Judging Panel Announced for 2025 Network Group Awards

Our independent panel will be scrutinising entries from the other side of the fence– Members judging Partners, and Partners judging Members– and scoring them against the criteria to see who they think is deserving of a coveted Network Group Award.

Member Panel

Aaron Hayes

Aaron Hayes is the Head of Marketing & Public Relations at Aabyss and a leading force in the marketing industry. 
An internationally recognised and multi-award-winning marketer, he has successfully driven brand strategy for global organisations for over twenty years. 

A Chartered Marketer and fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, Aaron previously held the position of vice chair of the UK North West CIM board and currently serves as the chair of the Network Group Marketing Cohort.

He is deeply committed to championing and mentoring marketers, actively contributing to the industry through his expertise. Aaron often participates in panels, delivering his unique and powerful insights on marketing trends and strategies.

Allison Cooney

Allison is Technical Director at Cusken Sync IT, with over 20 years of experience in the IT industry. Having worked in various locations around Ireland, Allison set up the business in June 2010, when she saw the need for a more personal approach to IT within the North East. With many years’ experience in the provision of managed services as well as tailor made solutions when required, she is passionate about looking after clients technology needs.

James Reed

From humble beginnings 29 years ago as a desktop PC technician, James has seen and done it all. Co-founding iTeam in 2004 James has provided the technical leadership which has seen iTeam grow through all of the business challenges that the last 20 years have thrown at us all and most recently, following the merger of iTeam with two other businesses, James has moved into the role of CTO with responsibility for the whole of the group. Leading by example James sets out to ensure he leads iTeam by example and is one of the UKs NCSC Accredited Cyber Advisors.

When asked what he would be looking for when judging for the awards James said, “I will be looking for suppliers whose focus is on supplying their goods and services in a manner which is supportive, engaging and ethical.”

‍Partner Panel

Brian Byrne

Brian has over 10 years’ experience in the Email Security space, now Co-Founder and CEO of Mesh. Having recognised that the needs and challenges of MSPs were outgrowing the capabilities of existing enterprise-focused solutions, Brian and his co-founders began developing Mesh in 2020. The first email security platform purpose-built for Managed Service Providers.

Brook Lee

Brook is currently the Vice President of Community and Channel at Liongard, but began her career in IT in the corporate sector running departments all over the US, from small businesses all the way to multi-billion dollar companies. She later moved to the MSP space and really found her niche in IT. Starting from the ground up, she has worked in all aspects of an MSP from dispatch to engineer to project management to vCIO to COO. Rebuilding MSPs while working as a consultant allowed her to help hundreds of people and companies be able to grow and mature. While consulting she found the Channel of the MSP world and realized there was even more to learn, new ways to be able to give back to the community and a whole new area to conquer. Since joining the Channel, she has found a new space to be passionate about her love of IT and an avenue to help those passions grow to fruition.

Brook works relentlessly to bring a spotlight to women in the channel and technical space by pushing events and planners to include women on keynotes and major panels. She also teaches sessions on everything from how to grow your MSP to hiring and retaining women to rebuilding your help desk and leadership development. In addition, she consults with various vendors on GTM strategies solutions.

She is the chair of the NA Women in Tech Council for GTIA, NA Executive Council member for GTIA, 2025 CRN Channel Chiefs, 2023 CRN Woman on the Rise and is a global, award winner speaker.

Will Connor

Will is the Chief Community Officer and Co-founder of inforcer, dedicated to helping MSPs evolve into modern, cloud-first businesses. With over a decade of experience in the MSP channel, he’s focussed on guiding businesses through the challenges of multi-tenant security and automation within the Microsoft 365 ecosystem.