Rick Prokosch

Background

About Rick Prokosch

When I was about 8 years old, I thought the coolest job in the world would be to manage a Toys ‘R Us store. True story. Then one day I woke up and I was 40 years old. I had been working at the same communications company for nearly 20 years, had a family, lots of responsibilities, and a little more back pain than I remembered from my 20s. and I realized how awesome this all is. Except the back pain. I’ve always followed my interests in life, and it’s worked out well so far. I’ve never had a big dream or clear vision of what I’d do with my life but I always felt that it had something to do with technology and business. I’ve always loved technology and everything about it. I’ve enjoyed playing with it, messing around with computer hardware and software, and even modding video games while I still had to ask my parents to drive me to my friend’s house to show them the cool stuff I’d done (anyone here remember Doom WADs?). One of my instructors at college was a retired Business Analyst for SaskTel and that sounded great to 19-year old me. I figured I’d try to work there and see what that job was all about and, simply following my interests (plus some luck), I ended up at SaskTel! I been a programmer, a customer systems designer, a customer technology sales manager, and a technology sales consultant. I then changed gears to take advantage of an opportunity to move into business product marketing and product management. Now I get to lead the direction of SaskTel's business communications platforms that directly affects the financial dividend SaskTel returns to the people of Saskatchewan! No pressure. All this curiosity and growth has helped me develop a unique and broad set of skills. • Need me to talk numbers with a finance controller or decision maker? Sure. • Does an IT director or CIO want to talk about the technical details of our proposal? I can do that. • A programmer wants to know more about API calls and what we can do? Let’s chat. • Does the business owner want to know how all this turns into something positive for their company? You’re still talking to the right person. • Business cases, project management, financial forecasting, vendor management, contract negotiations, product roadmaps, product marketing, people management, and lots of other responsibilities that come with running a business are skills I’ve been able to, and continue, to sharpen. I’m far from done learning or being curious so I’m excited to see what happens next.