Expert Auditors
Art Yonemoto was a successful IT executive for a large technology company in the 1990s when he set out to reduce data and telecom expenses for his enterprise's headquarters and 38 branch offices. Instantly hooked, he changed careers. Now a 17-year telecom auditing professional, Yonemoto's Dublin, Calif.-based firm, Yonemoto & Associates, performs comprehensive, client-based telecom audits for enterprises of all types and sizes. Yonemoto personally has uncovered millions of dollars in excessive carrier fees, ineffective wireless pooling structures, bad employee cell phone behavior, misrouting of PBX calls, new competitive offerings and numerous other telecom-related cost saving opportunities. Yonemoto is co-chairman of Voice Report's Total Telecom Auditing conference and presenter of the “43 Areas of Telecom Cost Savings” seminar.
Chuck Taylor is a 30-year telecom pro who has worked in all areas of voice, data and cellular. He spent most of his career in the corporate world but has now taken his experience and branched out on his own. Chuck is working as a telecommunications consulting agent and specializes in helping companies reduce their telecom expenses. Chuck has always been convinced that most companies are paying too much, and the scary thing is a lot them don’t know what they don’t know.
Denise Munro is the principal consultant and owner of CRG Telecom Inc. (d/b/a Cost Reduction Group), an organization she has been associated with since 1994. She has 23 years of experience in telecommunications expense reduction and management, telecommunications system hardware/software design, RFP development and analysis, implementation, project management and end-user training. She has coordinated projects ranging from small telephone systems for basic offices to large, complex voice communications networks for Fortune 500 companies.
Munro is a nationally known speaker and educator in the area of telecom expense audits and telecom expense management. Prior to joining CRG, Munro was a senior communications analyst with Halliburton Company. Her responsibilities included the purchase of all PBX equipment for the company’s 350 domestic locations and operations in 100 countries, as well as the design and implementation of its international private voice network. She also had held technology positions with Centel Communications Systems and Four Seasons Hotels.
Munro has been an active, proud member of the Society of Telecommunications Consultants (STC) since 1998, adhering to the organization’s strict professional standards and rigorous code of ethics.
Jeff Cooper is a telecommunications auditor based in Houston. For 22 years, Jeff’s company, Cooper & Associates, has audited the telecom bills for 793 customers, recovering more than $2.8 million in over-billings and saving customers more than $10 million annually. Cooper & Associates employs five people and resides in a multi-tenant building in northwest Houston.
Jeff’s telecom career began in 1978 at Illinois Bell and he moved to Southwestern Bell before starting his auditing firm in 1987. It was at these RBOCs where Jeff learned many of the skills that helped him start his auditing business.
Jeff lives in Houston with his wife, Lynn, and two dogs. Their three children and four grandchildren all live nearby. When not working, Jeff likes to stay active with non-stressful activities like swimming and bike riding.
Ken Krupp has 31 years experience in global telecommunications. Ken began his career in 1978 setting up a customer contact center for an airline, including hiring staff, sourcing CRTs, PBX, call “sequencer,” phone lines and TFNs.
Since his first day in telecom, Ken has had a passion for expense and inventory management on an international and domestic level. He has extensive experience with ILECs, CLECs and LD carriers in 28 countries on 6 continents. Bill audits in any language are truly second nature. He has demonstrated great successes with cleaning inventory and reducing expenses.
Martha Buyer is an attorney whose practice is limited to the practice of telecommunications law, where she has negotiated a variety of agreements between providers and both corporate and government end users. She has provided a range of telecommunications consulting and legal services, primarily geared to support corporate end users’ work with carriers and equipment providers. In addition, she has worked extensively to enable end users to navigate international, federal, state and local regulatory issues. Martha’s expertise lies in combining an understanding of the technologies being offered along with contractual issues affecting clients. Prior to becoming an attorney, Martha worked as a telecommunications network engineer for two major New York-based financial institutions and a major government contractor.
Martha’s practice, the Law Offices of Martha Buyer PLLC, is a certified New York Woman-Owned Business. She is also similarly certified in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (SOWMBA). Since 2005, she has been the regulatory counsel for the Society of Telecommunications Consultants Inc., an organization of independent consultants who adhere to a rigorous code of ethics. She has just recently completed 6 years as a board member of this organization (www.stcconsultants.org).
She also currently writes a monthly column for the Bulletin of the Bar Association of Erie County, N.Y., and is a regular contributor to the Daily Record, another legal publication. Martha was formerly a regular contributor to Business Communications Review and the legal columnist for Computer Telephony and its successor, Communications Convergence.
She is admitted to practice in New York, Colorado, Wisconsin and Massachusetts. Martha, who is an adjunct faculty member of the Graduate School at Regis University in Denver, is a graduate of Colgate University, the University of Colorado’s Interdisciplinary Telecommunications Program and the Law School at the State University of New York at Buffalo. She was selected by Business First in 1996 to receive the “40 Under Forty” award for community leadership.
She has offices in both East Aurora, N.Y., and Boulder, Colo., and may be reached at martha@marthabuyer.com.
Stephen Leaden is founder and president of Leaden Associates Inc., an independent telecommunications/IT consulting firm providing specialized support in telecommunications technologies and ROI strategies. Steve has been in the telecommunications field for more than 25 years, 17 of those with his own firm. He is past president and member of the Society of Telecommunications Consultants, a national telecommunications association that requires objectivity and professionalism as a prerequisite for membership. Enterprises in the health care, education, manufacturing, financial services, publishing and government market segments have relied on Steve for voice over IP/unified communications consulting and telecommunications expense management/telecom auditing. Steve’s TEM/telecom audit practice has created significant cost reductions and ongoing savings to clients. He is a principal with TelecomUCTraining.com, a successor to BCR Training which provides independent telecom training and teaches a course on Cost Control of Wired and Wireless Networks, Best Practices.
Over the last sixteen years, Marcus Johnson has served in a variety of roles and in a wide range of industries including information technology, telecommunications, electronics and semiconductors, real estate development and finance.
Marcus earned an MBA in Marketing and a MS from the Interdisciplinary Telecommunication Program at the University of Colorado in 1998. As a part of his graduate studies in ITP, he helped start a telecommunications company targeting wireless users on university campuses and sold dial-up ISP services to students.
After leaving the University of Colorado, Marcus served as international operations project manager for Motorola. In his time at Motorola, he gained valuable international operations experience. His major contributions there included identifying opportunities to lower operations costs and additional revenue opportunities with new products. Marcus leveraged his knowledge to telecommunication equipment manufactures to develop a product lifecycle database to assist in planning and tracking profit potential of each product line.
From 2001 to 2006, Marcus was an independent consultant representing clients’ interest in negotiations with Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs) and Competitive Local Exchange Carriers (CLECs) across the United States.
In 2007, Marcus joined H&R Block as a telecom program manager, leading cost savings initiatives for more than 12,000 retail sites in the United States. He has facilitated multiple negotiations with customer premise equipment vendors and national service providers. Marcus also developed guidelines and a plan to standardize telecom configurations in H&R Block offices. He has delivered process improvements, resulting in long-term savings for the company. As a result of his efforts, he has freed several millions of dollars in capital for the company to reinvest in cutting-edge technologies and assets which will benefit H&R Block clients nationwide.
Sophie Boyko is a graduate of Newfield’s Coach Training Program, one of the three accredited coach training schools in Canada and is completing her post-graduate accreditation. Sophie has six years’ experience as a trainer and coach. She has trained people from all walks of life in public speaking, sales, networking, leadership, communication, listening, time management, team building, organizational management, strategic planning, branding, increasing job recognition and job satisfaction, event management and customer service.
Her reputation for mentoring and coaching with ruthless compassion and presenting with an intuitive and uplifting flare move and inspire people to take a deeper look within to get the results they want.
Sophie has trained companies with various selling distribution models including but not limited to: companies that sell their products through channel partners to retail, directly to retail, B2B, franchise and direct to consumer. Her programs can be used to train executives, managers, inside and outside sales, commercial and public sector, account management, support, technical support, front-line staff, domestic and international partners.
Since the young age of 10, Sophie has involved herself in ventures including door-to-door sales, franchise ownership, management and sales training, and co-founded a successful retail service business.
Sophie has worked with master franchise companies, franchise offices, resorts, fitness clubs and spas, entrepreneurs, start ups and individuals. She has worked with a variety of industries, including law firms, financial institutions, training and development, construction and environmental remediation, consulting firms, health and fitness, retail, health care, hospitality, software, internet and online-based companies.
Sophie’s experience includes the entire sales process, writing business plans, securing financing, creating and implementing business growth strategies, creating operations and sales budgets (including compensation plans), developing and implementing training infrastructure, performance objectives and measurement criteria, management protocols and reporting processes. She has also written operations and sales manuals, including scripts from answering calls to winning consultations to presenting and closing sales.
