Employee Highlight Archives - Carolina Advanced Digital, Inc.

Saluting All of Our Veterans

Today is Veterans Day, a day we join together to salute all American veterans, share our appreciation for their service, and recognize the sacrifices they have made in their lives to keep America free and safe. We know there are many family, friends, partners, and customers of Carolina Advanced Digital who have represented our country in their military careers – we salute their dedication, spirit, and sacrifices.

We would also like to spotlight the contributions of our five employees at Carolina Advanced Digital who are themselves veterans and celebrate their service:

Employee Highlight: Harry Taylor Returns to Carolina Advanced Digital for Encore Performance

Meet Harry Taylor, the new guy at Carolina Advanced Digital, who just happens to be an old guy at Carolina Advanced Digital you might recognize if you’ve been around long enough. Haven’t met Harry? Here’s what you need to know…

WHOIS: Jennifer Minella, VP of Engineering and Consulting CISO at Carolina Advanced Digital [Cisco OpenDNS]

Our VP of Engineering, Jennifer Minella, was recently profiled for a feature at OpenDNS, now a part of Cisco. “For this month’s WHOIS, we sat down with Jennifer Minella, VP of Engineering and Consulting CISO at Carolina Advanced Digital, to talk about security mindfulness, certs, and the Emoticons Technology Club.”

Employee Highlight: Richard the Lego Master

The Pro Services Manager at Carolina Advanced Digital is an integral part of engineering team. This position contributes to the development and implementation of organizational strategies, policies and practices. Our PSM also oversees the planning and coordination of client interactions, project creation and tracking to include document creation and review, engineer assignment and project oversight. In a nutshell, we really depend on our PSM! We welcomed a new Pro Services Manager to our team last week, Richard Helmer who has already settled in nicely with our team. We sat down with Richard to ask him a few questions about himself to share with our readers and we noticed that he holds one of our most cherished requirements to work at Carolina Advanced Digital—a fantastic sense of humor. Here’s what Richard had to say: Q. Richard, where are you from? A. I am from a small town just north of Dayton call Troy, Ohio. Q. While living in Ohio, what did you want to be when you were younger? A. Pro Services Manager for a small IT firm in Cary, NC…If my professional baseball career didn’t work out. Q. What do you love or miss the most about Ohio? A. I would have to say that I love and miss my friends, family, and Skyline Chili, a chili restaurant chain that is based out of Cincinnati. Q. Ohio and North Carolina seem so different from each other. How did you end up in North Carolina? A. My family vacationed along the NC coast while I grew up, so after I left the Army at Fort Bragg we wanted to stay....
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Employee Highlight: Rob Baxley–Big Man in Japan

Rob Baxley, Network Engineer for Carolina Advanced Digital has been part of our team for two years. With an arsenal of obscure bands and networking knowledge, Rob has an untouchable cool. He’s easy going, friendly, and always on the lookout for ways to improve the lives of others—most importantly team members and customers. Rob first decided that he wanted to be part of the IT world a few years ago. With some exposure to the industry, Rob purchased lab equipment, took a few certification classes and started working for a solutions provider who specialized in contract work for an Internet service provider. After hearing about a new opportunity from a former colleague, Rob interviewed with Jennifer Minella, Vice President of Carolina Advanced Digital and joined the engineering team in the beginning 2013. Originally from Marshville, North Carolina–a town nestled in the Piedmont, southwest of Charlotte–Rob graduated from Forrest Hills High School and enrolled in the math program at University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill the following fall. Rob is huge Carolina fan and never misses a chance to cheer on his Tar Heels—particularly the men’s basketball team. Later at UNC, Rob’s studies to an unexpected twist and he decided to minor in Japanese with the Department of Asian Studies. He was first attracted to the program because he eventually wanted to move to Japan after spending several summers visiting family who lived there. “It’s just so different,” Rob said. “I loved the culture, food, and people.” After researching ways to gain employment in Japan, teaching the English language was the most viable option. At the time there were...
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Employee Highlight: Julie goes the distance

Most of our customers and partners have spoken to Julie Allen, Inside Sales Manager on the phone or via email. Chances are that if you have purchased anything from us in the past seven years, Julie’s your gal. What you may not know about Julie is that on Sunday, November 10th she is ran in the 8th annual Gateway Bank Outer Banks Marathon in Kitty Hawk, NC. Julie moved down to the Cary area after graduating from University of Rochester in 2006. Not sure what she wanted to do as far as a career, she applied for an administrative assistant position with Carolina Advanced Digital. At the time, Carolina Advanced Digital was headquartered in Siler City and only had four employees. “I really enjoyed the family atmosphere and knowing that everything that I do makes a positive difference in our customers’ lives,” Julie states. After two years, Julie was given the opportunity to move in to a new position which would focus on customer relations and inside sales. She has also been a coach for Triangle Volleyball Club for several years and looks forward to the new season. But in recent months, training for the marathon has taken a huge chunk of Julie’s time. The OBX Marathon is a 26.2 course that is mostly flat and has two points of elevation—first at the Nags Head Woods Preserve, and at the Washington-Baum Bridge -a 35 foot incline that will lead into Roanoke Island at mile 23. Landmarks that Julie passed included the Wright Brothers Monument and Jockey’s Ridge State Park, home of the largest sand dune on the East Coast....
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