Rosemarie Mitchell
Chief Executive Officer
As CEO of ABS, Rosemarie Mitchell is responsible for strategic planning, product and service development, quality initiatives, and establishing the vision, mission and direction of the organization. Prior to co-founding ABS in 1982, Mitchell served as President of Creative Communications, a public relations firm. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Northeastern University. Mitchell serves on the Harris Bank Barrington Board of Directors and is Chair of the Board of Overseers for the Stuart School of Business at the Illinois Institute of Technology. She is past President of the Board of Directors for the Barrington Area Council on Aging and is a member of Vistage, an international organization of Presidents and CEOs. Mitchell also serves on The University of Chicago Visiting Committee to the Division of the Biological Sciences and the Pritzker School of Medicine.
 

James Tesch
President
James Tesch was named President in 2008 assuming responsibility for ABS's commitment to service excellence and its pursuit of corporate growth. Not new to ABS, he had served on the company's Advisory Board since 2001, playing an instrumental role in leading ABS' long-range planning process. Tesch began his career with Alcoa in New York and held a variety of positions of increasing responsibility over a 12-year period. He then founded Las Pampas, Inc., a business brokerage firm with offices in Albuquerque, Santa Fe, and Colorado Springs, managing initial public offerings as well as mergers and acquisitions for numerous corporate clients. Most recently, Tesch has consulted to CEOs in the area of organizational development, corporate vision, and strategic planning. He maintains a seat on five corporate boards. Tesch holds a BBA/Marketing Degree and MBA in Marketing and International Business from the University of Wisconsin.
 

Robert Koch
Vice President, CFO and General Manager
At ABS, Koch is responsible for financial management, forecasting, reporting and operational performance as well as positioning ABS for sustained growth. Prior to joining ABS, Koch served as Vice President-Accounting, Systems and Administration for the Industrial Bank of Japan and as Manager of International Accounting and Reporting for Baker & McKenzie. Koch is a Certified Public Accountant and holds a B.S. degree from DePaul University. He is a member of the Illinois CPA Society and Vistage, serves on the Board of Directors for a local service agency and is an elected member of his community's Board of Education.
 

Thomas Mitchell
Vice President and Chief Technology Officer
In his role as CTO, Thomas Mitchell is responsible for introducing new technologies that will enhance the firm's efficiency, increase capacity and continually improve service to ABS clients. Before co-founding ABS in 1982, Mitchell's IT experience covered a broad range of disciplines from applications development to sales and marketing management. Mitchell was General Manager of Uarco, Inc., an integrator of accounting systems for the business enterprise. Prior to Uarco, he was a Product Line Manager for Digital Equipment Corporation's Commercial OEM and Software Services. Mitchell began his career with Honeywell in systems and then sales for their family of main frame computers and services. He holds a B.A. from Northeastern University in Boston.
 

Stefan Schurman
Director of Business Development
As Director of Business Development, Schurman leads the firm's sales organization, working closely with top clients and prospects to develop IT solutions comprising help desk, desktop, managed hosting, and networking services. Previously, Schurman led account strategy and sales initiatives at Opsware, Inc., a leading provider of data center automation solutions. Prior to Opsware, Schurman was with IBM Corporation, initially as a Software Engineering Specialist within the Rational software brand, then as a product manager with the Rational Software Configuration Management product line as well as the Rational Systems Development solution. As a product manager, he worked with development teams to create technical strategies and product roadmaps, playing a key role in product launches and go-to-market strategies. Schurman holds a Bachelor of Computer Science degree from Carleton University.