Novus Technic was founded in 1995 with a mission to bring professional design and engineering to the world of web development. Founder Richard Kratz had recently left his motorcycle aftermarket industry business after noticing that he was spending more time helping friends build networks for their businesses and writing html code for their websites. Richard had been involved in the PC revolution since building his own PC in 1977, so it was a natural transition.

Richard has over 25 years experience in Computer and Information Technology, programming, networking, and Internet/Web development. He has over 20 years business experience, as well as 10 years of technical writing and 8 years of instructional design experience.

A former licensed FAA aircraft mechanic, Richard is also a former Screen Actors Guild member with five major motion picture credits, and almost forty network TV appearances, which is where he learned the craft of video, film and TV production.

Shawn Blackwell
Vice President

Shawn Blackwell brings extensive experience in the area of enterprise application development and management to the project team. Prior to joining Novus Technic, Ms. Blackwell was a Senior Manager at Nestlé USA, where she most recently was Enterprise Project Manager on Consumer Relations Management projects within Nestlé USA. Her career began at Andersen Consulting, where she worked at the Pacific Region Advanced Technology Center. Ms. Blackwell graduated Summa Cum Laude from the University of Southern California School of Business Administration. Her education and experience allow her to bridge the worlds of technology and business, ensuring understanding and communication between business groups and IT resources.

Dennis Archambault
Senior Writer/Designer, Project Lead, Multimedia Screen/Script Writer, Sales & Marketing Manager

Dennis has over 36 years experience including 25 years as a writing professional, over 10 years in sales and marketing, 8 years in project management and executive administration. Career Highlights include; Personnel Administrator, Vice-President of Marketing, Corporate and Internet Communications Manager, Published Author, Technical Writer and Instructional Designer. Dennis is a bit of an overachiever with three Master’s Degrees (two from University of Southern California—Public Administration, Terrorism Psychology Specialty and Cinema-Television, Film Production). Dennis is currently enrolled in a doctorate program at Pacifica Graduate Institute.

Phyl Montoya
Senior Instructional Designer, CBT/WBT and Classroom

Phyl has more than 19 years experience in the training field, covering all aspects of the Instructional Design and Performance Development cycles—from needs analysis to development, implementation, and evaluation. Phyl is also adept at curriculum design and analysis, and equally comfortable with technology (she developed training for the US Navy’s anti-submarine warfare needs) and soft skills training.

Phyl received her Masters degree from the Institute of Training & Development, Surrey, England, and a further certificate in Instructional Systems Design from the University of North Florida. Phyl holds a real estate license and in her spare time (what’s left after work and family) is a real estate investor.

Carmen Hermosillo
Senior Writer/Designer, Senior Systems Analyst, Lead Technologist

Carmen has over 25 years experience including 10 years in Information Technology in systems and application analysis and e-commerce product development for Oracle and Seagate, 10 years as a Humanities instructor, and 5 years in corporate instructional design and delivery, bilingual in Spanish and English with extensive translation experience, she is also a published author.

Carmen received her Bachelors and Masters degrees from California State University, San Jose. In her spare time, she is a concert violinist, and develops 3D immersive world educational games.

Kerry Kelly
Senior Writer/Designer, Senior HTML Coder/Web Scripter, Quality Supervisor

Kerry has 30 years experience in the banking/mortgage industry with 8 years technical writing and 5 years web design experience in Instructional Design. She is expert in HTML coding and page layout, and a consummate quality assurance resource (her nickname is “Rock” as in “Rock solid perfect”). Career highlights include; Branch Manager, Compliance Administrator, Operations Technical Specialist, Senior Writer/Designer. Her alma mater is California State University Los Angeles.