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Looking for a career that gives you a great income and the chance to truly succeed? The sales and technology programs at UCSB PaCE are real-world training that delivers immediate results in your professional life and fuels long-term sales career aspirations.
What are your natural selling aptitudes? Are you an Account Director who facilitates revenue growth, a Sales Engineer working for independent sales firms, or a SaaS Sales Executive connecting clients to their technology stacks? Our Instructors will help guide you to your best roles.
When you commit to high-impact training, you want the credit earned. Graduates of UCSB PaCE sales and technology programs are awarded a verifiable digital credential that connects hiring managers and peers to the competencies and skills you have mastered.
You may be more prepared for a career in sales than you think! Going from your current job to selling $50,000 deals every day in a tech sales career is less than six months away. With UCSB PaCE’s Tech Sales Program, you can get high-impact training with role plays and true-to-life business cases so you are prepared to crush it in a sales role.
Students rank our professional sales courses as among the best of their higher education experience, citing instructors for their professionalism and engaging classrooms, and curriculum for its real-world relevance and immediate application.
Debbie Holzkamp, Certified Technology & Sales Instructor
Debbie has three decades of experience managing sales teams with Fortune 500 and national companies to achieve more than $1 billion in sales. She created a successful business consulting company, sales-certified more than 2,000 adults, conducted more than 9,000 training field calls, and helped 35 companies in 26 states generate over $14 million in market share revenues.
As sole female founder and CEO of Virtanza, Debbie has created the only real-world sales apprenticeship program and online platform directly connected to universities and employers. She is the author of Virtanza: The Art and Science of Successful Selling for Business-to-Business Sales Professionals.
Stephanie King, Certified Technology & Sales Instructor
Stephanie is a leader with expertise in sales/marketing operations and management. Stephanie is a consummate listener and skilled questioner with proven execution and transformative vision.
Her 25-year career has taken her through many roles, including selling art, metals, and telecommunications, along with sales/marketing leadership in the CRM space. She is the founder of Stephanie L. King Consulting, a marketing consultancy, as well as three other ventures. Stephanie’s experience in education includes time lecturing at Mount Mercy University, writing test questions for the ACT, and leading testing operations with Pearson. Stephanie holds an MBA from the Tippie School of Business at the University of Iowa and a B.S. in commerce from DePaul University.
Tony Cuffie, Certified Technology Sales Instructor
Tony is the vice president of local advertising, labor, and operations at the Philadelphia Inquirer. A career sales leader and selling professional, he has worked in advertising sales and management for the past 27 years after 10 years of sales and management in the retail industry. A graduate of Cornell University ILR School of Industrial and Labor Relations, he has helped negotiate three labor contracts and served as first chair in the current agreement with the NewsGuild of Greater Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Tony attended Morgan State University and holds executive certificates from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, University of Chicago, Northwestern University, Temple University, and a mini-MBA from the University of Buffalo. A five-degree black belt in traditional Japanese Shotokan, he has competed in five countries, holds seven U.S. fighting and weapons titles, and teaches at two Philadelphia-area schools.
Bernice Burns, Certified Technology Sales Instructor
Bernice is a versatile sales leader and educator with a background in direct sales, content development, and instruction for post-secondary sales training. Effective at building rapport across a wide range of people and personalities — customers, undergraduate students, adult learners, and vendors — she is committed to providing individual service with a personal touch.
Bernice is a seasoned sales and management professional who brings over 30 years of real-world perspective to the classroom. She has exceptional communication skills and works tirelessly to connect with those around her to create solutions and drive results. Her career includes assignments at the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Business Journal, Thomson Reuters, and Gannett/USA TODAY Network. She holds a B.A. from Connecticut College and an MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management.
Emmanuelle Takahashi, Certified Technology Sales Instructor
Emmanuelle has a rich background with over 15 years of experience as a business coach and consultant. She works with clients to facilitate lasting changes that impact effectiveness, productivity, and satisfaction through a thoughtful blend of accelerated learning techniques. Through engaging, interactive approaches and stimulating, creative learning experiences, she establishes excellent rapport with participants.
A highly skilled facilitator and lecturer, Emmanuelle brings real-world experiences to the classroom. In addition to running her own practice, she has served in leadership roles in education, marketing, and business development at privately held companies, startups, and nonprofit organizations.
Emmanuelle is a certified DiSC® trainer and hypnotherapist. She holds an MBA from National University and bachelor’s degrees in international business from L’École Supérieure de Commerce in Troyes, France, and Hogeschool Utrecht in the Netherlands.
Andy Sklansky, Certified Technology & Sales Instructor
Andy Sklansky is the CEO of Driving Revenue Now (DRN), a consultancy focused on Sales Process Engineering. Andy joined Virtanza after a 30+ year career with significant overachievement of sales targets in companies including IBM, Dell-EMC, and Oracle.
Andy believes in, uses, and teaches a process approach to selling–his secret to success as a Top Performing Sales Leader. Andy gas coached and taught many Sales Representatives and Sales Managers to reach astounding performance against their targets and now helps organizations develop a system to increase revenue and profit by creating tailored sales processes that can be easily implemented by any Sales Team. Andy holds a MS in Management from Northwestern University, Kellogg School of Management and a BS in Business Administration from University of Arizona.
Kendal Nani, Certified Technology Sales Instructor
Kendal Nani is a senior leader of Learning & Development at CHG Healthcare. Kendal oversees and develops large-scale learning programs and sales curricula. Prior to CHG, Kendal worked for Goldman Sachs in client services within private wealth management. He then transitioned to the learning and development world joining “Goldman Sachs University” (GSU). As part of GSU, Kendal managed analyst, associate and vice president training programs across multinational offices. Prior to Goldman Sachs, Kendal worked for Backcountry.com as a manager of fulfillment where he led a large staff focused on supply chain processes (i.e. inventory management, receiving, process flow, etc.). His passion for teaching others led him to create the company’s first-ever training curricula and standard operating procedures for the entire fulfillment center.
Kendal enjoys traveling and the outdoors with his family including skiing, soccer, hiking and boating. Kendal holds an MBA from Westminster College of Salt Lake City, and a BA from the University of Utah.
Jon Lau, Certified Technology & Sales Instructor
Jon is president of UMBC Training Center and has overall responsibility for its corporate and government training programs. He is the technical lead for the cloud, DevOps, and big data training programs as well as emerging technology programs in deep learning, blockchain, and quantum computing. Previously, he spent 16 years as a software engineer and IT consultant, deploying and supporting mission-critical systems for commercial and government clients. He holds an M.S. in electrical engineering from Cornell University and a B.A. in physics from UMBC.
Dhruv Ratra, Certified Technology Sales Instructor
Dhruv is a San Francisco-based technology consultant and educator. He has used his problem-solving and communication skills over the past 15-plus years to help companies around the world architect and streamline their processes as well as generate business opportunities using technology and analytics. He has worked with multinational corporations, as well as government agencies and small and mid-sized businesses, and has even contributed significantly to the successes of numerous technology startups.
Along the way, he achieved his lifelong dream of joining the management team of a professional top-tier soccer club in Europe. He obtained his master’s degree in mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and his bachelor’s degree in mathematics from the University of Chicago.
Nick Anthis, Certified Technology Sales Instructor
Nick is a senior cyber and IT instructor for UMBC Training Centers. He is a U.S. Navy veteran, retiring as a chief petty officer after 21 years of service. Since retirement, he has worked as an instructor on several different contracts and has authored more than 20 courses, both for the offensive and defensive side of networks. His expertise ranges from basic IT fundamentals to advanced courses such as network exploitation and forensic examination. Teaching is his passion and what he loves doing. He incorporates many techniques in his teaching, from games like Kahoot! to challenges and competitions, and plenty of hands-on activities.
Glenn Webb, Certified Technology Sales Instructor
Glenn is a Cyber Security Engineer with Oracle by day. He has an impressive portfolio of technical certifications including AWS Cloud Practitioner, Certified Information System Security Professional, GIAC Security Essentials Certification, GIAC Penetration Tester, Object Oriented Programming, Database Systems Technology, and PECB Certified ISO/IEC 27001 Auditor. Glenn holds a bachelor degree in physics and mathematics from Stephen F. Austin State University.
Jessie Purdy, Certified Technology & Sales Instructor
A graduate of our first Technology Sales cohort, Jessie is a cloud technology sales professional and Army Veteran with more than a decade of sales experience. He is certified in AWS Cloud Practitioner and AWS Technical Proficiency. Jessie holds an MBA from University of Maryland Global Campus and a BS in Management from the University of Phoenix.