Kevin Rubin

Kevin Rubin is the president and chief information officer of Stratosphere Networks and the president and chief technology officer of Converged Communication Systems. He has been named one of the top people in managed services and has also been nominated as CIO of the year on a number of occasions. Drawing on his extensive experience building a technology services business from scratch, Kevin regularly offers insights into and business advice on topics such as cloud computing, cybersecurity, unified communications, mobility, call center, business process outsourcing, staff development and recruiting, and diversity and inclusion, as well as other key leadership initiatives.

Graduating from Loyola University Chicago in 1999 with a bachelor's in business administration, Kevin began his career in tech during the dot-com era. Shortly after that, he started working for Lucent Technologies, which was the leading company for enterprise communication and call center technologies. Through his telecom and IT infrastructure work, he met Steve Melchiorre (the current CEO of CCS and Stratosphere Networks), and they founded CCS in 2003.

To better serve clients seeking help with their technology strategy, Kevin learned and performed all aspects of the lead engineering role. Over time, he has been immersed in ways to help businesses run more efficiently by architecting and advising on IP telephony, cloud strategies, and data center hybrid workflows. As the technology landscape evolved, he was instrumental in creating a managed IT (MSP) and security practice (MSSP), which morphed Converged Communication Systems into Stratosphere Networks in 2010. Through his process-driven mindset, he allowed Stratosphere to scale rapidly to meet clients' needs.

Kevin has acted as a virtual CIO (vCIO) and cybersecurity advisor to hundreds of clients during his time with Stratosphere and oversaw the company's internal team of over 40 security and IT professionals. In 2020, Kevin played an instrumental vCIO role in building Chicago's largest COVID-19 hospital (McCormick Hospital) in less than 10 days by orchestrating key technology solution providers and 24x7 onsite and remote staff. He also assisted with overseeing all aspects of IT and security solution design, deployment, and system integrations.

Stratosphere narrowed its focus to client-side technology advisory services in December 2021 when Ascend Technologies acquired Stratosphere's managed IT and cybersecurity divisions. Today, Kevin helps businesses of all sizes and across all sectors bypass the traditional sales process and quickly identify leading solutions that can aid business operations. Additionally, he is a contributing member of the IT Security Executive Council for CompTIA, a non-profit trade association for the IT industry.