Crosstalk with Select Telecom (Summer 2012)
Every issue, “Get to Know Select” will feature a different employee sharing their experience at Select Telecom, along with updates about what’s going on at the company. Have a favorite employee you’d like to hear from? Email us to let us know!
Chris Kireakedes – better known to most customers as Chris K. – has been a service technician with Select Telecom for almost 14 years. Part of the original Williams Communications crew where many current Select Telecom employees formed a bond (including Mike Durante, Bob Waters, and Paul and Stephen Burns), Chris left Wiltel to join Select Telecom in September of 1998. Since then, Chris has been serving customers in Manhattan, Westchester, Connecticut, Putnam, Orange, Rockland, and Long Island. As he puts it, “I do a lot of driving!”
Chris appreciates the different personalities he gets to work with while covering all that ground. Though he gets great satisfaction out of solving difficult technical problems, he says the best part is the relationships he builds with customers. “Today was the first day I saw my friend Jack at Kimber in a while. He’s such a nice guy, and there’s dozens of people like that – Ronnie Gillcrist at Houlihan Lawrence in Yorktown, Lisa Blendermann at Houlihan… Just this past week Arianna at Coveleigh Club was kind enough to walk me around to every phone on the property while I was servicing their system after a lightning strike. I would never have found all those phones without her help. There are just so many great people we work with.”
Outside of work, Chris loves to spend as much time out of doors as possible. An avid fly fisherman and gardener, Chris is well-known around the office for bringing in surplus peppers, tomatoes, and herbs throughout the summer months. Everyone looks forward to his homegrown treats.
According to Chris, his ultimate dream would be to move to Montana – “except for the winters! They’re brutal!” Being under the big open sky surrounded by mountains would be his ideal since he considers himself an outdoors person. In fact, in nature is where Chris finds himself most at peace. In his own words, “Anytime I’m in the woods, I’m in church.”