JDA—About Us

Our Mission

JDA's mission is simple, and our straightforward approach has set us apart in the eyes of our associates and clients:

                                                          John Drake & Associates is dedicated to providing quality Service to its Clients,
                                                          while providing its Associates with current training, technology tools, and a
                                                          team-oriented, family-friendly, work environment.

JDA LEADERSHIP TEAM

Listed below are four brief bio's for JDA's leadership team (John, Luis, Todd, and Rick). It's important to note, however, that when we think about JDA's direction, strategy, and positioning in the marketplace and how our company evolves over time, ALL our associates provide necessary input to allow JDA to define and shape our business. JDA associates work with our clients each and every day (and night, in some cases). Our associates routinely provide insights from their close, working relationships with JDA clients—critical feedback that influence decisions we make in our business. John, Luis and Todd provide leadership our clients expect, but we value ALL our JDA associates for their hard work, dedication to quality, and valuable inputs that impact directly on JDA's who, what, when, why, and how.


John D. Osterhout, President/CEO
Email: josterhout@jdaconsulting.com

John has been committed to providing a high-quality, service product his entire career. Starting in 1970 while a member of the USAF, he maintained Minuteman III, intercontinental, ballistic missiles. After his military commitment, John entered the information technology field, where he was a field engineer for Sperry Univac and StorageTek. While at StorageTek, John became a field-service manager and began selling systems-software services in 1986. In 1988, he started a satellite office in Chicago for Davis, Thomas & Associates, which he grew to a $5M enterprise selling technical-support services. After the acquisition of DTA in 1997, John managed the combined Chicago operations of both organizations for the next five years, developing the office into a $20M operation while managing and selling a broad portfolio of services. Drawing upon his lifetime of experience, John creates the right atmosphere for the team at John Drake & Associates and provides the highest level of service to his clients.


Luis Navarro, Vice President, Business Development
Email: lnavarro@jdaconsulting.com

Luis has been involved from a sales and service-delivery standpoint in information-technology services his entire career. In January 2006, he joined John Drake & Associates as a partner. Luis is a recognized leader in the IT-services marketplace based on his many "win-win " customer success stories during his 23 years of business and information-technology, sales experience at May & Speh / Acxiom Corporation. From building very purpose-specific, IT-services agreements to long-term, multi-million-dollar and complex, IT-outsourcing arrangements, Luis brings a wealth of insight and experience that ensures JDA meets our client's information-technology objectives and business objectives.


Todd L. Miller, Vice President, Chief Technology Officer
Email: tmiller@jdaconsulting.com

Following a three-year tour in Europe as a military policeman in the United States Army, Todd spent the next fifteen years within the information-technology industry. His experience encompasses nearly all technology areas within the PC/LAN environment, including leading-edge expertise in Information-Security (INFOSEC) best-practices, strategies, and solutions. Todd has provided hands-on and delivery-management capabilities to a wide range of industry leaders such as General Electric, BP Amoco, Budget Rent-a-Car, and McDonald's Corporation. For the five years prior to establishing John Drake & Associates, Todd served as Network Services and Security Practice Leader for the Chicago office of a $700M, IT-consulting-services firm, where he led a group of forty-five network consultants. In that capacity, Todd served as strategist and architect for the creation of all service offerings, best practices, and client solutions. Todd provides JDA with time-tested and proven delivery capabilities, demonstrated through the successful delivery of countless network engagements.


Rick Birkenbeuel, Vice President
Email: rbirkenbeuel@jdaconsulting.com

Rick's entire career has been focused on successfully translating business needs into information technology solutions. Rick's early IT career began as a Local Area Network Engineer / Entrepreneur supporting a variety of middle market and enterprise customers through his consultancy J R and Associates. After partnering with Davis Thomas & Associates on a number of engagements, Rick was brought on as an employee of DTA to build the Network Services group. With the acquisition of DTA in 1997 came additional opportunities to manage delivery, recruiting and sales for a 700M publicly-traded IT consultancy. Since 2001, Rick has been responsible for the successful management and growth of a privately held 100M IT consultancy and the successful startup of another. Rick is leveraging his 23 years of experience to drive business development and delivery for JDA.