Engineers

Meet Our Engineers

Sarah Arnstein

Sales Engineer

Sarah has been in the industry since February 2018 and specializes in UCaas, CCaaS and SD-WAN. She has held the previous roles of Patent Engineer (Hanley, Flight and Zimmerman) and Mechanical Engineer (Ford Motor Company).

LOCATION

Grew up in McHenry, Illinois but currently lives in Montana

FUN FACT

Big country music fan

HOBBIES

Leather working, Weight lifting, Crime TV, Traveling and Motivational/business strategy podcasts

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Ghazal Baniasad

Sales Engineer

Ghazal has been in the industry since 2018 and specializes in UCaaS, CCaaS and Backup/DR. She’s held previous roles as an Electrical Engineer for National Power Corporation, Continental Automotive Systems and Methode Electronics.

LOCATION

Living in Chicago but has visited 28 out of the 50 states

FUN FACT

Currently has 20 plants and counting

HOBBIES

Hot yoga, Gardening, Cooking , Game Nights

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David Bjerke

Sales Engineer

David has been in the industry since 2013 and specializes in Cloud, IaaS, DaaS, and Backup & DR. He’s held previous positions at AVANT in Operations, Commissions, and IT.

LOCATION

Hails from Wisconsin, currently living in Chicago

FUN FACT

Loyal fan of all Wisconsin-based sports teams

HOBBIES

Fitness, Listening To Music, Tech Gadgets

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Peter Callowhill

Director

Peter has more than 25 years experience with specialties in Connectivity, Colo, UCaaS, CCaaS and Telecom Expense Management. His previous roles include sales management and co-founding CLEC, ISP, Colo and TEM companies.

LOCATION

California dreamin’ in the San Francisco North Bay area

FUN FACT

Married, proud father and grandfather

HOBBIES

Long-suffering Philadelphia Eagles and Phillies fan, Entrepreneurship, Reading, Music and Wood Working

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Bill Franklin

Senior Director

Bill has 10 years of pre-sales engineering experience across a variety of specialities including IaaS, SD-WAN, Security and Whiteboarding. He’s held previous roles as a Senior SE EMC (NetApp) and Pre-Sales Lead (EMC/CDW).

LOCATION

Chicago native and FAN

FUN FACT

Considers himself a technologist

HOBBIES

Scuba, Golf, Travel and coaching kids

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Chip Hoisington

Senior Director

Chip brings more than 25 years of technology, engineering, and sales experience to the AVANT team.

LOCATION

Calls Arlington, Virginia home

FUN FACT

Married with two daughters and Tilly, the family dog

HOBBIES

Bass fishing, College football and basketball fan, Real estate investing, Technology learning and history

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Dane Menke

Senior Sales Engineer

Dane brings 13 years of industry experience to AVANT with an emphasis on Cloud, IaaS, Security, and Backup/DR. He’s held previous roles as a Solutions Architect (Singlehop/INAP) and Systems Engineer (Hipskind).

LOCATION

Makes the Chicago suburbs his home

FUN FACT

Married with one child, two dogs, one fish and one snake

HOBBIES

Soccer, Netflix , Antique shopping

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Niko O'Hara

Senior Director

Niko brings eight years of industry experience in Cloud, SD-WAN, and Backup/DR. Prior to joining AVANT he held the role of Electrical Engineer (S&C Electric).

LOCATION

Chicago suburbs

FUN FACT

Married with two French Bulldogs

HOBBIES

Basketball, Game nights, Superhero Movies and Video Games

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John Paullin

Director

John has 13 years of industry experience in UCaaS, CCaaS, SD-WAN and Conferencing/Collaboration. He’s held previous roles as a Solutions Engineer (Stratosphere Networks), Sales Engineer and Web Collaboration Specialist (InterCall).

LOCATION

Cleveland native – Go Browns! – but a Chicago resident since 2007

FUN FACT

Met his future wife in the industry

HOBBIES

Cooking, Game nights, Traveling and History

LET'S CHAT