Meet Our Experts

Discover our powerful expertise

Amerigo Baldassarri
Technical Sales Engineer

Working with mainframes since 1976, in fields ranging from operations and technical support to disaster recovery and storage management, Amerigo Baldassarri has developed an exceptional breadth of MVS™ knowledge. With 31 years of experience in the Australian banking system, he also possesses a keen understanding of the challenges encountered by companies today.

Amerigo joined Mainstar® in 2001 and now shares his knowledge as a Mainstar Technical Sales Engineer. He provides information, support, and solutions for companies in the Asia-Pacific region. Straightforward and methodological, Amerigo pays close attention to each user's suggestions and issues.

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Steven Clar
Product Manager

During his 25 years in mainframe storage management, disaster recovery, and MVS systems, Steven Clar has supported and managed shops ranging from one terabyte of storage to over one hundred terabytes of storage, in industries ranging from banking and insurance to pharmaceutical and outsourcing companies. As the Product Manager for Mainstar's HSM & Storage Tools, he travels extensively, sharing his knowledge and discussing emerging

challenges. Steven's expertise is in managing shops proactively. He regularly presents at national technical conferences such as SHARE, IBM® Storage Symposium, and CMG, as well as international technical conferences, and co-authored the IBM Redbooks® publication DFSMShsm Audit and Mainstar: FastAudit/390. Both technical staff and management appreciate his open, direct style. Steven assiduously analyzes each customer's unique challenges and creates a solution that not only meets their needs, but also exceeds their expectations.

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Joris Cornette
Technical Sales Engineer

Joris Cornette has over 12 years of experience in the field of database management. Joris started a career in the international software sales industry in 1981 and worked for a series of innovative companies involved with database management (IDMS, IMS, DB2), application management (including application testing tools and portfolio management tools) and systems management (JCL checkers, schedulers, storage tools).

Joris is driven by a pro-active commitment to customer success and satisfaction, both in presales support and technical account management, and he likes his vast database management knowledge and experience to be challenged by both customers and colleagues.

Joris joined Rocket in 2008 and currently supports several EMEA regions with the introduction and implementation of Rocket Mainstar’s storage and database solutions.

Joris speaks 4 languages fluently and enjoys long-distance train traveling and serious literature in his spare time. He lives in Germany and is the father of 4 children and the proud grandfather of Sverre.

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Reggie Culpepper
Technical Sales Architect

Reggie Culpepper has over 30 years of experience in mainframe technical and systems support in the financial services and insurance industries. In the last 10 years, Reggie has focused on DB2® database administration. As a DB2 Systems Database Administrator, he automated and scripted offsite business recovery models and trained numerous application database administrators.

Earlier in his career, as a systems programmer, he was responsible for DASD management and APL and RACF administration, as well as VSAM tuning and quality assurance. As a Customer Support Analyst, he assisted and trained users in JCL problem recovery, TSO, ISPF, ROSCOE, VM, CMS, and OS/MVS utilities.

n his personal time, Reggie is an avid reader, photographer, and poet. He is active in his local community and church, which he enjoys with the support of his wife of 27 years and his two children.

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Brett Dukes
Technical Sales Engineer

Since 1974, Brett Dukes has been working with mainframes, from OS/VS1 to MVS/ESA and z/OS®. His experience includes shift operations, systems programming, 24x7 technical support, disaster recovery planning and procedures, storage management and control, performance and tuning, consultancy, and education. As a Senior Pre-Sales System Engineer supporting Candle Corporation's

Omegamon® and Automation solutions for 12 years, Brett helped numerous U.K. blue-chip companies through challenging situations. Brett joined Mainstar in 2004 and now shares his knowledge as a Mainstar Technical Sales Engineer.

Brett and his new wife Lynne were married 4th February 2012. Brett has a daughter, Rebecca and Lynne has two children, Jenny and Adam.

Outside of Mainstar, Brett enjoys nothing better than taking his Suzuki Jimny 4x4 off-roading and rock crawling into the U.K. wilderness. He is also the captain of a Domino team in Middlewich, Cheshire, UK.

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Ian Magill
Senior Quality Assurance Tester

Since 1969, Ian Magill has worked with IBM mainframes. He possesses a keen knowledge of mainframe installations and their needs, developed through extensive experience in the retail and manufacturing industries, including work in the following roles: Computer Operator, Applications Programmer, Project Lead, Storage Management Systems Programmer, and AIX Systems Programmer.

Ian first worked with Mainstar as a consultant for Tivoli® Storage Management (TSM). In this position he installed and implemented TSM on client systems to manage their backup and recovery of non-mainframe systems. Ian also implemented TSM at Mainstar and oversees its current use.

Today, Ian shares his broad understanding of mainframe installations as a QA Tester for Mainstar. He is currently focused on Catalog RecoveryPlus (CR+) and the installation procedures for all products. Ian has created an extensive QA testing environment where standard test scenarios are executed and the results are reviewed. His expertise helps to perfect and to refine Mainstar's stellar tools.

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	Ron Ratcliffe Product Manager Ron Ratcliffe has worked with most of the IBM operating systems over the last 35 years and has been providing Storage Systems consulting services for the last 10 years. His experience includes development and systems programming, Storage Systems customer and Systems Engineer support at the Western Area Technical Support Center and services offerings development for the Storage Systems Competency Center in San Jose.
As a result, he has provided extensive support and services domestically and internationally for DASD and tape migrations, DFSMShsm™ education, implementation and reviews, DFSMS education, implementation and reviews, and ABARS education and implementation. In addition, he has provided technical review services for a number of IBM Redbooks publications. Ron is currently the Product Manager for Backup & Recovery™ Suite, comprised of ASAP™, All/Star™, and ABARS Manager™. Ron lives with his wife in North Monterey County, California and their two children reside in Southern California. In his spare time he enjoys English sports cars, camping, fishing, woodworking, and handball. top

Ken Rodger
Systems Engineer

Ken Rodger joined Mainstar Software Corporation as a Systems Engineer in 2001 with over twenty years of experience in mainframe performance tuning, capacity planning and storage management. Ken has worked in industries as diverse as oil, healthcare, publishing, human resources consulting, and manufacturing. He clearly understands the myriad challenges facing IT enterprises today, and works with users to provide comprehensive solutions.

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	Kelly Smith Senior Product Manager Kelly Smith is a Senior Product Manager for several Mainstar and Rocket products. Kelly offers a depth of knowledge honed by over 20 years of experience in the mainframe industry. Kelly has also been a product specialist and provided consulting for several fortune 100 companies. She regularly writes and speaks on mainframe topics.
Kelly wrote the IBM Redbook, Mainstar MS/VCR The Tool for Efficient Device Cloning, and co-authored the first edition of DFSMShsm ABARS and Mainstar Solutions. She writes numerous White Papers and offers informative webcasts. Kelly regularly presents at the IBM SHARE conference, and at DB2 User Group meetings. top

	Janet Sun Product Manager Janet Sun has over 20 years of mainframe systems programming experience in the aerospace and automotive industries. Her expertise spans operating system management, performance management, storage management, data security, web server management, and disaster recovery planning. At Mainstar, she is a Product Manager, specializing in ICF catalog management.
Janet travels extensively worldwide, visiting both large and small companies to share her knowledge and skills, and help design solutions to disaster recovery challenges. She frequently presents at user conferences such as SHARE and the IBM Storage Symposium. top