalyst’s clients and engineers by taking a hands-on approach with technical requests, and not only meeting, but exceeding, the client’s expectations.

Technology is constantly evolving.  It is imperative that we stay abreast of these changes in order to provide the best solutions, and understand how the new technology can benefit existing client infrastructures. To this end, Jim spends a lot of time evaluating and training on new hardware and software technologies.

Prior to Catalyst, he worked as a Senior Systems Administrator for a consulting firm, supporting small and medium-sized businesses. He has held positions in the banking and finance industries.

Bob Thompson
Vice President, Business Development

Bob Thompson is the Vice President, Business Development of Catalyst Technology Group. Since joining Catalyst in 2002, he has been instrumental in bridging the gaps in bringing enterprise-level solutions to the SMB market. He recently completed a four-year term serving on Cisco’s Small Business Executive Exchange Board of Trustees, whose primary purpose was to help migrate, develop and enhance SMB infrastructure and communications solutions.

Bob has a diverse business background, ranging from audit (financial, operational and fraud/investigative engagements), to mergers/acquisitions, to business solution development. Starting with a tenure in “Big Four” auditing, he moved to an ILEC’s Internal Audit and Security role. This involvement with many different clients/vertical markets gave him a strong foundation for workflow analysis. This is critical in root cause identification to help determine IT tactics to attain financial and operational targets for SMBs.

In addition, his strong background in regulatory compliance and best practices with respect to strengthening internal controls leads to enduring solutions that mitigate business risk. Put another way, Bob has over 20 years’ experience in network assessment methodology. This methodology serves as the foundation for Catalyst’s Structured IT Management.

Bob is an active volunteer with several local and national charities.

Betsy Kissinger
Service Manager

Betsy Kissinger brings relationship-building and resourcefulness to the management of Catalyst’s service team, resulting in stellar service and support for customers. Characteristics which naturally come to her when interacting with Catalyst’s clients and staff, Betsy focuses on the people aspect of technology solutions. Internally, her focus is to instill a culture of accountability, teamwork, and ambition among service team members, while she continues to develop operational management and technical expertise. From a customer perspective, her focus is centered around all aspects of maintaining and improving service levels by managing SLAs, communication processes, and professional services automation (PSA) tools.

Betsy’s career with Catalyst has provided her with vast experience in every area of the company: accounting, human resources, sales, management, and customer service. She leads with an attitude of positivity and strives to build and spread that culture in a nontraditional office environment of a distributed workforce. Making sure that our client’s experience is exceptional is Betsy’s goal every day and she has developed a client signature experience which is the goal Catalyst strives to achieve.

When not working, Betsy enjoys spending time with her four kids and husband. She is actively involved in both her city and her kid’s schools by devoting her free time to make a positive difference in the lives of others, and she strives to be a better, kinder, and more generous person daily.

Kelli Frederick
Director, Productivity Solutions

Kelli Frederick is the Director of Productivity Solutions. She is an innovator at heart, someone who is constantly driven toward new experiences and better technologies. A people person, she genuinely enjoys serving her clients, and takes pride in showing off the latest apps and gadgets that she encounters daily.

She first got her start in the technology field at Catalyst in 2008, and since then has been instrumental in building a strong relationship between Catalyst and Microsoft. During this time, she became certified to hold customer immersion experiences in cloud technologies, implemented lead development programs, participated in exclusive top-tier partner training programs, provided guidance to Microsoft at executive round tables, and built marketing development funding programs and promotions.

Although she at first studied healthcare, Kelli has since discovered that her true passion is in designing and implementing productivity solutions to increase business profitability and efficiency for all clients. She believes in finding collaborative solutions rather than solutions in segments, focusing on seamless end-user experiences that reduce management time and cost.

Kelli sincerely enjoys learning new things. She is resourceful and clever, finding innovative ways to approach tasks. When she is not in the office, she can often be found at a pool cheering on her kids who are swimmers and divers. She lives on a farm, which rescue dogs, cats, horses, and donkeys all call home as well. When she retires, she would like to run a bed and breakfast.