MINNEAPOLIS – Feb. 5, 2025 – FORTÉ, a leader in communication and collaboration solution design, integration and support, today announced the promotion of five leaders from within the company. These promotions are part of the company's strategic evolution to support rapid growth and further position FORTÉ as a trusted, strategic advisor to its customers.
"Since 2022, FORTÉ' growth has outpaced the industry, and we've expanded from 28 branch offices to 41 locations nationwide. The pace of our growth is not slowing," said Roger Patrick, Chief Operating Officer. "We remain committed to operational excellence and empowering our customers with innovative technology solutions every step of the way."
To manage continued growth, FORTÉ evolved its operational leadership structure led by Patrick. This evolution ensures the company has the right leaders in place to drive innovation, implement best practices across the company's locations, and scale to meet growing customer demand.
The following senior leaders have been promoted:
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John Bagnell has been promoted to Executive Vice President, reporting directly to Patrick. In this role, John will oversee all FORTÉ regional business units in the United States, fostering continuity and collaboration, driving regional growth, and aligning to FORTÉs value proposition. |
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Shannon O'Reilly and Roland Schlegel will both serve as new Senior Vice Presidents reporting to Bagnell. In their new roles, long-time FORTÉ Regional leaders, O'Reilly and Schlegel, will expand their oversight and support in existing regions, mentoring Regional and Area Vice Presidents, driving strategic growth plans, and ensure best practices across their expanded regions. |
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Michael Safranski has been named Senior Vice President of Operations, reporting to Patrick, where he will lead FORTÉs Integration, Delivery, and Managed Services teams to ensure alignment across all service lines and adoption of standards and best practices. This represents an expansion of Safranski's current role as VP of Managed Services. |
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Keith Yandell has been promoted to Senior Vice President of Innovation. In this role, Yandell will continue to oversee the Practice Team, emerging technologies and offerings and FORTÉs own Innovation Vault, which is showcased at each FORTÉ LIVE event held nationally. In addition, he will establish a new vision for FORTÉs customer experience centers. Yandell will also report to Patrick. |
"FORTÉ is committed to an environment of continuous innovation, continuous improvement, and employee and leadership development," added Patrick. "These industry veterans have consistently proven themselves and brought exceptional expertise and dedication to FORTÉ. In their expanded roles, FORTÉ is well-positioned to meet the challenges of rapid expansion and deliver world-class communication and collaboration solutions to our customers."
