Gepner Looks To Expand Tekserve’s Strong Reputation

During his career, sports-production veteran Jerry Gepner has had the opportunity to play key roles at the likes of CBS Sports and National Mobile Television (NMT); helped launch Fox Sports; was co-founder and COO of Sportvision, a company that arguably reshaped the sports-viewing experience when it was launched in the mid ’90s; and, most recently, served as CEO of the Vitec Services Group. Now he takes that lifetime of experience to Tekserve, the long-time New York City-based technology-services provider best known for its commitment to Apple as both reseller and technical-support facility. As CEO, he aims to highlight the growing company’s complete service and technical portfolio.

Jerry Gepner

“Tekserve is one of the better-kept secrets in the B-to-B market segment,” he says. “We have a presence across a lot of verticals, and the capabilities of the company in the media space are not widely understood.”

A walk through the Tekserve retail space (something nearly every Manhattan-based owner of an Apple device has done at one time or another) shows a clear commitment to the Apple iOS environment. Tekserve serves three core markets: the average consumer and retail market via a 25,000-sq.-ft. store; the small-business owner, such as a boutique post house or transmission provider; and the corporate customer.

“We are hugely experienced with iOS deployment needs, more than any company in the country, and we have some secret sauce and technology that makes unique mobile iOS deployments viable,” he says. “The Apple ecosystem is a fairly well walled garden, but the team here can make it accessible and part of a business or media workflow. Companies want to use iOS devices as an integrated part of their media or business workflow, and the good news is we have done it.”

But the company’s expertise extends beyond Mac-branded computers and software and includes a solid understanding of professional production tools like Avid and Adobe as well as HP and other server platforms like Isilon or EMC.

“Everyone is talking about how hard it is to integrate IT with broadcast workflows,” he says. “I’ve found a company with 220 people in Chelsea that has been in that space for a long time. And that is one of the things that drove me to come here. We can put together any sort of media workflow at any scale. The amount of video and data that sports generates doesn’t scare us in the least.”

A primary focus in the coming months will be broadcast and media, a market segment that Gepner understands thoroughly, including that building a reputation within it begins with reliability and service.

“Where we are today is very relevant given my background,” he says. “At Bexel, I was part of a superb rental company that always wanted to exceed the customer’s expectations, and I found that same culture here at Tekserve. To exceed expectations is embedded in everyone here, and, if you are going to be in the service business, that is how you are successful. You need to exceed the customer’s expectations.”

Gepner has been on the job for less than a month, but his belief in what the team is capable of puts him in the comfortable position of not having to turn the ship around but rather to send it out to deeper waters.

“We can do a lot of things, and what we do here we do as a group,” he says. “For a CEO, that is nirvana.”