About Us
Tezla Group, Inc. was originally founded in 2003 as Avrio Group, Inc. in Salisbury, MD. Avrio Group's focus was delivering reliable and scalable IT solutions to local businesses on the Delmarva Peninsula. Over the years, Avrio Group grew into a nationally recognized provider of IT and IP surveillance solutions to both the private and public sector. In 2010, the IT and infrastructure development division of Avrio Group was purchased by Tan Nguyen, and renamed to Tezla Group in order to re-focus on core IP networking and the small business. Tezla Group's offerings include a wide range of technology for the small to medium business, but delivered by solutions and engineers for the corporate enterprise. Our "big business" technology and training allow us to create a more efficient "small business" network.
Customer Service Manager
Having seen Tezla begin from just a small acorn known as Black Oak Computer Services, Kim has seen the company grow into the huge oak tree known most recently as Avrio Consulting Group...now, Tezla Consulting Group.
Kimberly Hayward Riggin was raised in Salisbury with an idyllic childhood. After graduating from Parkside High School she went on to attend Salisbury University for several years. Realizing a career as a secondary school teacher was not exactly what she craved, she then moved to Statesboro, GA to pursue her passion in fashion. Graduating from Georgia Southern University with a BS in Family and Consumer Sciences with a concentration in Fashion Merchandising, Kim moved home to Salisbury and somehow found herself at Black Oak hearing unknown lingo and inevitably learning about AS-400's and pSeries IBM servers. What a switch from Fall and Spring fashion previews!
Kim found a home within the technology industry and craved to learn more. She began as the Marketing Programs Manager with Black Oak. This position lead to a Customer Service Managerial position as well as inside/outside sales and procurement.
Today, Kim wears many hats at Tezla. She oversees the Customer Service department as well as many of the Accounting details. She is in charge of client contracts, vendor relations, product procurement and is the Office Manager. Tezla values Kim's experience as well as her extensive knowledge of the Eastern Shore.
Kim resides in Salisbury with her husband and son. She loves cooking, baking, gardening, and long warm days on the beach with a great book! She also enjoys spending time with her son and husband.
Controller
Born and raised on Maryland's Eastern Shore, Beth has been with the Tezla since the word "go". She was one of the original employees back in 2003 when Darrin Lipscomb purchased the small business division of Black Oak Technologies and started Avrio Group, Inc.
Most days she can be found diligently "crunching the numbers" and filling out those never - ending pesky forms that seem to be so prevalent with any business. On other occasions you may find her working on a Human Resources task or even helping a customer with an accounting question.
Beth holds dual degrees in both Business Administration (concentration Management) and in Accounting. She has worked with various sized companies from Fortune 500 corporations to "Mom & Pop shops - in industries including Construction, Retail Sales, Waste Management, Consulting, Medical Practices and Computer Sales and Service. She even ran her own Accounting/Consulting business for several years.
In addition, she is a Certified Installer/Trainer for Southware Innovations Accounting Software, Microsoft Small Business Financials and Microsoft Small Business Accounting. She is currently working on her QuickBooks Certifications.
In her spare time Beth enjoys mountain biking, camping, traveling and spending time with her nieces and nephews. Some fun facts about Beth are that at various times she has worked as a traveling puppeteer, a MPSSAA Field Hockey official and a Red Cross Certified Water Safety Instructor.
Senior Consultant
A first generation American, Joe was born and raised in the Annapolis area. Having grown up in the Navy town surrounded by an endless sea of "middies" (Naval Midshipmen), he decided that a life on land would be best and joined the U.S. Army. During his time in the U.S. Army, Joe graduated from multiple technical schools scoring in the top five percentile of his classes. Joe's accomplishments in the U.S. Army furthered his professional career both as a soldier, and as a civilian systems engineer.
Shortly after release from Active Duty, Joe moved to New York with his wife where he worked for Staples, Inc. as a mobile technician. As a civilian, he quickly learned to balance customer service and technical support, while continuing to hold true to the values instilled by the U.S. Army.
Joe joined the team at Tezla Group in 2005 as a technician, where he quickly picked up the skills necessary to successfully support the everyday network infrastructure needs of the small-medium business. Having been used to corporate infrastructure support for Fortune 500 companies, and the U.S. military this was a very different environment. From 2005 through today, he has earned multiple certifications and awards from larger corporations such as Microsoft ™ and Cisco ™ . Joe continues to educate himself on new technologies and renews these certifications routinely.
Today, Joe works as a Senior Consultant and account manager supporting many of the client needs at Tezla Group. It is here that he is able to exhibit attention to detail, teamwork, servitude, and dedication to excellence to the benefit of our customers.
In his spare time, Joe enjoys taking his dogs to the park, playing massive multiplayer online games with his wife, and exhaustive workouts at the gym.
Network Technician
Born and raised here in Salisbury, Mike has been with the Tezla Group since 2007. Mike's main area of focus is backups. He dreams about backups, and has even created a unique way to backup the human brain. No, not really, but he's working on it. Mike is a valuable member of the Tezla Group's dedicated help desk which offers immediate phone and remote support to contract clients. As a member of the Tezla Help Desk team, Mike is able to maintain daily backups for dozens of servers, as well as provide Tier 1 support for the hundreds of managed computers under contract.
Mike has been Microsoft Certified since 2009, and is currently working on obtaining his Microsoft Engineer certification.
In his spare time, Mike enjoys outdoor activities, and spending time with his family.
Network Technician
Nathan was born and raised in the Salisbury area. After high school he attended multiple universities and studied computer science and electrical engineering. Nathan has played college baseball and soccer and also studied Italian and played soccer while living in Siena, Italy. Since returning to Maryland's Eastern Shore in 2003 Nathan has worked in the IT departments at Perdue Farms Corporate Headquarters and Downes Associates, Inc. as well as doing freelance consumer electronics installation and PC troubleshooting. Nathan started with Tezla Group in 2008 and during this time has become Microsoft Certified, and is working on obtaining his Certified Microsoft Engineer status.
Fun Facts: In his free time Nathan enjoys playing softball and basketball as well as weight training. He is also an avid Orioles and Terps fan. Nathan has bartended at Seacrets and Mulligans, where he was also the bar manager. He has a 4lb Yorkshire Terrier named Sophie Bee.
Network Technician
Jay has been living in the Salisbury area since 1973 when his parents moved here from Pennsylvania. Jay doesn't remember a whole lot about Pennsylvania. Ever since receiving his first computer (a Commodore VIC-20) for Christmas in 1982, he has been a huge fan of computers and anything related to them. When they started breaking, there was no one around to figure out how to fix them, so he figured it out for himself.
That knowledge served him well over the course of his long and circuitous route to the Tezla Group, which was delayed by a brief 22 year stint working in the nursery industry. Luckily, nurseries use computers too and Jay quickly became the IT "expert" for the nurseries he worked in, saving them countless dollars in the process.
However, this wasn't enough. Starting in 2008, Jay began to use his vacation time to travel to training courses and seminars to learn even more. He has earned several industry-recognized certifications, and continues to study and learn new things every chance he gets.
In his free time, Jay enjoys playing with his two kids, spending time with his wife, golfing, playing video games, and fixing his mother's computer. Fun fact: Jay has so far scored 100% with the guitar at the Expert Difficulty level on 11 songs in Rock Band. He is probably prouder of this than he should be.
Network Technician
Dan grew up in New England and moved to Salisbury with his family in July of 2005. Dan has been working off and on in the technology industry for the past 20 years and is comfortable in a number of different technology environments.
Dan first became a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer in 2003 and for several years was a consultant working in the Southern New Hampshire/ Boston metropolitan area. In addition Dan spent 10 years as a worship pastor leading large church productions helping them grow their audio, video, and lighting infrastructure.
Dan in his spare time loves to write and perform music. He also loves helping his wife with her photography business.
President
Raised and educated in the Washington D.C. area, Tan moved to the Eastern Shore of Maryland in 1999. Prior to moving to the Eastern Shore, Tan worked in network administration, consumer electronics sales and installation. Once relocated, he took a position with a local IT company as an IT consultant where he designed, deployed, and maintained networks for local businesses. In 2005, he accepted a position with Avrio Group in Salisbury as a Senior IT Consultant. He became partner at Avrio Group in 2008, and in 2010, Tan purchased Avrio Group from its founder, Darrin Lipscomb.
Tan began his college career at the age of 15, and qualified for his first degree at the age of 18. His studies included electrical engineering, computer science, and architecture. His college career was funded by several private art scholarships and grants from various organizations. During his professional career, Tan has also achieved certifications from hardware and software manufacturers.
In his spare time, Tan enjoys furthering his computer skills, wood working, drawing, audio design, and spending time with his wife and two daughters. He also has interests in classic cars, photography, and traveling.
