Leadership

Cathy Pickoski has more than 30 years of experience leading high performing sales, marketing and operations teams in environments of rapid growth and change. With Scantron for nearly 10 years, Cathy was recently named Chief Executive Officer of Scantron after successfully driving strategy, execution, and growth during her 2 year tenure as President of Scantron Technology Solutions.

She began her career at Verizon establishing herself in progressive leadership roles within the Consumer, Commercial and Public Sector Markets, which culminated in leading the Field Segment Marketing team for Western Global Accounts with annual revenues in excess of $800M.  She then moved to Lumen running the North Texas/Oklahoma Region and growing revenues more than 400% during her tenure. In late 2005, she joined Edmentum to lead sales teams in the K12, post-secondary, and channel markets as the organization transformed to a Software-as-a-Service business. During this period, her teams exceeded annual revenue goals and secured key contracts at the state level along with winning multiple contracts at the district and post-secondary level.  Prior to her current role at Scantron, over the last eight years, Cathy has lead global sales, marketing, print operations, and customer support within the business.

Professional Highlights:

• More than 30 years of success in transforming sales and marketing organizations.
• Extensive experience in the technology and assessment market segments
• Expertise in global market development and operations

Email: Cathy.Pickoski@scantron.com

Twitter: @CathyPickoski

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/cathy-pickoski-84a68ba/

Shaun Nugent is an accomplished finance leader with extensive experience managing hyper-growth, middle-market businesses in a variety of industries and organizational structures.  He has more than 25 years of experience in senior executive leadership and has led accounting, finance, M&A, IT, digital transformation, and business process re-engineering at numerous, successful firms.

Prior to joining Scantron in July 2020, Shaun served as the CEO and CFO of several major private and public companies, including Sun Country Airlines, Life Time Fitness, AllOver Media, and Champps Entertainment.  His most recent role was as Chief Financial Officer of Vireo Health International, a publicly held, specialty pharma company.

Professional Highlights:

• Raised and deployed more than $1B of capital through public and private equity, senior and subordinated debt and creative asset leases.
• Built and led two site-based brand rollouts from local to national footprint with more than 40 profitable units.
• Led the turnaround of a bankrupt regional airline with one old aircraft and no revenue into a profitable international commercial carrier with over a dozen 737-800 aircraft generating more than $350M in annual revenue.
• Managed teams from ten to several thousand in hyper-growth environments that resulted in revenue, margin, and EBITDA gain and increased shareholder value.
• Planned, managed, and executed three business sales that generated 4x to 20x returns on initial investment.
• Named ‘CFO of the Year’ in 2014 by Twin Cities Business in recognition of his many accomplishments.

Non-Profit Board Affiliations:

• Twin Cities Film Festival – Advisory Board Member (2015 – present)
• Common Hope – Executive Board Member (2009-2018)

Maria Incrocci, PhD, is a psychometrician with more than 16 years of experience driving psychometric and test development activities for national credentialing and educational healthcare organizations. She has a diverse background leading a myriad of psychometric, content development, publishing, and credentialing teams as well as extensive work with expert panels and examination oversight committees. Capitalizing on her expertise, Maria will be responsible for leading our great team of psychometricians and providing overall direction on psychometric support for assessment measurement, design, administration, scoring, processing, and analysis all of which ensure the validity and reliability of Scantron’s off-the-shelf and custom solutions and services.

Prior to joining the Scantron team in 2021 as the VP of Psychometrics, Maria began her career in assessments with the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy, where she rose to a senior management position directing all aspects of psychometrics and test development. She then joined the American Osteopathic Association as the Director of Psychometrics and was promoted to the Associate Vice President of Certifying Board Services — overseeing 16 certifying specialty board credentialing programs. Maria eventually transitioned to the educational assessment arena with the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons as the Associate Director of Assessment and Examinations, where she led teams to develop the residency Orthopaedic In-training Examination and a variety of self-assessment and specialty topic examinations.

Professional Highlights:

• More than 16 years of psychometric and test development experience
• Diverse background in senior positions leading psychometric, content development, publishing, and credentialing teams
• Extensive work with panels and examination oversight committees

Association and Affiliations:

• Association of Test Publishers (2008–present)
• Institute for Credentialing Excellence (2008–present)
• Certification Network Group–Chicago (2018–2020)
• American Educational Research Association (2010-2015)
• Federation of Association of Regulatory Boards Board of Directors (2011-2016)
• American Pharmacists Association (2006-2017)

Email: Maria.Incrocci@scantron.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maria-incrocci-62550a21/

Mary Michael Pontzer, PhD is a strategic executive passionate about implementing aggressive growth strategies to diversify revenue and optimize operational excellence. For nearly 20 years, she has been committed to improving business outcomes through meaningful product and service experiences based on thoughtfully crafted strategy and customer-centric transformation initiatives. At Scantron, Mary Michael is responsible for the Data Capture Solutions division, which includes all activities related to the company’s iconic scoring and scanning machines, as well survey and examination products and services across K-12, higher education, corporate, and government markets. These responsibilities include establishing and driving existing and future strategic direction for the division, as well as driving innovation, leveraging market insights to conceptualize new solutions to fill customer needs, and empowering growth through rapid and reliable data capture and a wide range of print and digital survey solutions for clients worldwide

Prior to serving in her current role, Mary Michael was the Vice President of Portfolio Management at Scantron, focusing on digital assessment solutions. Before joining Scantron, Mary Michael served in other senior leadership roles in the education, workforce, and assessment industries, at organizations such as ACT, Inc. as the Vice President of Product, and Learning Ally, Inc. as the Vice President of Professional Learning Solutions. Additionally, she held progressively responsible positions at Stride, Inc., including Director of New Business Planning. Prior to her work in the field of product and portfolio management, Mary Michael taught at community colleges and universities in Northeast Georgia and began her professional career as a high school English teacher in metro-Atlanta. Mary Michael earned a PhD in International and Comparative Education from the University of Georgia.

Professional Highlights:

• Adept at leveraging strong understanding of domestic and international markets, digital and print technology trends, and market intelligence to drive competitive advantage.
• Deep expertise in strategic planning and execution, business optimization, holistic portfolio management, and corporate transformation.
• Repeated success building exceptional teams passionate about customers, solving challenges, and the executing on ambitious goals.

Email: MaryMichael.Pontzer@scantron.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mmp11/

With more than 22 year of experience in Payroll and Human Resources, Tracey Ellis leads all HR related activities for Scantron—overseeing HR needs for Assessment Solutions, Technology Solutions and Scanners and Forms. She began her HR career at Weyerhaeuser in Payroll and General Accounting then moved to ConAgra where she held several HR roles, including Payroll Supervisor for the Food Ingredients Division.  Eventually, Tracey joined Scantron where she has held progressive leadership roles during her 14 year tenure, specializing in employee relations. She has also developed significant experience with acquisitions and employee integration.

Tracey is certified in Human Resources through both the Human Resources Certification Institute and the Society for Human Resources Management.

Professional Highlights:

• Certified in Human Resources through both the Human Resources Certification Institute and the Society for Human Resources Management
• More than 22 years of experience working in Payroll and Human Resources as both a generalist and a specialist
• Super-user during major software conversions at three companies

Associations and Affiliations:

• PHR
• SHRM-CP
• Member of Society of Human Resources Management
• Member of Human Resources Association of the Midlands

Email: Tracey.Ellis@scantron.com

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/tracey-ellis-hr

For the last 29 years, Brian Janning has held various management roles in the field service and support operations field.  Leveraging seven years of prior manufacturing experience as a quality engineer, Brian has directly managed depot repair operations, technical support operations, technical training, and a nationwide field service organization. These teams supported a wide variety of products and services while serving a diverse customer base in many vertical markets.

Leading all operations at a national service organization, Brian has driven advancements in technology and process improvements creating cost savings and competitive advantages for his organization. His experience includes major involvement in multiple acquisitions, large-scale projects for national customers, technical sales support, systems and process conversions, along with profit and loss responsibilities.

Professional Highlights:

• Direct operational management of
  • Depot Repair and Logistics Operations
  • Help Desk and Technical Support Teams
  • Technical Training Programs
  • National Field Service organization
• More than 29 years of experience in the support of a wide variety of products and services in IT environments for a diverse customer base
• Demonstrated leadership in national IT service and solutions organization

Email: Brian.Janning@Scantron.com

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/brian-janning-a567a122

Vern Kathol has more than 35 years of leadership experience in the information technology space including expertise in the areas of Technical Support Operations, Depot Repair Operations, Purchasing, Inventory and Logistics Operations, and IT Governance.  The breadth of his experience has also allowed him to play key roles in M&A activity within the Scantron Technology Solutions brand.  As Vice President of Hardware and Managed Print Services, his responsibilities include the development of growth vision and strategy, the execution of that strategy via organic service development, the creation of strategic alliances and the support of acquisition strategy.

His development of strategic alliances has driven growth in Hardware Maintenance, Managed IT and Manage Print Services lines of business. Vern has also established Scantron Technology Solutions as a key producer for a number of strategic alliance partners. In conjunction with the organic development of services, his IT Governance responsibilities produced supporting systems which earned him and his team the company’s prestigious Pillar of Excellence Award for Innovation.

Professional Highlights:

• More than 35 years of experience in the information technology industry
• Skilled in the development of growth vision and the execution of strategy to achieve results and long term cultural evolution
• Successful integration of acquisitions in support of geographic expansion strategy
• Organic development of market-leading Managed IT and Managed Print product lines
• Development of top-producing strategic alliances with major OEMs

Email:  Vern.Kathol@scantron.com

LinkedIn:  linkedin.com/in/vern-kathol-69241414/

Kim Larsen has more than 28 years of experience and first-hand knowledge working in the SMB Marketplace. She has been responsible for the sales, purchasing and deployment of more than $150 million of IT infrastructure, including: IT Managed Services, Network Design and Implementation. Kim also brings a wealth of financial management expertise, business partnership acquisitions, financial reporting and budgetary oversight to Scantron.

Kim provides leadership and financial guidance for the continued development of an innovative, robust and secure Information Technology environment. During her time at WRK Systems, her guidance strategy on realignment of the Managed Services Support model helped grow the organization by 210% in three years. Additionally, during her realignment of support strategies, she was also able to grow gross profit margin on services by 15% during the same three year window.

Professional Highlights:

• Proven ability to implement Managed Services Support models and strategies to substantially grow business
• More than 28 years of experience working in the SMB market with extensive experience relating to IT Managed Services
• Expertise in financial management, business partnership acquisitions, financial reporting, and budgetary oversight.

Associations and Affiliations:

• Omaha Chamber of Commerce
• Trust X Alliance

Email: Kim.Larsen@scantron.com

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/kim-larsen-1bb0b58a/