Our Instructors
Bob brings nearly twenty years of IT experience into his classroom. He garners rave reviews, no matter the format: in front of a classroom of students, over the internet via remote tools, or in a mentoring or consulting situation. Bob is the IT project lead and has guided the successful rollout of programs such as New Horizons Mentored Learning solution. Bob played a key role in Microsoft's MCDST curriculum development and has created custom course material for key clients. He has recently written a course for New Horizons of Minnesota on Vista for administrators to update skills from previous versions of Microsoft operating systems. When he’s not in the classroom or writing curriculum, he provides Windows networks consultative services to both home users and small- and medium-sized businesses, including 3M, MoneyGram, Deluxe Corporation, the Mayo Clinic and Caribou Coffee, just to name a few. Bob's previous employers were MindSharp and Benchmark Learning.
Personal Mentoring topics:
Implementing an Active Directory Integrated [Digital] Certificate Infrastructure (Windows 2003 or 2008)
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In April 2005, Brian Bandelin joined the New Horizons of Minnesota team. Brian is ITIL certified, and his teaching spans a wide array of classes at our facility - everything from Word, Excel, Access to Lotus Notes, SQL, ACT! and many others. He's a huge movie buff (and master of the Kevin Bacon game) and enjoys collecting maps and atlases. Brian's previous employer was ExecuTrain.
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Brian Lockwood joined New Horizons in early 2008 as a .Net instructor. He is enthusiastic about the technology and has implemented a number of .Net projects for companies throughout the United States. He also has been developing projects for the web since the mid-90s. He brought his experience and passion for teaching, as well as his laid back style, over from Australia. His rich set of experiences brings great value to the New Horizons organization and to his classroom. His knowledge of new technologies and his excitement about them motivate his colleagues and students. Brian strives to provide solutions that can be consistently applied in the workplace. He has strong knowledge and experience in the following technologies: C#/VB Programming, ASP.NET, ADO.Net, OOAD, AJAX, SQL, Network Infrastructure and Flash/Actionscript.
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Dan takes an inordinate amount of pride in adding extra value to classes by finding and presenting information beyond what you’d get out of a book. Our students’ high information retention rates are a testament to his superior presentation skills. These shining qualities have helped him become one of the top five Exchange 2003 instructors nationwide for New Horizons. His specialties are Windows, Exchange, ISA Server, and Citrix Presentation Server. Dan is one of the few instructors worldwide to be Citrix certified in both Application Delivery (XenApp) and Application Networking (NetScaler). He also teaches the accelerated
Platinum Presentaion Server course. Dan won the "Instructor of the Year" award for New Horizons of Minneosta for 2005 and was chosen as the # 4 IT instructor in the world at the New Horizons International Conference in August, 2006. His previous employers were Benchmark Learning and ExecuTrain and Digital River.
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Don joined New Horizons of Minnesota in 2005 as a Business Applications Instructor. Before coming to New Horizons of Minnesota, Don was a school band director. His education background serves him well at New Horizons. He quickly became an MCT by picking up his MCSA and MCSE certifications. This allowed him to joined the IT staff in December 2006. He teaches core Microsoft Windows classes, A +, Net +, and Windows XP. Don is also New Horizons of Minnesota's “Insights” Instructor and teaches the ITIL Essentials class. He has been a key contributer to the development of many ITIL resources such as our podcasts and v3 Awareness videos.
Personal Mentoring topics:
Automating InfoPath Forms with SharePoint Designer and SharePoint
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With over 18 years of experience in the industry, Eric is a skilled instructor, customizing his training to the goals and abilities of his students. He was on the 5-star Top Gun Trainer List for MS Windows Server 2003 and was also a global Top 10 New Horizons instructor for six months running in 2003. His passion, however, is ITIL. He has achieved his ITIL v2 and v3 Manager's Certifications and is New Horizon of Minnesota’s lead ITIL instructor. In addition to co-authoring ITIL v3 Foundation Bridge courseware, Eric has written and delivered several custom classes for our clients in this area. His talents in the classroom are further intensified by his customer service oriented attitude and approach. He truly puts his students needs first, and they in turn, have shown their appreciation in their class evaluations: In August 2005, Eric was recognized at the New Horizons International Conference as the #1 IT Instructor in the world, and he followed that up in 2006 as the #2 IT instructor. His previous employers include Benchmark Learning, KRS Computer and Business School, CDI Computer Academy and Century College.
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Gail brings almost 10 years of experience in IT as a Business/Systems Analyst and Project Manager with Target Corporation. She has a B.A. in Business Administration and once owned her own business, providing her an understanding of how all the pieces fit together in both large and small organizations. Her knowledge of the IT/Business world provides real world experiences when teaching the Microsoft Office Suite. She enjoys helping people overcome their training phobias and helping them to see how their lives can be made easier through the use of technology. When not teaching she enjoys cross-country skiing, hiking, dancing and singing in a local chamber choir.
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Helen Krone is a Business Software Instructor and Learning Consultant at New Horizons of Minnesota, and has been training various business and proprietary applications since 1993. Her expertise includes delivering education through instructor-led training, classroom facilitation, web-based delivery, lecture/seminar presentations and mentoring/consulting. Helen also works with clients on instructional design, curriculum development needs and project management. She has developed and written curriculum, both for general use and customized to specific business policies and procedures. In addition to her education and curriculum development capabilities, Helen is skilled at creating custom educational solutions in a variety of modalities to meet clients’ needs and goals.
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Jim Ferguson
Jim's knowledge spans across End-user, IT Professional and Developer education. He is New Horizon of Minnesota’s lead Instructor for SharePoint and .Net. His list of certifications only begin to speak to his real skills. And what a list he has: MOUS Master, Master CIW, A+, Network+, i-Net+, Server+, MCP, MCAD, MCSD, MCSE, MCDBA, MCT, CIW CI and E-Trainer. Jim has been a technology instructor since 1998, but also has gained solid experience and knowledge through his work on system design, migration and implementation projects. His previous employers include Knowledge Transfer, Inc., Centriq University, TechSkills, IntelliMark IT Solutions, PC University and Computer Learning Network, Inc. When he isn’t working, he is thinking about working.
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With a BS degree in Math and Industrial Education, John has been delivering technology and computer education since 1982. He has a passion for education, especially when working with SQL Server, which he has been working with beginning with SQL Server 6.5. John specializes in database design, database programming, administration tasks and high availability technologies, including SQL Server Integration Services, Analysis Services, reporting and data mining. With the introduction of SQL Server 2005, he has observed a Business Intelligence tidal wave and has developed training paths to deal with those needs. He is also the lead for the Microsoft Hands on Labs for SQL Server in the North Central District. While John is New Horizon of Minneosta’s SQL lead, he also has many other strengths and competencies, including Active Directory design, Exchange configuration and administration, VB and WMI scripting. His previous employers include ExecuTrain, South St. Paul High School and National Education Center, Brown Institute Campus.
Personal Mentoring topics:
Learn SQL Server Performance Measurement, Monitoring and Troubleshooting
Create SQL Server Maintenance Plans
Analyze Your SQL Server Security and Implement Solutions
Automate Your SQL Server with Jobs and Alerts
Implement Database Mirroring for High Availability
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Jon Buck is a Business Skills and Applications Instructor at New Horizons of Minnesota. His education philosophy is centered on using multiple learning styles to make material familiar and relevant to each student. Jon uses his training background in the government and private sectors to deliver effective training in management, human resources, communication, time management, customer service, team building and employee development. Jon is also an Adobe Certified Expert and teaches Captivate, Acrobat, FrameMaker, Photoshop, Dreamweaver and HTML/XHTML/CSS. Jon's past employers include the United States Air Force, where he trained more than 350 officers and enlisted members in established processes and procedures, and U.S. Bank, where he trained managers and trainers in presentation skills and Adobe technologies. He also specializes in video and sound editing and curriculum development and has a background in Radio Broadcasting. Jon spends his free time as the Program Director for Rosemount Youth Wrestling.
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In July 2007 Kent Huelman joined the New Horizons of Minnesota team. Kent carries several Microsoft and CompTIA certifications but is proudest of his Microsoft Certified Trainer status. His teaching and mentoring spans a wide array of IT infrastructure and security topics in our classrooms and Mentored Learning Lab. He has been a great resource to the many Mentored Learning students he’s worked with, and he never hesitates to start up an impromptu whiteboarding session or discussion to help students better understand the material. Kent enjoys combining his years of real-world IT administration experience and his computer training background to provide additional content and context to his classes.
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Laurel came to New Horizons of Minnesota in April 2007. She received her degree in Philosophy from the University of St. Thomas where her experience as a Philosophy tutor first sparked her interest in helping others through education. Laurel worked in recruiting and human resources until she discovered her true passion in training. She currently teaches a variety of Microsoft Office products including Excel, Access, Word, Outlook and PowerPoint, and is continuing to grow her repertoire of classes taught. In her spare time, Laurel enjoys reading, running and spending time at the lake!
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Leslie Durhman joined the New Horizons of Minnesota Business Software Teaching team in May 2007, bringing 11 years of teaching experience and over 20 years of real-world business, management, and training experience to her classes. Leslie believes education and learning should be continued throughout everyone’s lifetime. With four advanced degrees so far, Leslie proves that great success comes from a great education.
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Lu joined us in mid-2006 after spending the last four years as an independent consultant and trainer, specializing in assisting companies with their SMS 2003 and MOM 2005 deployments. Lu has also created custom courseware on Windows Installer service, as well as application deployment. She has also delivered private training on Macrovision's FlexNet AdminStudio product (also known as InstallShield). As an instructor for New Horizons, in addition to the core operating systems, she focuses on SMS, MOM and systems management. She also teaches VB and WMI Scripting and co-authored (with Matthew Obert) a PowerShell class. Before embarking as an independent consultant, she was an employee of Benchmark Learning.
Personal Mentoring topics:
Deploying Applications with System Center Configuration Manager 2007
Deploying Operating Systems with System Center Configuration Manager 2007
Working with Operations Manager 2007
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Mark Slade became a New Horizons of Minnesota instructor in June of 2005 and teaches a variety of Microsoft classes including Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Visio, OneNote, SharePoint, Project and Outlook. He also teaches Lotus Notes and SmartBoard. Mark recently became a Microsoft Certified Applications Specialist for Office 2007. He graduated from St. John's University with a degree in Education and taught in the Eden Prairie School District for 4 years. Mark also started his own carpentry/remodeling business. He enjoys carpentry, running, biking and camping. It is his goal to make learning an enjoyable, meaningful and approchable experience.
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Matthew Obert joined the New Horizons IT instructor staff in 2005. He courted us for two years and we finally gave in--and are we glad we did!! Before coming on board with us, he worked for eight years designing numerous solutions for SMS infrastructures. He currently teaches SMS, Server 2003, WMI, VB Scripting, SQL, ITIL, and PowerShell (which he co-authored with another staff instructor, Lu Patrick). Matthew is able to use his prior experiences in the IT trenches to help his students more easily take their classroom education and apply it immediately in their work environments.
Personal Mentoring topics:
Automating Processes with SMS or SCCM
Creating Custom Web Reports for SMS or SCCM
Leveraging PowerShell with Your Current VBScripts
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Pat Schullo
Pat joined the New Horizons of Minnesota team in July of 2008. Pat's 15-year background as an adult learning specialist and trainer/facilitator for a major airline has given her the real-world experience needed to effectively deliver business skills education such as Conflict Resolution, Negotiating, Team Skills, Time Management and Leadership. Pat also currently teaches Microsoft Office classes including PowerPoint, Word, Outlook and Windows. Pat is an enthusiastic instructor, considers herself a lifetime learner, and always enjoys sharing those “ah-ha” moments with her students. Pat has a BA degree in speech communication and broadcasting and has also begun a Masters Program in Organizational Development. She has been a professional singer and actress and is still active in community theater and choir.
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Ron Hovland
Ron is the IT staff team lead and senior .NET developer instructor at New Horizons of Minnesota. Much of Ron’s classroom time is spent delivering custom classes for our clients. He also develops custom courseware for New Horizons of Minnesota and helps clients and colleagues troubleshoot software development issues ranging from program bugs to design concerns. In addition to his MCT certification as a .NET instructor, Ron has earned his ITIL v2 and v3 Managers certifications and teaches the full complement of ITIL courses. He continually receives top evaluation scores from students; in fact, he was the # 5 technical instructor within the entire New Horizons global network in 2005, having taught over 400 students. Ron also made the Instructor Hall of Fame in 2006 for his delivery of an ITIL Online LIVE course. Ron also authored the ITIL v3 Foundation and ITIL v3 Foundation Bridge courseware for New Horizons. He has been in the training industry since 1996; his previous employers include Benchmark Learning, ExecuTrain, LessonWare and Pro Staff Training.
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