As CEO and President, Terry Ryan crafts and executes the company's vision and business plan, focusing on organizational and business development activities. Prior to becoming CEO and President, Ryan served as the company’s chief operating officer. Before joining HigherGround in 1998, he was the sales manager for Hydraulics International. Ryan’s extensive technical background and experience includes service in the USAF as a lead mechanical engineer for the C-17 program, test manager for a classified Joint Service missile development program and project engineer & program manager for several classified computer programs. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from Christian Brothers University and an MBA with concentrations in management, finance and international business from Wright State University.

Marty McGough comes to Higher Ground with a wealth of knowledge and experience in all areas of management for high technology industries. As COO, he is utilizing his expertise in Lean 6 Sigma methodologies and tools to support HigherGround’s commitment to implement best of class practices and help build a scalable organization. In addition, Marty has a strong commitment to continuous improvement as it relates to customer satisfaction. He is dedicated to understanding customer needs and implementing creative solutions to maximize customer satisfaction and enhance long-term relationships.

Marty has held senior management positions in manufacturing, development and customer support in high technology companies. His areas of expertise include: customer support, operation management, process control implementation and optimization, strategic commodities management, program management, materials management, logistics support, original equipment marketing and sales, and strategy development and implementation. Marty's most recent experience has been as President and CEO of Total Customer Support team, Inc., a Lean Six Sigma consulting company with a very high success rate in helping their clients optimize their business processes and supporting product commercialization.

With more than 20 years of sales and management experience in the telecommunications industry, Ballard leverages his extensive knowledge to advance HigherGround's Partnership Program in North America. Based in Ohio, he is leading HigherGround's continued market expansion into the Midwest while broadening our sales team and sales channels.

Most recently Ballard was the director of sales for Startel Corporation and focused on the healthcare and university markets. Beginning in 1994, Ballard played an instrumental role in establishing and nurturing partner programs with major telecommunications technology providers for IntegraTRAK, Inc. of Seattle, WA. During his tenure there, Ballard served as both strategic alliance manager and director of sales. His sales career began with Dictaphone Corp., selling dictation systems to the healthcare and legal markets. As the regional sales manager for its special markets division, he sold voice recording systems to buyers in the public safety market as well as the Chicago financial district. Ballard also sold call accounting systems for Infortext Systems Inc. of Schaumburg, IL.

Ric Cahak leads HigherGround's service and support operations and oversees the development of new products and technological advancements. His main responsibility is to manage the interaction between the company and its customers as it pertains to actual service and feedback that will lead to new product improvements. Before joining HigherGround, Cahak spent 12 years with AT&T as both manager of operator services and as sales manager and eight years with the William Morris Agency as the company's telecommunications director.

Jake White manages the marketing programs, public relations efforts and analyst relationships at HigherGround and serves as the company spokesperson.

Prior to joining HigherGround, White was the marketing director of CoPort Technologies. He also has agency experience as a national account manager coordinating the marketing campaigns, website development and investor communications for clients such as Disney, Avon Breast Walk, Liberty Media, Boeing Financial and Dick Clark Productions. Jake began his career as a buyer for The Sharper Image.