You pass them in the halls, see their faces on Teams calls, and exchange emails. You know their job title and department and might even know their extension by heart. But do you truly know who you’re working with? Get to know Bob Keegan, Senior Vice President of our Tech vertical!
I’m a lifelong resident of New Jersey. I was born in Jersey City, but my family moved down to North Arlington in Bergen County shortly after. I grew up there with my parents, brother, and sister. We were in Catholic schools all our whole lives (grammar and high school) up until I went to Manhattan College. While there, I was on the track team and, believe it or not, a discus thrower. From there, I went to Montclair State University, where I was a graduate assistant for two years before I dove into the workforce.
I currently live in the same town I grew up in with my wife of 37 years and our dog Sadie, a Pointer who I can confidently say is my best friend. We have three grown children who have given us three wonderful grandchildren that we love to spend time with any chance we get. I’m also a high school football official and have been doing that for over 16 years. During the football season, I officiate about 2 to 3 games a weekend. I absolutely love it and will keep doing it until I can’t anymore. In my spare time, I love going for walks with my wife, hanging out with a group of couples we’re friends with, spending our summers down in Sea Isle City, and playing golf – although I do it very, very poorly.
I’m probably going to go with a bear. They’re very self-sufficient and we have two major things in common: we both love fishing and we both love sleeping a lot during the winter.
I’ve got to go with my dad for this. He was a first-generation immigrant from Ireland and the struggles he went through to make a better life were nothing short of amazing. He dropped out of high school to work and pay the bills. He eventually got his GED and became an established mechanic by trade. He worked so hard to put me and my siblings through school. Any time things are getting rough, I think back to his dedication and hardworking ethic, and it helps motivate me to keep on going.
Oh, this is the easiest question I’ll hear all day: Chicken Parm with a side of Rigatoni Bolognese. And if I’m choosing from a specific place, it’d be from this Italian restaurant called Lassoni in my town. Great parm. The thing about us Irish guys is that we love our chicken parmesan. I have a group of buddies that I get together with every now and then – about 4 or 5 guys – and we went to dinner the other day. Guess what every single person got? Chicken parm.
Completely by mistake. Right out of school, I wanted to be a teacher, but there weren’t any jobs available. I settled on a job with the Veterans Administration (VA) where I was assisting post-operative orthopedic patients with their rehab. You know, the basics like helping them bend their knees, taking them for walks, all that stuff. I did that for about 3 and a half years, and it was great and all, but I couldn’t see myself doing that long-term. From there I got into pharmaceutical sales. I became a Sales Rep and did various presentations for Physicians all over Upper Manhattan – mostly from 95th St to the George Washington Bridge. I did that for a couple of years, and it was going fine as well.
Then one day I was at a BBQ and one of my brother-in-law’s friends was telling me about what he does for a living. He told me how he was an IT headhunter, and I truly had no idea what he was talking about. It was a completely foreign concept to me, but sounded like it had tons of opportunity. He saw that I was interested and gave me a guy’s number to call at a place called “Spectrum Concepts”. I went in for the interview, got the job, and I’ve been in the industry ever since.
Well, it depends on who’s making the choice. If it’s my wife’s decision, it would be a marathon of Hallmark movies. But if it’s my decision, we’ll be watching something sports or World War II-related. So I’d say it’s probably going to be “Saving Private Ryan”. As you can tell, my wife and I have very different tastes.
You found me. Well, Dave Muller found me. Dave and I have known each other for over 25 years. In fact, I interviewed Dave back in the day when our old company was hiring new salespeople! One day, Dave shot me a message and told me about Tandym and the opportunities here. Dave’s a good man and great at his job so, after that conversation, I was ready to join.
I was a pretty good football player in high school and from there I got into the discus throwing and other field events that most people wouldn’t think I’d done in college. To be honest, they always encouraged the big football guys like me to do track and other sports like that during the high school offseason to stay in shape and be active. And to be honest, I didn’t have much of a choice because my football coach was the track coach. I ended up enjoying it though.
For the most part, what you see is what you get from me. I know it’s not a talent, but one thing I love is being in the sales trenches with talented people. Managing this group of people and helping them get from A to Z – there’s nothing better than watching colleagues grow and succeed. Not a talent, but something I really do love.
Good question, tough question. It’s got to be a toss-up between going to the 2000 World Series to see the Mets vs the Yankees or being at MSG for the Knicks game when they retired Patrick Ewing’s number and hung his jersey in the rafters. Both were great environments to be around for diehard sports fans of teams in this area.
The main goal is for our Tech vertical to align fully as one team and we’re almost there. The sales side is coming together, and all the recruiters are on the same page – and that says a lot considering the legacy employees that have integrated into Tandym from the other companies we’ve acquired. I think once we all get to know each other just a little bit better, this vertical is going to turn into an absolute selling machine. We must work in tandem (no pun intended) to get there! Luckily, we have an outstanding group of eagers and talented people!
I’m going to go with “Rosalita” by Bruce Springsteen & the E-Street Band. It’s my favorite song ever and that song will get me moving. I’m an old Irish guy, so we always fake and pretend to be good dancers. It might not be pretty to watch, but I’ll do what I can.
