Russell B. Leavitt,
Chief Executive Officer

A co-founder of Fire Materials Group, LLC,  Mr. Leavitt is responsible for Long-Range Strategic Planning, Business Development, Marketing, Human Resources, and Finance. 

Most recently, Mr. Leavitt was the President and Chief Operating Officer of TVA Fire and Life Safety.  He continues to serve on the company’s Board of Directors.  Mr. Leavitt also co-founded the Fire Design Group, which specialized in providing fire protection design documents for architects, developers, and contractors.

Mr. Leavitt is active in many trade associations, and has served in numerous leadership positions including several NFPA committees: NFPA 25 (Inspections, Testing, and Maintenance) and the correlating committee for NFPA 5000 (Building Code).  He is a nationally recognized expert in fire sprinkler systems and a regular instructor and speaker for numerous organizations including the American Fire Sprinkler Association (AFSA).  Mr. Leavitt has written numerous articles, including the study guide for NICET certification in the Field of Fire Sprinkler System Testing and Inspections published by the AFSA.  Mr. Leavitt is a Level IV NICET certified fire sprinkler layout technician and holds licenses in more than thirty states for Fire Protection Contracting System Inspections and Testing. Mr. Leavitt earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. 

James W. Tomes,
President

Mr. James Tomes, provides overall leadership for the Telgian Companies. Mr. Tomes focuses on Long-Range Strategic Planning and Business Development, as well as Marketing, Personnel, and Finance. Prior to becoming COO in 2007, Mr. Tomes held positions in TVA Fire and Life Safety, Inc. as Chief Executive Officer, President and Chief Operating Officer, Executive Vice President of Marketing and Sales, and Chief Financial Officer. He joined TVA as an Account Executive in 1990 after assisting with long-range planning for the company. He is a graduate of Brown University with a Degree in Business Economics and a focus on Corporate Finance.

Charles R. Brown, Jr.
Chief Operations Officer

Charles Brown joined Fire Materials Group in March 2004, and is responsible for the Information Systems, Marketing efforts and Sales Operations. Prior to joining Fire Materials Group, LLC, Mr. Brown was President and Managing Partner of Charles Brown Management, a professional services company specializing in corporate growth through implementation and redevelopment of operations, information management systems, call centers, CRM, and change management.

Mr. Brown’s career accomplishments include project management leadership in the design, implementation, and operational development of ADT’s national sales and service center in Jacksonville, Florida, which allowed ADT to double its consumer business within a few short years. As a Director at Wells Fargo Alarm, Mr. Brown led the final release and roll out of SecureVision, an innovative product.  At SecurityLink from Ameritech, Mr. Brown built a national sales and service center designed to accommodate the company’s rapid growth and subsequent sale to ADT/Tyco.  At Charles Brown management he led a professional services group that served global companies like Citibank, American Express, Belgicom and many others. 

Rick Papworth
Chief Financial Officer

Mr. Papworth joined Telgian in July 2006 and, as Chief Financial Officer, is responsible for Telgian’s Finance and Accounting functions.  Prior to joining Telgian, Mr. Papworth was Controller of the $500 million Phoenix division of publicly-traded homebuilder Meritage Homes, Inc. (NYSE:MTH).

Mr. Papworth, a CPA, has nearly 20 years experience as a Finance and Accounting Executive with growing, mid-sized companies.  He has worked predominantly at publicly traded companies such as Morrison Homes, Inc. (Treasurer), the US homebuilding division of UK based George Wimpey PLC, Wilshire Financial Services Group, Inc. (Controller) and its banking subsidiary Beverly Hills Bancorp (CFO), and Kronos Advanced Technologies, Inc. (CFO).  He has been involved in the capital markets supporting an IPO with Wilshire Financial Services Group, Inc. and several secondary offerings with both Wilshire and with Kronos.

Dana Parker,
Executive Vice President, Business Development
Mr. Parker joined the company in 2004. He is responsible for developing strategies that build market share, penetrate new market segments, and position the company for future growth. He is also charged with recruiting and developing additional team members. Mr. Parker came to TVA from GE GAP Services/Industrial Risk Insurers. He has more than eighteen years of experience in the loss prevention field and has spent more than twelve years serving in leadership and management positions. Mr. Parker has a Degree in Chemical Engineering from Youngstown State University.

Karen Bradbury,
Vice President, National Accounts

Ms. Bradbury joined Fire Materials Group, LLC in April 2002 and has served as the Vice President of National Accounts since July 2004.  She maintains her leadership role in the same capacity for Telgian Inc. Prior to her current position, Ms. Bradbury had numerous managerial responsibilities at Fire Materials Group operations, including database management, testing and inspection scheduling, and in-house IT troubleshooting and support.  Before joining Fire Materials Group, LLC, Ms. Bradbury was employed by the Fountain Hills Unified School District, where she was responsible for the management of a district-wide training program for teachers in the use of software and hardware for the classroom. Ms. Bradbury graduated from college with a Degree in Marketing.

Tom Parrish,
Vice President, Integrated Systems

Tom Parrish joined Telgian in October 2003 and leads the organizations efforts on self-performed installations.  He also manages the companies internal security and life safety program at all Telgian facilities. Prior to joining the company, Mr. Parrish was a Lead fire alarm designer for TVA Fire and Life Safety where he assisted and facilitated training, provided vital supervision on alarm installation programs and field design of systems for high profile clients such as the Disney Corporation.

Mr. Parrish has 17 years of experience in fire protection and emergency response.  He has held positions with municipal fire, law enforcement and emergency medical services and in private sector systems design and installation programs.  He maintains an active commitment to the profession as an on-call firefighter and is currently certified in firefighting, emergency medical treatment, weapons of mass destruction and hazardous materials response. 

Professional credentials include Level IV NICET certified fire alarm technician, current licensing as a alarm technician, Journeyman and Master electrician and Board certification as a Physical Security Professional by ASIS.  Mr. Parrish earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Technology from the Kean University of New Jersey.

Ralph Bless,
Executive Vice President, Design

Mr. Bless joined TVA Fire & Life Safety, Inc. in July 1998 and has served in multiple technical and leadership roles.  Mr. Bless serves as Executive Vice President of Design for Telgian, and is responsible for Telgian’s Design functions.  This includes fire suppression system, fire alarm and intrusion system analysis and design as well as municipal and shop drawing plan review.

Mr. Bless, a Professional Engineer licensed in 6 states, has 27 years experience in various aspects of fire protection engineering, including system design, consulting, risk analysis, and code review.  He has served as a liaison between customers, authorities having jurisdiction, and contractors/suppliers, and has expertise in the design of water-based fire suppression systems and fire and smoke modeling.  He is a Level IV NICET senior certified fire sprinkler layout technician and holds several state and national certifications. 

Steve Goyette,
Executive Vice President, Risk and Compliance

Steve Goyette joined TVA Fire and Life Safety in November 1991and has served as Executive Vice President of Risk and Compliance since January 2008, overseeing the operations of Telgian’s loss control engineering services as well as its sprinkler and alarm testing and inspections team. 

Prior to this current role within Telgian, Mr. Goyette has served as CFO and Division Vice President at TVA after joining the company as a Fire Sprinkler Designer and Fire Protection Consultant.  Mr. Goyette has 22 years of experience in fire protection design and consulting including fire sprinkler contracting. 

Professional credentials include Level III NICET certified in Fire Protection Engineering Technology Automatic Sprinkler System Layout.  Mr. Goyette earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration, emphasis in Management, from San Diego State University

Bill Holden,
Executive Vice President, Construction and Engineering

A co-founder of Fire Materials Group, LLC Mr. Holden provides oversight of all construction and engineering services. Mr. Holden began his career in fire protection as a fire sprinkler design technician, and has held numerous positions including lead designer at American Automatic Sprinkler, Inc., and Vice President of Technical Services at TVA Fire and Life Safety. 

Mr. Holden was a co-founder of Fire Design Group and sits on the board of directors for Telgian. He is an expert in fire sprinkler design and project management.

Mark Beers,
Executive Vice President, Performance and Project Management Office

As Executive Vice-president in charge of Telgian PPMO (Performance and Project Management Office), Mark leads a team that is responsible for Client Program Management, Project Management, Project Coordination, Project Control, and Company Business analytics. This team’s duties include all client projects from beginning to end including managing the client-project relationship and project management, external stakeholder communications, and measuring and reporting company performance on goals and objectives.

Mark joined Telgian in September of 2007. He is a veteran of 35 years in construction management and spent 15 years as a Project Manager, Store Planning Manager, and Corporate Director of Construction for The Home Depot.  Mark lead the construction of 2,100 Home Depot new store projects while managing a budget of $2.5B per year in construction activity. Prior to joining The Home Depot, Mark built shopping centers, housing and commercial office structures.

James R. Baumgardner (Randy),

Executive Vice President, Contracting and Procurement

Randy Baumgardner is the Executive Vice President of the Contracting and Procurement Division.  Randy recently retired from the United States Air Force as a Lieutenant Colonel after serving twenty two years of service.  He is a former Deputy Group Director and Squadron Commander with an extensive background in logistics, maintenance as well as implementation of Lean management systems in manufacturing, engineering and service support processes

Craig Remsburg,
Executive Vice President, Human Resources

Craig P. Remsburg is Vice President, Human Resources & Organization Development. He was promoted to this corporate division position in November 2007. Prior to his present assignment, Craig conducted senior consulting projects in Fire Protection and Life Safety, and served as the division business leader for the Maintenance Division since March 2006.

Prior to joining Telgian, he was a Vice President, Senior Consultant for Marsh Risk Consulting/Kroll in the Emergency Management field. Craig completed a 20 + year career with The Boeing Company in various managerial roles, such as Fire Chief & Security Manager. He managed the Security Plant Protection organization with over 350 personnel at the St. Louis, MO facility.

Craig has an Associate’s degree in Fire Science, Bachelor’s degree in Management and a Masters degree in Security Management. He was on the adjunct faculty at Webster University, St. Louis campus in the Security Management Graduate Program. He also is retired as a Master Sergeant from the US Air Force Reserves, where he served as a Fire Protection Specialist.