MANAGEMENT TEAM


Gary T. Cichella - President
After leading a large auditing and consulting firm for 17 years, Gary formed CSM, Inc. Through Gary's leadership, the company quickly emerged as a leader in school district consulting. Over the past few years CSM has continued to expand the services being offered to districts. Today, CSM is the leading provider of technology related services to school districts in the state of California.

Brian Cichella - Vice President
Brian Cichella's 15 plus years of school district experience quickly brought CSM to the forefront as a resource of information and more importantly technology in Medi-Cal LEA and MAA billing programs. Brian's interest in developing CSM's ability to provide web-based applications for processing MAA and LEA billing caught the interest of the California School Boards Association (CSBA) and his division was eventually folded into CSBA's Practi-Cal in February 2004. Brian earned his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from California State University, San Bernardino and is responsible for operational responsibilities out of our Tracy, California office.

Kim Friends - Vice President
Kim Friends is a nationally recognized expert in the Universal Service Administrative Company’s E-rate program. Ms. Friends participated in the ground floor of the program, training school districts throughout San Bernardino County to effectively and efficiently take advantage of the funds provided through the reauthorization of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Ms. Friends joined California School Management Group (CSMG) in 2003 and serves a large number of school districts and county offices of education in her role as an E-rate expert. Ms. Friends has participated as a statewide Trainer for the California Department of Education, various major telecommunications carriers and County Offices of Education. Ms. Friends and her staff take great pride in their personal service and their ability to offer a complete end-to-end solution to ensure compliance and maximum return for each and every client.

David Cichella - Vice President
David Cichella began his career working with school districts in 1992 when he founded a small consulting firm based out of Southern California. David joined a large California CPA firm in 1997, where he performed over one hundred school district, city and special district audits. David and his partners formed CSM during 2001, and the company has quickly become a leader in educational technology consulting throughout the state. David earned his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration (Accounting) from California State University, San Bernardino. David has lived in Cameron Park for the past five years and manages the company’s Northern California office.

Linda Smith - Director of E-Rate
Linda Smith has been deeply involved in Educational Technology since 1988, starting in the Saddleback Valley where she helped make Saddleback Valley USD a national technology leader. She has experience in all facets of educational technology, including business and student systems, technology planning, design, installation, management and maintenance of data and voice networks including VoIP and PC support. During the eight years of the E-Rate program, she received $47 million in E-rate funds for her districts and saved them over $100,000 in telecom costs. She is a recognized leader in educational technology and has presented at local, state and national conferences. Her paper on Hypermedia was presented at the International Conference of Technology and Education. She served a five year term on the Executive Board of the Consortium of School Networking (CoSN). During her tenure, CoSN helped to sponsor the E-Rate legislation.

Andrew (Andy) Webb, MBA - Director of Information Technology
As Director of Information Technology, Andy Webb is responsible for all facets of our information technology infrastructure. This includes developing new products, managing our IT staff, and providing internal consulting on both business and technology related topics. Andy has more than 15 years of both professional and personal experience in all aspects of information technology, especially custom software development, and he has developed an intimate knowledge of computers from the component level up. Prior to joining CSM, Andy worked as a Senior Software Engineer for OCC Meds Billing Services, as a Software Engineer with E*TRADE FINANCIAL, and as a Software Engineer with McDermott Financial and Insurance Services. He has also contributed numerous hours of information technology consulting and development for various individuals and non-profit organizations. Andy holds an MBA-Technology Management degree from the University of Phoenix, a Bachelors of Science degree in Electronics Engineering Technology from ITT Technical Institute, and an Associate of Science degree in Computer Information Science from Sacramento City College. When he is not working, Andy enjoys cycling along the American River bike trail, studying history, spending time with his wife, family and friends, and of course pursuing his favorite hobby, computers and technology.