Leadership
John Burns
Founder & CEOJohn Burns is Founder and CEO of Encore Technologies. Encore is a privately owned, full-service Data Center and IT solutions company focused on the Enterprise, Healthcare and Commercial markets. John has over 30 years of experience in developing entrepreneurial ventures in the information technology industry. During that time, he has served in leadership capacities including President, Vice President and General Manager.
In 1984, John started his IT career in sales at Computerland in Cincinnati, Ohio. In 1987, John joined several other investors to purchase a Cincinnati-based IT services and hardware reseller, which was merged with The Future Now in 1990. The merger expanded the reach and breadth of services to include the entire Midwest region. The company was sold to Xerox in 1998.
John joined CBTS in 1999 as Vice President of Sales and became General Manager in 2004. Under his leadership, CBTS grew from less than $2M in revenue in 1999 to over $400M in 2014. During John’s tenure, CBTS entered the data center business in 2000. That business grew to over 250,000 square feet of colocation space by 2010. In 2010, CBT acquired Cyrus One, combined the CBTS data center operations under the Cyrus One name and spun the business out in an IPO. John left CBTS in 2014 to start Encore Technologies.
A native of Cincinnati, John earned a bachelor’s degree in marketing from the University of Cincinnati College of Business. He is active in various community and charitable organizations in the Greater Cincinnati region and currently serves on the boards of Bon Secours Mercy Health Foundation, Cincinnati Golden Gloves for Youth, Mercy Health Foundation, The Anthony Munoz Foundation, The Dragonfly Foundation, The Joe Burrow Foundation, and The Joel Cornette Foundation.
Dave Burns
Senior Vice President of Data Center & Managed ServicesDave joined Encore in November 2016, to lead the design and construction of Encore’s first Data Center. With phase one completed, he now oversees the management of both the Data Center and Encore’s Managed Services organization. Dave has spent 30 years in the technology industry, the last 15 focused on data center, cloud, virtualization and managed services operations.
Over the last 15 years, Dave was responsible for the design and construction of several enterprise class data center facilities, encompassing over 300,000 square feet of state-of-the-art space. He also built a managed services practice from its inception to an organization that employed more than 100 full-time technicians and engineers, and drove annual revenue that surpassed $25 million.
Dave is a graduate of the University of Cincinnati, where he earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering.
Rick Dobson
Senior Vice President of Enterprise SolutionsRick joined Encore in January 2016, after spending more than 20 years developing companies and serving in strategic roles at Fortune 1000 corporations.
With experience in the technology and entertainment industries, Rick brings a unique perspective to Encore’s customers. A serial entrepreneur, Rick founded and developed companies in Kentucky, California, and Nevada. He also drove the advancement of technology initiatives and efficiencies with corporations that include: The Kroger Company, Sara Lee, Convergys, and Cincinnati Bell. The combination of strong business acumen, coupled with technical knowledge, is reflected by Rick’s impact on customer facing initiatives, which saved customers millions of dollars while simultaneously increasing revenue.
John Steiner
Senior Vice President of Professional ServicesJohn joined Encore in March 2016, to focus on building secure integrated architectures for customers. Prior to joining Encore, John spent nearly two decades in the IT industry. He started his career rolling out desktop computers to Midwest universities and hospitals for Entex Information Services.
In 1999, John earned his Microsoft MCSE and began supporting Microsoft computing environments at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center (CCHMC). At CCHMC, he began supporting the network infrastructure buildout and was responsible for the planning, design and installation of the enterprise network.
John joined Convergys in 2007, where he shifted into a consulting role. His primary responsibilities were developing network architecture and standards for the enterprise. He also supported the network delivery teams as they rolled out IT architectures to their worldwide customers.
John was employed by Presidio starting in 2009, where he progressively began designing and configuring Cisco data center, LAN/WAN, wireless, ISE and ASA solutions. John attained his Cisco CCIE in 2011 and continued to provide design support. He moved into a networking practice leadership position for the Great Lakes region, where he served as the Cisco networking subject matter expert for regional sales, sales engineering and the professional services delivery teams.
Prior to working in the IT industry, John served in the 75th Ranger Regiment with the U.S. Army. He is a native of Cincinnati and resides in Milford, Ohio, with his wife and two children. He currently volunteers as a wrestling coach at Milford High School.
John earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science from Grantham University and is pursuing a Master’s Degree at Georgia Tech.
Mike Schuetter
Chief Information Security OfficerMike joined Encore in February 2016, to build and drive Encore’s Information Security Program, to engage customers as a trusted partner; and to assist with business development efforts in the security space.
Mike’s IT career began in 1991, when he moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, to join a start-up IT consulting company. With a keen focus on TCP/IP and networking, he developed a strong interest in enterprise architecture, ultimately earning his Cisco CCIE certification in 2000. His technical interests transitioned toward information security, and has been his primary technical focus for the last 17 years.
As his own leadership skills developed, Mike focused his efforts on locating talented resources and building experienced and high performing technical teams. In 2005, he developed a security operations team for a Fortune 10 manufacturer that provided infrastructure management, assessment, as well as detection and response capability to its customer. Mike was later called upon to develop similar teams for other organizations. In 2009, he began developing a security assessment practice to provide technical and operational strategy to his customers that were struggling to address their ongoing security needs.
Mike earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Toledo in Computer Engineering and he keeps his CISSP certification active. Mike supports the IT community by participating in many local and national professional societies, and working with regional colleges.
John Stallsmith
Vice President of Infrastructure ServicesJohn joined Encore in July 2016, to drive collaboration technology through leadership and engineering excellence. His team is focused on delivering solutions that enable customers to foster teamwork, accelerate innovation and growth, and maximize customer satisfaction. John has 20 years of experience in IT management, professional services and enterprise support roles.
John began his IT career in 1997 at Caterpillar, with a focus on IT infrastructure and application support. In 2002, he joined a Midwest Cisco and Microsoft partner to design and implement network infrastructure solutions for their customers. John gained in-depth experience across many technologies during that time and earned his Cisco CCIE certification for routing and switching in 2004.
John joined Siemens Business Services in 2004 to concentrate on enterprise solutions and emerging technologies, including IP Telephony. In 2007, John earned his second CCIE certification in voice. He became one of the first dual certified CCIE’s, capable of deploying large scale Cisco voice and network solutions, end-to-end. In 2009, John joined a national Cisco partner that specialized in leading the delivery of Unified Communications solutions across the Midwest.
John holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Purdue University, as well as numerous industry certifications from Cisco, Microsoft and other industry leaders.
Nicole Skinner
ControllerNicole joined Encore in April 2016 in corporate accounting. In May of 2017, Nicole was promoted to manager of the department where she took on a greater role in Encore’s growth. In August 2018, she was promoted to Controller and is responsible for all aspects of accounting and finance for Encore Technologies.
Prior to Encore, Nicole started her career at Cincinnati Bell Technology Solutions in the Marketing department focused on customer engagement and supporting marketing initiatives. In 2011, she began working at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center in the Family Financial Advocate office, providing support to families looking for additional financial resources in the course of medical care.
Nicole is a graduate of the University of Cincinnati, where she earned a Bachelor’s degree in Business. She is also a member of the Southwest Ohio Association for Financial Professionals.