Our Management Team

Rich Waidmann, Chairman, President & CEO
Rich founded Connectria in 1996 and brings more than 25 years experience as a successful entrepreneur and senior manager of both Fortune 100 firms and technology start-ups. Rich began his career in sales with NCR Corporation (acquired by AT&T) and years later established companies ranging from Disaster Recovery Services to Enterprise Systems Management.

Initially created as a technology consulting organization, Connectria evolved into managed hosting through the unique disaster recovery requirements of a client, Deutsche Bank, one of the world’s largest financial institutions.

Since then, Rich has led Connectria to become a profitable company with global reach.

Rich holds a Bachelors of Science in Business Administration from the University of Missouri, and an MBA from Washington University in St. Louis.

Michelle Carter, Chief Financial Officer
Michelle Carter joined Connectria in 2012 as the company’s Chief Financial Officer, bringing more than 18 years of finance experience. Michelle is responsible for financial strategy, treasury, accounting, human resource & legal activities.

She recently served as Chief Financial Officer and Member of the Board of Directors for McAllister Software Systems, where she was honored for her leadership role during Henry Schein’s acquisition of the company.

Michelle holds a Master’s of Accountancy from the University of Missouri – Columbia and a Bachelors of Science in Business Administration from Southeast Missouri State University.

Dennis M. Hug, Vice President - Data Center Services
Denny joined Connectria in 1998, and is responsible for data center operations and outsourcing services at Connectria. His management responsibilities include the achievement of Connectria’s world-class data center’s performance metrics and service levels, along with ensuring the availability of the communications and computer infrastructure on a 24 x 7 x 365 basis.

Denny brings to Connectria more than 25 years of complex data center management experience from Union Pacific Corporation, where he was Director of Distributed Systems, responsible for operating one of the nation’s highest rated data center operations.

Rusty Putzler, Vice President – Engineering
Rusty joined Connectria in 1999, and is responsible for the operations and engineering of the managed hosting business. Rusty has been instrumental in growing this business as well as Connectria’s standard cloud and HIPAA compliance solutions.

Rusty’s brings 15 years expertise of architecting and managing mission critical systems to help lead Connectria’s technological direction, implementation and operations.

Prior to joining to Connectria, Rusty was an Enterprise Architect, Core Architect, Application Architect and Senior Software Engineer for Financial Services companies, including State Farm, Edward Jones and AG Edwards (now Wells Fargo).

Rusty holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science from the University of Missouri, Columbia.

Scott J. Azzolina, Vice President – Marketing
Scott joined Connectria in 2009, and is responsible for developing and implementing marketing strategy. Scott has over 25 years experience in technology sales and global marketing, with established Fortune 100 firms such as NCR Corporation and Unisys, as well as emerging firms such as Gemplus (now Gemalto) and Primavera Systems (now Oracle).

Scott brings his unique blend of strategic marketing, product marketing and new product/business development to help guide and generate Connectria’s growth.

Scott holds a Bachelor's Degree in Marketing from Saint Joseph’s University and an MBA from Drexel University.

Learn More
If you’re interested in learning more about Connectria or to receive a detailed quote on any of our services, please contact us.