Our Company

The core of CNT Group is its people. Click below to find out more about us and our wealth of expertise.

CNT Staff

Ted Brandt, President

Ted is the founder and owner of CNT Group. A senior level technology consultant, he has been involved in planning, configuring, supporting, and diagnosing networks for over twenty years. In addition to being an instructor in network technologies, Ted is a former member of Novell's National Gold Council, and holds certifications with Microsoft, Cisco, and numerous other vendors. Ted specializes in wide area technology, branch offices, remote computing, wireless networking, and cross-platform integration.

Ted understands his clients’ business models and creates infrastructure to support the goals and development of those clients. He avoids cutting edge, untested products, and integrates changes as needed for CNT Group clients. His commitment to community building and social justice, based on Jewish law, is reflected in the CNT Group’s dedication to ethical computing.

A classically trained musician with a Masters degree in Clarinet Performance and Music History, Ted taught at the University of Colorado at Boulder and the Naropa Institute. Married to Jayne, an occupational therapist and flutist, they have four children: Daphna, Yael, Shifra and Nachum. Ted also owns the CNT mascot dog, Bingo. Ted spends lots of time with his family (both outdoors and indoors), volunteers for his synagogue and several community organizations, runs the Jewish music group Klezmer V’od, and loves to cook and bake. He finds time for the business at unusual hours, which is why you may get email from him at 4:00 in the morning!

Cliff Woodward, Technical Lead

Cliff joined CNT Group in 2011, bringing experience and expertise in small and medium sized businesses. Before joining CNT Group, Cliff experienced success as an entrepreneur in the SMB technology market at the age of 22. Before pursuing a career in Information Technology, Cliff sought a future in education as an English teacher. Cliff has since dedicated himself to furthering his education in various fields of technology and takes great joy in learning the newest technical tools. His technical focus is in Windows servers and virtualization, along with network infrastructure and a pleasant end-user experience.

Outside of technology, Cliff coached Heritage High School’s in-line hockey team for four years through CHSIHL. He enjoys teaching Taekwondo and has earned his 2nd degree black belt. He is happily married and has three sons.

Mike Garcia, Senior Network Engineer

Mike has been working in IT consulting for over seven years. Mike graduated from Missouri State with a business degree in computer information systems and has lots of hands on experience. Prior to coming to CNT Group, Mike spent three years doing end-to-end IT in Springfield, Missouri. Mike also has extensive knowledge about VOIP systems and is our resident 3CX guru.

Mike likes to spend time with his wife, two sons and their daughter. Together they go for bike rides and enjoy the outdoors. He also enjoys woodworking and spends time remodeling his home.

Nick DeGirolamo, Senior Network Engineer

Nick recently moved to the Denver are and joined CNT in 2014 . He lived and raised his son in the Long Island area of New York. He earned his Bachelors Degree in Electrical Engineering at Stony Brook University and found a natural talent in the computer field while working as an engineer at Grumman Corporation. Certified as a Novell Engineer in the mid 90’s, he pursued network engineering as a career and has never looked back. “I was that guy with a backpack taking the New York City subway from office building to office building”. In the meantime he racked-up 20 years of consulting experience in the streets of New York and the Tri-State Area. His Information Technology passions include Business Continuity and VMWare and is thrilled to be able to share his background helping our clients.

An avid skier from the age of 12, he recently learned snowboarding with his son Nicholas and makes frequent trips into the high country during the winter season. Biking and Golf are two other passions. He also spends his free time learning more about technology.

While his heart will always be in New York, he is very excited to call Colorado his new home.

Jeff Wedgle, Network Engineer

Jeff started in the IT industry with the CNT Group in 1995. He later took an opportunity to join US West as a software developer since he had a passion for software development. Jeff was with US West/Qwest/CenturyLink for 19 years as a developer working mostly in VB.Net, Java, JavaScript, XML, HTML5, and vbscript. Taking an early retirement from CenturyLink in November of 2016, Jeff re-joined CNT in January of 2017. As a hobby Jeff develops software for the Android mobile device OS and has roughly 10 applications published on the Android Play Store.

Outside of work, Jeff's passion is playing golf (primarily in Scottsdale, AZ) and enjoys but usually doesn't have time for skiing, biking, fly fishing and anything outdoors.

Boris Bless, Network Engineer

Recently returned to Colorado from a 4year stint in the Pacific Northwest, Boris lived for nearly 30 years in the Front Range, yet still retains a “back east” identity.

Turning to IT after a career in restaurants, Boris has worked in User Support and Network and Systems Administration for over fifteen years in support of non-profit, social-services organizations. With networking and security backgrounds in Novell, Cisco and Checkpoint, among others, Boris looks forward to bringing an enterprise perspective to smaller environments.

Primarily an urbanite instead of the more typically outdoors-oriented Coloradoan, he tries to keep his motorcycle on the pavement and enjoys exploring new restaurants, live jazz, cooking and doing the New York Times crossword puzzle at campsites

Jeb Schmied, Network Engineer

Nearly a native, Jeb has been supporting local Denver based small businesses since the mid-nineties. He has a foundation in Novell, but spent 20 years running his own consulting company and supporting clients on every generation of Small Business Server before joining CNT in 2017. His skill set includes SonicWalls, network infrastructure, servers and end user support.

With two grown children, Jeb spends his free time raising bees and volunteering at St. Pius X School in Aurora, as well as helping out a couple other local parishes and schools with their technology needs. For relaxation, Jeb enjoys cooking for his charming wife and playing with the dogs in-training over at Freedom Service Dogs of America. (They’re always looking for enrichment and foster volunteers!) Jeb is extremely loyal, committed to his community, and believes integrity is the foundation of relationships.

Dave Maiden, Network Engineer

David was born in Indiana and raised in Texas. He started with CNT group in 2019. David brings 24 years of consulting experience with small and medium sized businesses. Prior to joining CNT Group, David worked for himself as a technology consultant. He also gained experience working at a university and a large non-profit for several years.

David has three children and enjoys spending his free time with them camping, hiking, and fishing. He also enjoys rebuilding cars and motorcycles. David also enjoys playing all sports.

Dennis Holgers, Technician

Dennis was born in Wisconsin but lived in Texas most of his life. He joined CNT Group in 2018 after moving from Pagosa Springs to the Denver area. He got his start in IT after enlisting in the US Navy and serving 10 years in that capacity, mainly staying in the Norfolk, VA area, with a 2-year stint in London, UK. He then worked for several defense contractors before eventually moving into the civilian side of the Department of Defense. Family and the lure of Colorado eventually led him to Pagosa Springs and then on to Denver, which is where he is now.

Dennis graduated from the University of Maryland University College in 2015 with a degree in Computer Networks and Security. In his spare time, he loves spending time with his family, going for hikes, and occasionally playing video games.

Testimonial

“Ted and the CNT Group provided our Tier 2 technical support for the five years I was CFO at Allied Jewish Federation.

He and his team are very knowledgeable, always responded quickly when we had problems, and always looked for both the cost-effective as well as technically correct solutions.”

- David Fellows, owner The Fellows Group, Adjunct Professor at Regis College