Founded in 1998 by a team of former corporate IT professionals, Coyote Creek understands the issues and complexities that are part of large-scale and high-growth IT environments. Pragmatic and vendor neutral, Coyote Creek brings deep expertise to help customers manage technology and project risk, inspiring confidence and creating peace of mind.
Who is Coyote Creek? -- About Us
Team
Mike Faster
Founder & President
Mike Faster is the Founder and President of Coyote Creek, with more than 25 years of experience in building and leading complex technology organizations. Among other numerous high-visibility projects, Faster has served as Interim Chief Information Officer for Ariba, SpinCircuit.com and Chemdex. Prior to founding Coyote Creek in 1998, Faster served in numerous director and management positions for leading technology companies, including Apple Computer, Palm Computing, Cadence Design Systems and Komag. Faster has a B.S. Degree in Management from the Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
Kevin Szady
Co-Founder & Director of Technical Services
Kevin Szady co-founded Coyote Creek in 1998 and is Director of Technical Services, responsible for all technical leadership and project management. Before co-founding the company, he served as Network Services Manager for Komag, where he oversaw a 3500-node network with 50+ servers located domestically and overseas. He carried project responsibility for all major projects that involved Microsoft Exchange email. Prior to Komag, Kevin Szady worked as a Systems Administrator for Westinghouse Security Electronics. He earned a B.A. in Music from San Jose State University, and holds numerous MCSE certifications.
Anthony Coral
Director of Managed Services
Anthony Coral joined Coyote Creek in 2000, and today is responsible for all managed services delivery. He has worked on numerous Coyote Creek projects for a wide range of clients. Prior to joining Coyote Creek, Coral was a Senior Installation Engineer for Franklin-Templeton, where he designed and maintained all OS builds for the company’s desktops and laptops, created an inventory tracking method and assisted the company’s Y2K team. He also has extensive experience in the retail market. Coral has completed networking, Novell administration, telecommunications, aeronautics, MCSE, MCSA, MCP, HP and IBM courses.
Nathan Lundberg
Contract Services Manager
Nathan Lundberg joined Coyote Creek Consulting in 1999 and today manages our growing IT staffing practice. Prior to joining Coyote Creek, Lundberg served as a Network Systems Engineer for Inacom/Vanstar Corporation, and as a systems engineer for Modis. He graduated from Chabot College and has also earned the following certifications: Microsoft Certified System Engineer, MCP and Citrix Certified Administrator. Lundberg has also worked on many Active Directory and Microsoft Exchange projects for leading companies’ executive staff. He has years of proven experience in the design and engineering of IT solutions for mid to enterprise sized customers.
Aaron Geer
Cloud Services Manager
For nearly two decades Coyote Creek’s clients have benefited from Aaron Geer’s ability to combine business knowledge with technical expertise. For his first 12 years with the firm Aaron served as a Systems Engineer, handling design, architecture and implementation projects for enterprise deployments.
Since 2012 Aaron has focused on systems operations as the Manager of Coyote Creek’s 24x7x365 Cloud Services practice (formerly called Remote Monitoring and Management). Aaron’s responsibilities including managing the team and business, assisting with incident management and ensuring there are no gaps in the solutions that our project teams provide.
Dave Theodore
Atlassian Team Director
Dave Theodore launched Coyote Creek’s Atlassian practice 11 years ago, and he’s been helping clients make the most of Atlassian’s tools ever since. Having worked with Atlassian Data Center since it was in Beta, Dave is an Atlassian expert who knows the details of setting up and running Jira, Confluence, BitBucket and Crowd on Data Center inside and out.
From 1,000-user companies to 80,000-user organizations, Dave has “been there, done that.” In fact, he’s been architecting large data centers and application environments for over 20 years.
Don West
Atlassian Solution Architect
Don West has been active in the Atlassian Partner Ecosystem since 2010. West joined Coyote Creek in 2021 as an Atlassian Solution Architect with a focus on developing high value solutions for clients and leading the charge for continuous improvement. Prior to Joining Coyote Creek, West worked for a Managed Services and Hosting company. Don started his career in technology as geodetic image analyst for the USDA at Emporia State University in 1999, where he received his BS in Earth Science and Geospatial Analysis. He later earned an additional degree in Electronics Engineering.
Jimmy Areias
Sr. Account Executive
Jimmy Areias began his sales career in 1999 as a fundraiser at Cal Poly. After graduation, he worked as a Residential Loan Officer for both a direct lender and a brokerage firm. Areias joined Coyote Creek in 2007 with a focus on building new relationships and managing existing accounts to ensure Coyote Creek meets customer needs and expectations. This includes being the first point of contact for clients, working with the Engineering Team throughout the project scoping, managing the proposal process and monitoring the status of each project until completion. Areias has a B.S. Degree in Agricultural Business from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo.
Nick Howser
Sr. Account Executive
Nick Howser began his sales career in 2003, working for Morning Star, Co. and Northwestern Mutual. In 2006, Howser transitioned his sales career to the IT Staffing and Recruiting Services industry when he joined Bayside Solutions. From 2009 to 2011, Howser spearheaded the sales effort for the Silicon Valley, venture-backed, recruiting start-up called Readyforce – cultivating over 100 new clients in the Bay Area, New York and Phoenix markets. He joined Coyote Creek in 2012 as an Account Executive, with the intent to deliver an added value to his clients in the Bay Area by providing Contracting Services, Managed Services, and Project Services. Howser has a B.S. Degree in Managerial Economics from the University of California, Davis.
Jay Baltazar
Sr. Account Executive
Jay Baltazar started his decent into sales by graduating at San Jose State University with a BA in Marketing. After graduation he worked in procurement for TDK for 8 years. Being a buyer provided the insight needed to switch gears into the sales world. The next 9 years Jay worked in business development for a managed service IT firm selling hardware, manage services, and staffing. Jay’s experience as a buyer and seller gives him the best of both worlds; which allows him to excel as an account executive for Coyote Creek.
Jessica Ryugo
Account Executive
Jessica Ryugo started her sales career at Oracle in 2015. She focused on selling database licenses and PaaS/IaaS cloud solutions to a wide variety of businesses in the Pacific Northwest. She has experience helping customers with security, collaboration, migration, and integration projects.
Jessica joined Coyote Creek in 2019 as an account executive to help grow the business, increase Atlassian cloud adoption, and deepen existing customer relationships. She is dedicated to solving customer problems and demonstrating the value of Coyote Creek’s project and managed services. In her free time, she enjoys traveling, cooking, and wine tasting.
Jessica received her BS in Food Science and MBA from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.
Amanda Parks
Account Executive
Amanda started her sales career from the bottom up in 2009. Starting as a Customer Service Representative, she quickly realized helping customers solve their problems was her passion. After moving up the career ladder, she found that managing customer accounts and building relationships are where she feels most accomplished. Knowing her customers always have her attention, whether it be by a quick phone call or email, she would be there for her customers. When life brought her back to Southern California in 2020, she turned to Coyote Creek because of their culture and the service they provide to their customers.
