MICHAEL SOUDERS:
President and COO of Netarx in Auburn Hills. Netarx provides IT professional services, including managed services, data center, collaboration, and infrastructure design solutions, to customers throughout the Great Lakes region and Arizona. Under his leadership, Netarx had $60 million in revenue and 229 employees when it was acquired in July 2011 by Logicalis Inc. for $34 million. Souders joined Netarx in 2009 when the firm acquired the VAR business unit of Analysts International Corp., where Souders was senior vice president. Netarx has been listed on Inc. 500's 5,000 Fastest Growing Companies for 2010 and 2011, reporting a three-year growth of 274 percent. The firm won Microsoft's VAR Champion Partner of the Year award as part of the 2011 Central Region SMB awards. Also in 2011, Netarx debuted on Nine Lives Media's MSPmentor 100, a list and research report identifying the world's top 100 managed service providers, where it placed No. 21. For six years in a row, the firm has been named to the list of Metro Detroit 101 Best and Brightest Companies to Work For.
CRN also named Netarx to its VAR 500 Distinction and CRN Fast Growth 100 lists. Previously, Souders co-founded Entre Computer Services, which was acquired by Analysts International. For more than 15 years, he had helped to transform Entre from a computer retail outlet to a full-service systems integrator.
