Leadership
A team that lives and breathes higher education
Our leadership team has the right combination of expertise in higher education, technology, IT, engineering, operations, customer experience and relationships, marketing, and talent recruitment and retention. We give colleges and universities the power to do and achieve more with leading-edge managed technology services that enable a thriving higher education system.
Scott Drossos
Chief Executive Officer
Scott Drossos is CEO of Apogee. He has extensive experience in higher education and managed technology services having served as COO at InterVision Systems after leading the successful merger with his previous firm, Infiniti Consulting Group. As President of Infiniti he transformed the company into a prolific cloud services provider.
Drossos also previously served as President and Senior Vice President at Pearson North America, as Senior Vice President of Digital Partnerships at McGraw Hill Education, and as President, Chief Development Officer and Executive Vice President of Strategy and Marketing at Edison Learning.
Mark Holt
Chief Financial Officer
Mark rejoined the Apogee team in March 2010. After playing a key role in Apogee’s first five years from 1998 through 2003, Mark left to gain valuable experience, and a change in climate, at Alaska DigiTel, a regional provider of cellular voice and data services.
While at DigiTel, Mark was part of a team that grew subscribers from 7,000 to 40,000 over 5 years. In 2008 the company was acquired by an Alaskan statewide telephone and cable operator, GCI, for $40 million. Post acquisition, Mark served as a Director for GCI overseeing voice and messaging products. With an institutional perspective on Apogee’s vision and more than a decade of telecommunications experience, Mark’s drive for organizational growth and scalability is well-suited to Apogee’s customers, employees, and leadership team.
Mark has a degree in Accounting from St. Edward’s University and has earned the designation of Certified Public Accountant.
Keesha Galindo
Vice President, HR & Talent
Keesha is a start-up veteran with a broad range of HR experiences. At Apogee, she serves as the Vice President of Human Resources, where she leads the people strategy, focused on making good teams great.
Working at GoDaddy.com in Scottsdale, Arizona, Keesha led the training and recruiting teams at a time when the company doubled in size each year for six consecutive years. She then joined the co-founders of Art.com working in their venture incubator advising on people strategies for multiple pre-launch companies, and then joined Retail Me Not to help reorganize the recruiting department during their IPO.
She’s a Texas A&M Aggie, and when not at work she and her family are watching soccer or planning their next National Park adventure.
Matt Loecke
Executive Vice President
Matt Loecke joined Apogee in 2013 and is responsible for sales strategy, business development, and day to day management of the Apogee sales organization.
Prior to joining Apogee, Matt worked as a sales strategy and management consultant to companies in technology, engineering, software, and pharmaceuticals, serving a diverse set of clients in North America and abroad. Previously, Matt served as VP of Sales for a collegiate media firm based in Chapel Hill, NC. In this capacity Matt was responsible for sales force management and development across 200+ campuses in 46 states.
Matt is a graduate of the University of Northern Iowa and the Young Executive Institute, Kenan-Flagler School of Business at the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill.
George Ragsdale
Vice President, Technical Services
George Ragsdale joined the Apogee team in September 2018 and is responsible for the vision and strategy of the customer service delivery model, as well as development of a common technology platform and integration strategy to support Apogee customers.
Prior to joining Apogee, George served as the CTO for Proactive Communications where he worked for 14 years before joining Apogee. George was responsible for the global operations of the company across North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia where he was responsible for driving business value through the implementation of automated and repeatable business processes to ensure an optimal customer experience. While at Proactive Communications, George played an integral part in designing and building the global internet service offering for data, VoIP, security, and acceleration services for Fortune 500 companies and government customers.
George has undertaken undergraduate studies at McNeese State University, Trinity University, and Colorado Tech. He holds degrees in Computer Science and International Business. He also holds advanced degrees, including a dual focus MBA from Colorado Tech in Information Technology Management and Project Management. George also holds various certifications in multiple information technology and management disciplines, including Project Management, Project Planning, Global Operations Management, and the administration of mission critical networks.
Peter Casanave
Vice President, Product
Pete has worked for over 25 years in the IT industry, with over 23 years focused on network security and mission-critical wide-area network services. He is responsible for helping to steer the architectural growth and development strategy of Apogee’s products, managing the team of product managers, developers, and architects, as well as the professional development, mentoring, and coaching of all network engineers within Apogee’s team of talented professionals.
Pete brings a lifetime of solid always-on networking discipline and strategic knowledge to Apogee. He is a combat veteran of the United States Army with numerous combat tours, where he received the Bronze Star Medal in combat, among many other awards and decorations. He is one of a few enlisted service members to have ever been inducted in the U.S. Army’s Bronze Order of Mercury, even before becoming a senior Non-Commissioned Officer. This was in recognition of his efforts in leading Multi-National Forces Iraq strategy and effort in commercializing tactical communications via Cisco-based networking and VoIP solutions and other efforts to make a more efficient and effective operational communications platform. This included time embedded with numerous branches of the U.S. Department of Defense in combat. He also led the U.S. Army’s communications effort at the U.S. Embassy – Baghdad, Iraq and the engineering team for the Collation Joint Network Operations Command and Control Center – Iraq (JNCC-I), both as critical Non-Commissioned Officer-In-Charge (NCOIC) roles.
Jacob Picart
Vice President, Security Services
Joining Apogee in 2023, Jacob Picart brings a wealth of experience and expertise in security compliance and related technologies, AWS and Azure cloud services, and network services.
In his role as Vice President of Security Services, Jacob’s responsibilities include helping Apogee clients assess and address their security needs, serving and overseeing our fractional V-CISO executive services for clients in need of security leadership, and continuing to build on the Apogee portfolio of managed and professional security services.
Prior to joining Apogee, and while building and running his own business, Jacob served as an adjunct instructor at Heald College. There, he taught a variety of subjects including Cisco-based networking, wireless, Microsoft and Linux server administration, infosec security, and ethical hacking.
Jacob holds multiple AWS and Azure cloud certifications. In addition, he has attained Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH), Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP), Microsoft Certified Security, Compliance and Identity Engineer, AWS and Azure Solutions Architect, CompTIA Network+, and Security+ certifications.