LearnQuest Master Instructors

Shane Bell is Practice Lead for IBM Cognos Business Intelligence and has over 15 years’ experience in the creation, implementation and delivery of technical education to internal IBM employees, Lab Services, Business Partner and Customers for the entire 15 year duration. Having come to LearnQuest directly from IBM Cognos, Shane has been involved from initial technical discovery, to planning, to completion.

Shane started out as a Micro Computer Electronics Technician, having received his diploma from the Toronto School of Business, graduating with honors before joining such prominent companies as Corel Corporation, Asset Software International (A Division of NCR) and Cognos Corporation. Shane also holds a graduate diploma of Social Work from Loyalist College, Belleville, Ontario

Prior to joining LearnQuest, Shane has delivered numerous IBM Cognos training courses for many subcontractors such as Exit Certified, Jack Morton, Newcomp, New Horizons, and Global Knowledge.

Howard is a technical professional and consultant with over 40 years of experience as programmer, analyst, designer, team lead and administrator. Howard has extensive skill in developing and delivering technical content in a wide variety of both soft and hard subject areas. Howard’s primary focus and area of concentration is open-source, Java-centric, web application development.

He has B.S. in Management Information Systems from Purdue University and also has the following certifications:
IBM Certified Rational RequisitePro Deployment Professional IBM Certified Associate Developer - Rational Application Developer V8

Itzik Maoz is the Director of Business Analytics Practice for Creative Computing with more than 15 years of Business Analytics experience. Based in Providence, R.I., he has advised, mentored and trained many of New England’s most recognizable companies in Manufacturing, Retail, Healthcare and Higher Education. Itzik believes that in order for a consultant to be successful and effective he should possess a “heart of a teacher.”

Itzik delivers high quality training and makes an effort to always include in his sessions real life examples from his many years of consulting experience.

Itzik holds a Bachelors of Business Degree and a Computer Science Education diploma from Hamaslool Ha'akademi shel Hamichlala Leminhal, Israel. He is also a regular contributor to Learnquest’s blog.

James Sullivan is the principal partner and technical lead of Arcisphere Technologies. Arcisphere Technologies is an application life cycle management (ALM) and agile methodology firm. James has more than a decade and one half of software engineering experience and has developed key ALM for several large organizations. James’s industry experience includes financial services, telecom, Health Care, Engineering and pharmaceuticals. James was employed at IBM as a Senior Consulting Specialist for many years.

James has a BS in Engineering from New Jersey Institute of Technology, a Maters of Science in Computer Science (MSCS) from LaSalle University and a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from LaSalle University.

James has the following certifications: IBM Certified in: DevOps, Application Lifecycle Management (ALM), Rational Team Concert (RTC), UrbanCode, Rational Quality Manager, IBM Quality Solutions, DOORS Next Generation, DOORS 9.4, ClearCase, ClearQuest, Java, Linux and SQL.

Robin has over 35 years experience in corporate training and adult education, including 15 years with IBM in their WebSphere Education division. He specializes in teaching all aspects of IBM MQ, DataPower, and Message Broker (Integration Bus). His background includes project management and consulting in various areas including banking, aerospace, and military systems. He is certified with IBM as an MQ v7 System Administrator, MQ v7 Solutions Designer, and DataPower Solution Implementer.

In addition to his training and experience in technical topics, Robin is also an MBTI Master Practitioner, licensed to administer Class “B” psychological assessments, and has completed Life Coach Core Curriculum studies with the Coaches Training Institute, a program that was adopted by IBM for training Human Resources personnel.

Robin’s past experience and employment history includes Candle Corporation, Tandem, Digital Equipment Corporation, Cullinet Software, Wang, and NCR. He also worked for a consulting company in Australia for 5 years, during which time he received qualifications in aerospace systems engineering and managed several projects in that arena.

David Pacific is a Business Analytics Master Instructor with LearnQuest, from Creative Computing. His dynamic career in Business Analytics has been largely dedicated to training delivery and onsite development. With experience in training engagements for many of New England’s most recognized Fortune 500 companies across the Manufacturing, Retail, Healthcare, and Higher Education industries, David has extensive knowledge around BA best practices and implementation success. He also specializes in overseeing key pre-training activities, such as analysis and requirement gathering and targeted coordination of scheduling and courseware for all potential training opportunities.

David has a can-do attitude, a personable demeanor, and patience, paired with an ability to relate training to real-world examples—signature traits that have undoubtedly contributed to his evolution into the very effective trainer he is today. David holds a Bachelor’s Degree from Saint Anselm College where he received honors for highest grade point average in his major. He holds certifications as a Cognos Developer, Administrator, and Master Instructor and is a regular contributor to LearnQuest’s blog.