Our Team
BlueWater's management team has over 100 years of experience in the industry and has built and managed profitable businesses from startup to $1 billion in revenue.
With their collective experiences, the management team has an intimate understanding on how to partner with you, your IT organization and the OEM's, ISV's and other partners that make up your world to deliver the best solutions and services for your business.
Robert Cagnazzi, Chief Executive Officer
Bob Cagnazzi has more than 20 years of experience helping companies use technology strategically to beat their competition. In his last position as CEO of Dimension Data North America, Mr.Cagnazzi led a turnaround that increased profitability over $24 million. Cagnazzi launched BlueWater to deliver Fortune 100 caliber solutions to the Enterprise, Commercial and SMB markets.
During his career, Cagnazzi has been personally recognized by VARBusiness Magazine as Executive of the Year, and by Ernst & Young as a regional Entrepreneur of the Year. He has also served on the advisory boards of Cisco, VARBusiness, The National Corporate Theater Foundation, Inwood House, and Farmingdale University.
Organizations Cagnazzi has led in the past have earned numerous awards including Cisco Partner of the Year, Deloitte & Touche Fast 50, Hofstra Long Island Technology Fastest Growing Firm, and one of the best places to work on Long Island.
Cagnazzi holds a BS degree in Finance from St. John's University and earned an MBA in Marketing from NYU.
Adrian Liddiard, Chief Operations Officer
Adrian Liddiard has more than 20 years of experience in the IT technology industry. He co-founded BlueWater Communications Group in 2006 where he has helped in creating a $100m high-performance organization focused on providing advanced technology expertise to commercial, enterprise & public sector clients. BlueWater was recognized by Cisco as the 2009 Enterprise Partner of the Year as well as being named #1 on the 2009 CRN Fast Growth 100 List, which ranks the fastest-growing Solutions Provider in North America and Canada, Liddiard is responsible for all Service Operations at BlueWater including life-cycle services & solutions that extend from planning & design, to staging, testing & deployment, to support and management.
Before joining BlueWater he was COO of a $600m North American operation of a Global Integrator where he helped engineer a turnaround beginning in 2003 that netted 24% CAGR in revenues, and an increase in PBIT of over $24 million. Liddiard was also responsible for identifying, negotiating and concluding six acquisitions in North America totaling $400 million in an 18-month period. Before joining the Global Integrator, Liddiard served in the equity division of Deutsche Bank's London office and in the auditing, accounting and tax group of Deloitte & Touché, South Africa.
Liddiard holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree majoring in Information Technology and Accounting from the University of Cape Town, where he also completed post-graduate studies to attain his Chartered Accountant qualification.
Christopher Cagnazzi, Chief Financial Officer
During more than 20 years in the industry, BlueWater Chief Financial Officer Christopher Cagnazzi has established a track record for building successful technology companies. Beginning in 1983 he and his brother Bob built the family business that their father had started into Integrated Systems Group (ISG), a nationally recognized computer infrastructure, software design and supply distribution company.
Acting as CFO/COO with Bob as CEO, the two brothers helped the company grow from a $1.2-million business in 1983 to a more than $70-million business with 250 employees by 2000 when ISG was acquired by Dimension Data, an International company traded on the London stock exchange with locations in 32 countries. Christopher was then given the title of Dimension Data CFO for the US region and, through a series of acquisitions, grew the region to more than $500 million in annual revenue and almost 2000 employees before leaving in February 2002.
Cagnazzi studied at New York University and Carnegie Mellon Business Schools. Among other distinctions, Cagnazzi was awarded the prestigious Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award and the Boy Scouts of America Distinguished Citizen Award.
Lou McElwain, Executive Vice President of Sales
Lou Mc Elwain has over 30 years of sales, engineering, and operations experience in the technology industry working for IBM, Compression Labs, and Cisco Systems Inc. selling to service provider, large enterprise and smaller commercial clients. Lou held a wide variety of roles within Cisco over a 12 year career, both in the US and Asia Pacific theater. In 1999, Lou lead exponential growth within the South East Asia region as a Sales Director, making it Cisco’s fastest growing Operation worldwide. As an APAC VP, Lou’s efforts were focused on developing the Channels, Cisco Academies, Marketing and Solution Architect Engineering teams which fueled Cisco’s APAC growth to lead all Cisco theaters. In 2002 Lou returned to NY post 9/11 to help lead Cisco’s customers and employees as they worked together to rebuild. Lou then led Cisco’s US entre into the Commercial market place in the East in 2004 and successfully grew that business driving new programs and engaging new partners. Lou has been with BlueWater since its first day in 2006.
Lou had been a Board Member of Corliant Inc. and was a Founding Member of City Year New York. He holds a Bachelors Degree from Manhattan College, NY and an MBA from Pace University, NY. He has been an active boys and girls travel basketball coach for 16 years in NY and NJ.
Brian Maggiacomo, Vice President Sales
Brian has been a leader in Account Management and Sales Management in the technology industry for over 10 years. Brian comes to BlueWater after 10 years with Dimension Data and its predecessor in the US, ISG. His previous experience includes Global Account Management responsibility for clients such as Morgan Stanley, Regional Sales Management for Global Financial Accounts, and Sales Management for Public Sector clients. Brian was a member of the Sales Leadership Council at Dimension Data, and achieved Chairman’s Club status every year of his tenure there.
Brian has a Bachelors Degree in Management from SUNY Cortland and lives on Long Island with his wife and three children.
Vincent Trama, Vice President Sales
Vincent Trama has over 15 years of direct sales and sales management experience in the technology industry. Vincent came to BlueWater Communications from Visual Networks (VWNK), a leader in Network and Application monitoring, as Director of Northeast Sales. His responsibilities included developing and implementing an effective sales strategy for Northeast. Vincent’s team was tasked with creating end user demand within the Fortune 500 and working with the channels to fulfill the customer's requirements.
Prior to Visual Networks, Vincent held several direct sales roles at ADC Telecommunications (ADCT). Vincent played a key leadership role in the successful launch of several new product categories.
Vincent has a Bachelors Degree in Information Systems from Fordham University and lives on Long Island with his wife and three children.
John Marchese, Vice President of Sales Engineering
Prior to joining BlueWater Communications Group, John Marchese spent 6 years at Cisco Systems Inc. As a Systems Engineer, he covered a wide array of vertical markets including Healthcare, Media, Financial, Utilities and Legal. In 2004, Marchese attained his CCIE certification in Routing and Switching and in 2005 he was awarded Top Cisco Systems Engineer in the New York Metro Area. Most recently as Systems Engineering Manager, Marchese entered the SMB market leveraging an in-depth understanding of client business drivers to develop and present strategic voice, wireless, and security solutions.
Marchese holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Computer Engineering from Stevens Institute of Technology, where he also minored in Mathematics and Electrical Engineering