Officers
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- Brent Allen — Co Founder
Brent Allen is Co-Founder of Falkor Group, an information technology staffing and consulting services firm based in Chicago, Illinois. Brent is also a founder and active leader of two other Chicago-based organizations, Bastion LLC and CBA Ventures.Brent Allen's entrepreneurial spirit is evident throughout his career—from launching a fraternity while still in college, to founding three thriving businesses since May of 2002, when he and his two partners founded Falkor Group. Brent has led Falkor Group to more than 50% annual growth every year the business has been open. Most notable about this growth is that, economically speaking, Brent couldn't have picked a worse time to open an IT business than May of 2002.
Prior to founding Falkor Group, Brent served a high-tech staffing firm as a Senior Account Executive and then as Vice President of Sales, Vice President of Marketing, Principal, and Executive Board member. Brent consistently produced 30% of the firm's annual sales volume, and helped dramatically increase its overall gross revenue.
As VP of Sales, Brent was responsible for overseeing all revenue production for the firm, directing sales activities and managing individual Account Executive production for three offices. As a leader of the organization, Brent played a major role in budget planning, company policy making, strategic partnership development, and executive level planning, as well as contributing to the overall strategic vision and direction of the company.
As Vice President of Marketing, Brent helped lead the firm into repositioning itself as a complete solutions provider, well beyond its prior position only in staff augmentation.
Brent's early career laid a solid foundation for his more recent endeavors—gaining experience in developing and applying technology solutions, managing a staffing organization, and providing clients with complete IT outsourcing solutions.
Brent earned his bachelor of science from Northern Illinois University, where he studied public affairs and political science. During his time at NIU, he founded a fraternity, which grew into a thriving, $400,000 organization in two years. After college, Brent began his career as a state and federal lobbyist, working on a multitude of issues, including tax abatement.
Heavily involved in the Community, Brent sits on the Board of Directors for the Silk Road Theatre Project in Chicago as the head of the finance committee and also sits on the Children's Memorial Hospital Corporate Champions Board. The Corporate Champions Board has become a very personal mission for Brent as both of his children have been patients there. Fundraising is the main focus of the board and Brent was able to raise $15,000 personally during his participation in an Ironman competition in 2006.
Brent has presented solution selling techniques and training at national sales kickoffs for several firms and has been a guest speaker on Entrepreneurship at Depaul University.
In spare time, Brent is an outdoor enthusiast and studies—and teaches—martial arts. Brent relishes every minute with his two boys, Briar and Greyson and his wife of 15 years Stefanie.
- Ben Wilson — Co Founder
Ben Wilson is Co-Founder of Falkor Group, an information technology staffing and consulting services firm based in Chicago, Illinois.
Ben's talent for business started in a classically American way with a paper route. Later, he and a friend ran an unofficial student store at an International boarding school, seeing a need for flats of soda and candy and filling it. He feels that enabled him to have a constant supply of Diet Coke.
The crucible of the 90s found Ben leading teams as a manager at SAM'S Club Stores, a division of WAL-MART STORES, Inc. to managing a field force of over 55 wireless representatives at the nation's first national cellular re-seller. There, he found a passion for technology and when he moved back to Chicago, he dove head first into the equities and futures markets providing data feed services.
Technology called him in a major way when Brent recruited him to work at a high-tech staffing firm as a Senior Account Executive. As a Senior Account Executive, Ben was responsible for finding new clients and working with existing clients to support their IT staffing and project needs.
Ben earned his bachelor of arts from University of Arizona, where he studied organization behavior and communication as well as marketing. During his time at U of A, he wrote, produced and performed in several productions in Tucson.
When not at work, Ben is active in his church and local charity. Also, he is a frequent speaker on Parenting and the Internet, covering topics ranging from safety to best practices within the home and business. When trying to escape the hustle and bustle, he and his wife of 10 years, can be found chasing their three children around a park.
- Marvin Korves — VP of Sales/MarketingMarvin Korves is the Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Falkor Group. Marvin joined Falkor Group in December of 2004 as the Director of Consulting Services where he was responsible for the management of the customer experience as well as management of the technical consulting staff.
Marvin's IT experience began in the 1980's. After being honorably discharged from the US Army in 1987 where he spent 4 years as a Signal Intelligence Crypto Analyst - Russian speaker, Marvin began his formal education in pursuit of his career in information technology.
In 1990, Marvin took his first position with Allsup Inc, in Belleville, IL as an application developer and soon had the opportunity to become the Novell System Administrator. He later became the company's Novell Engineer. His ability to learn quickly on the job and embrace new challenges were key contributing factors to each successive promotion.
Within a few years, Marvin had moved on to become the technology coordinator for a Wm M. Mercer, where he was responsible for all of the company's technology. As he likes to say, "If you plugged it into the wall, I was responsible for it." With this broad range of responsibility, Marvin not only was tasked with supporting and maintaining the company's enterprise technology, but he was also responsible for budgeting and employee training.
His position at Mercer led Marvin to his first network consulting position, where he provided network design and implementation services for a large healthcare conglomerate for Whittaker Communications. This role afforded him the opportunity to travel around the Midwest, and brought him to Chicago.
Soon after arriving to Chicago, he accepted a position as a Microsoft Engineer for an Oak Brook-based firm, Subject Wills & Company.
Two years later, Marvin moved on Sprint Paranet as a Microsoft Engineer. The new firm offered the opportunity to fulfill his ultimate goal of becoming the district level IT manager. In this role he had as many as 160 technology employees reporting to him, and he was responsible for these employees' career development, training, guidance, and supervision.
In December of 2004, Marvin joined Falkor Group as Director of Consulting Services. A year later, Marvin was made Principal in the company. On a daily basis, he managed the Falkor technology support provided to all company clients. He was responsible for helping define the IT consultant's role for the firm, helping ensure that every client engagement receives maximum technology vision and effective implementation.
Marvin takes an innovative approach to problem-solving. As a strong proponent of fact-based management and problem-solving, Marvin is uniquely suited to working through both client and employee concerns. He feels the two groups are so intricately related, that helping one group invariably aids the other as well.
In 2008, Marvin became Vice President of Sales and Marketing and was responsible for the creation and roll out of Falkor's Managed Service products. Marvin was also asked to serve on the Board of Directors for Alternatives, Inc. a non-profit charity supported by Falkor Group dedicated to serving youth on the North Side of Chicago.