Last fall, industry association CompTIA sold the CompTIA brand and the training and certification business to private equity investors. Earlier this month, the CompTIA Community launched its rebrand as the Global Technology Industry Association (GTIA). We sat down with Chief Community Officer MJ Shoer about the relaunch, what it means for members, and its mission going forward. This conversation was edited and condensed.
MSP Success: The announcement of the sale and splitting the organization into two seemed to take a lot of people by surprise. Had CompTIA discussed it internally for a while?
MJ Shoer: I wasn’t privy to all of that. But one of the things that struck me about [former CompTIA CEO Todd Thibodeaux] when I first met him was that he had this incredible vision for what CompTIA should and could be for the industry, both the association and the certifications. He did share with me that one of his goals had always been to figure out how to safeguard the association in perpetuity. He understood there would come a point when there would be some potential internal conflict between the certification and training business and the trade association, in terms of where the investments needed to go.
I can’t speak to a lot of the internal discussion that took place, but we reached a point where the management team and the board felt that we’d hit this inflection point where there’s an opportunity for both the certification and training business and the association to grow and do more. This just made sense and there was a willing market to make it happen.
MSP Success: To your point, some MSP members we spoke with said they always felt CompTIA had a bit of a split personality. Does the move and the CompTIA Community rebrand make sense for all concerned?
Shoer: It really does. I totally get where they’re coming from. But I looked at it more as a compatible codependency, because for CompTIA to be able to generate the kind of revenue that it did to fund the association, we needed to be a nonprofit organization. But to be a highly self-funded nonprofit organization, we also needed that revenue. But there’s no question that over the last couple years, certainly I’d noticed where internally, our needs were becoming more unique and divergent. This resolves that for us.
The for-profit CompTIA Inc. has the funding it needs to develop all the new products it believes are needed to address the skills shortage. And we [GTIA] have the funding that we need. So all of the investment is targeted at our members and at the charitable giving that we’ll be doing, which serves the industry and the channel more specifically. There’s comfort in knowing that our funding is secured. The board is managing the endowment for maximum return, so that we can continue to develop our member benefits and focus on the ones members find most valuable.
MSP Success: Will the substantial endowment from the sale cover operating costs of GTIA indefinitely?
Shoer: With the financial models that the board has worked with our advisors on, we absolutely expect to be funded in perpetuity. We’ve always subsidized [member] dues, and we’re going to continue to do that.
Our dues model is pretty unique in the association space. We’ve done our homework, and we need to charge dues [so members have] some skin in the game. For the MSPs, dues are $450 a year. If you cannot find $450 of value [from your membership], then you’re not even trying. And certainly, if you can’t afford $450, you’ve got some issues in your business that need to be addressed. But yes, we intentionally, heavily subsidized the dues. The dues are a little bit more for vendors, because vendors get free booths at our events and other benefits. But again, for even the smallest vendors, our dues are hardly a rounding error. We’re not in business to make money off our members. We’re in business to serve our members.
MSP Success: The Cybersecurity Trustmark will remain part of GTIA, rather than part of the training and certifications business?
Shoer: CompTIA’s certifications and training are for individuals—a systems administrator, a data analyst, a project manager. [GTIA’s] education is geared toward members. For example, GTIA cannot create an individual technical certification that would compete with Network+ or Security+. By the same token, CompTIA can’t go out and create an education course about how to run an MSP, or a Cybersecurity Trustmark that goes to the company. We delineated that.
MSP Success: And GTIA will continue to run its ISAO [Information Sharing & Analysis Organization], headed by Wayne Selk?
Shoer: Yes.
MSP Success: The search for a new CEO for GTIA is underway. Do you have a timeline?
Shoer: Not a hard timeline. If I had to speculate, maybe sometime in April, ideally by midyear at the latest. But right now, Kelly [COO Kelly Ricker] and I are reporting to the chair of the board. That’s made for a seamless transition. There is no vacuum in leadership or direction. There was an overwhelming number of responses [for the CEO position]. The search firm that we worked with is narrowing it down. It was a far bigger response than I think anyone expected, which is gratifying.
I’m beyond excited about [the transition]. This is a once in a career opportunity to take an existing successful, healthy trade association, separate it from a piece of itself, and rebrand and relaunch it.
MSP Success: What’s on GTIA’s road map for members?
Shoer: The primary message is it’s business as usual. All the benefits that they’re accustomed to are still there. We’ve got our first community meeting taking place in Belgium in a couple weeks, followed by CCF [Communities Council Forum] in Chicago. We’re very focused on keeping things familiar, in terms of the cadence, access, and benefits.
But we also went through an exercise with some of our member leaders and board members to validate which benefits members feel are the most valuable. We’re going to double down on those and look at, how do we enhance these benefits?
We’ve been really taking the opportunity to listen to the membership. We’re going to have a couple of public town halls for members, nonmembers, prior member, disgruntled members, if there is such a thing, to come and tell us how we can better serve you, as your industry trade association. We’ve got an opportunity to figure out how to drive impact and engagement to new levels. [Editor’s note: Town hall dates are February 3, North America, 11 a.m. Central; February 12, ASEAN/ANZ, 8 p.m. Central; and February 17, UK/Europe, 9 a.m. Central.]
MSP Success: How will the endowment enable GTIA to expand charitable giving to tech-related organizations working with underserved communities?
Shoer: We are going to ramp up to giving away tens of millions of dollars in philanthropy. On the association side, CompTIA has always done things like that. And then we’ve always given our communities around the world $10,000 a year that they can direct to a charity.
This year we’re going to be standing up the infrastructure to give out that money. I don’t know how much we’ll be able to give away in our first year. But we’re absolutely committed to giving away tens of millions of dollars annually. You can really change conditions on the ground if you can give to a charity that exposes an underserved population to the world of tech and enables them to take on a career.
MSP Success: Anything else about the CompTIA rebrand that you would like our readers to know about?
Shoer: We’re the same vendor-neutral, nonprofit trade association that we’ve always been. We’ve got a terrific opportunity right now to hear from people who may not have historically thought they were a fit for this organization. I’m shouting from the rooftops [that] everyone’s a fit. It’s such a great time to hear what people would like to see from us as an association, to help them in their career and their business.
