The Team

Since 1996 we have been an industry leader, providing the best in class Hosted (IVR) Interactive Voice Response. We are a custom, made to order service bureau, providing the best personal service, no matter how small or big your company may be! We help with all steps of your application; from call flow design and scripting to advanced web reporting and data integration.

The key players otherwise known as Team ITG:

Michael S. Byrne, Co-Founder & CEO

As IVR Technology Group (ITG) Chief Executive Officer, Mike is intimately involved in the day-to-day operations and is focused on ITG’s strategic vision and initiatives, as well as leading the company’s product development and overall strategy. He co-founded ITG in 2006, after serving as the EVP of Sales and Marketing for Prosodie Interactive, US. Prior, Mike served as EVP of sales and marketing for IVR Inc., an early pioneer in the IVR hosting, service bureau space.  Prosodie Interactive acquired IVR, INC., in 1999.

Mike got his start in the Technology Industry while helping to design and develop telephony components for a patented school bus and vehicle tracking application; the patents still stand today. 

As a CEO, as a Father, as a Husband or as a Friend, Mike’s passion is evident.  A serial entrepreneur from the age of 12 – started with a paper route and tennis racquet string business, moving on to brick and mortar retail and ecommerce, Tennis management and club ownership to now….

ITG in 2009 faced a couple of very sad, unfortunate and tragic events.  Thanks to some extremely important people and partners ITG has reinvented themselves.  At ITG, we believe primarily in just a couple of things…. our people, our customers and that the phone is and always will be, the most important business tool!

Akash Desai, President

Akash serves as the President at ITG. In this capacity, he provides strategic oversight over the organization. Prior to owning IVR Technology Group, Akash founded, managed, and sold two technology start‐ups. He serves on multiple non‐profit and corporate boards. He has been involved in the Buffalo, NY community and was selected as a 2008 Buffalo Rising Leader.

On a daily basis, Akash provides the team with support, organization, and direction. He is dedicated not only to IVR Technology Group as a company, but personally invested in each of it’s members. Akash offers opportunities to highlight employee strengths as well as offer chances to explore areas of interest within ITG.

Chirag Desai, COO

As the Chief Operating Officer, Chirag loves technology and is fascinated with how we interact with the technology that surrounds us. He spent several years in public accounting before making the jump to starting and growing a web development firm, which was later merged with IVR Technology Group.

Chirag is involved with a venture accelerator in Upstate New York, is a co-founder of a healthcare technology startup and he also sits on the board of a local non-profit. Chirag has been invited to speak at several entrepreneurship and technology conferences. In his spare time, he enjoys writing, consuming science fiction, sipping philosophy, going on hikes with his wife, and tending to his vegetable garden.



Eric Lee, CTO

Eric has been with ITG as our Chief Technology Officer since 2003. He holds his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Buffalo in Business Administration. While still attending college, Eric utilized his passion for and skill in developing as a freelance developer as well as a web application developer for Kinequip Inc.

Eric demonstrates his eye for detail as he works along side our customers, evaluating and identifying appropriate technology platforms for each project. Eric’s dedicated work ethic and ability to teach collaboratively, makes each project faced seem like the newest and most fun challenge thus far.

John Crouthamel, EVP, Sales & Marketing

John is an expert with IVR and SMS applications.  His career in direct marketing began over thirty years ago at Grolier Incorporated where his management skills and vision enabled the company to design, develop, and launch the first automated telemarketing outbound program and data management system of its kind. Now, some 34 years later, John is considered one of the foremost direct marketing & communication specialists with a host of hands on experiences in teleservice operations, marketing and fulfillment support and management roles.  He has been responsible for creating and managing solutions for telecom, IVR, predictive, automated dialing, inbound ACD, virtual agent, direct brick and mortar operations for small to fortune 100 companies.  He has been actively involved with the direct marketing industry as a past chairman of the DMA’s Teleservices Council, inaugural member of the DMA’s Teleservices Ethics Committee, Angel Award recipient from the DMA, TelePro award recipient of the American Teleservices Association, active member of SOCAP and is a sought after speaker.

Akshay Kapur, EVP of Healthcare

Akshay leads the growth and vision of where IVR is headed in the healthcare industry. Akshay’s interest is to connect doctors and patients in a very simple and human way through the use of technology. Akshay work at IVR focuses on strategy, marketing and business development.

Prior to joining IVR, Akshay worked at Weill Cornell Medical Center for 8 years as a business consultant helping drive the electronic medical records initiative. Using his health IT experience, he started a company, Medical Avatar, to visually connect patients with their medical information using tablet and smartphone technology.

Akshay holds an MBA in Health Administration and a B.A. in Human Development from Cornell University where he studied a mix of Biology, Sociology and Psychology. He also has a M.A. in Economics from the University at Buffalo, with a concentration in Health Care Economics and Information Systems.

Matthew Castronova, Director of Voice Talent Production

As an audio engineer for over 7 years, Matthew not only brings his experience to IVR Technology Group, but his passion for recording. Unlike most third party voice service companies, his commitment to a project doesn’t end simply with the delivery of the recorded prompt files; he shares a unique bond with each client, communicating their needs directly to our development team and has proven to be a vital solutions engineer. In little over 2 years time with ITG, he has lent his voice to an impressive clientele, most notably including Honda, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), WebMD and Kurtzman Carson Consultants (the nation’s leading class action settlement administrators). As our Project Manager and Director of Voice Talent Productions, Matthew’s unique skill set helps to bridge the gap between customer service and design.

Kristen Sanasith, Account Executive / Marketing Coordinator

Kristen entered the IT scene in November of 2011 as ITG’s Administrative Assistant and now works closely with ITG customers as Account Executive. Kristen holds her Bachelor of Science in Childhood Education, her Master’s of Science degree in Elementary Reading and Literacy and an additional teaching certificate in Special Education.

Kristen has always loved a challenge and making the switch from the teaching arena to this tech world has been her greatest and most rewarding career venture. Bringing with her a passion and talent for writing, she has stepped into the role of Social Media Marketer. Kristen is our resident blogger, she navigates our social media channels and writes some of ITG’s press releases. She writes, edits, and updates website content as she has acclimated herself to basic HTML. In addition, Kristen records and edits vocal prompts for ITG’s IVR services. She has gained experience in transcribing as well as working with customers in Accounts Receivable. Kristen loves working at ITG because the opportunity to grow and learn is always available.
Jesse Becker, Director of Infrastructure and Compliance

Jesse has been working in IT for thirteen years. Jesse has worked as a helpdesk, PC support, and telecommunications technician. As an IT manager, he has managed network and systems staff and has provided technical leadership support. Jesse has played an integral role in the planning and execution of multiple technology related projects such as managing the IT budget and assisting with the IT planning and forecasting of the organization he previously worked at. He has designed, planned and implemented network and server infrastructure improvements and has also identified and procured technology to address the needs of the organization.

Jesse’s skill set includes experience in Windows and Linux server systems, Astaro, Cisco, Engenius, and Extreme Network equipment, and Cisco, Nortel Meridian, Norstar, and sipXecs telecommunications.

Karthic R Raghupathi, Director of Software Engineering

Karthic loves a challenge and enjoys the diversity of developing various IVR and mobile applications. His interest in software developement started earlier on.

Karthic grew up and attended college in India where he earned his undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering. Soon after, he moved to the Buffalo area. He attended the University of Buffalo where he received his Master’s in Management of Information Systems.

In 2009 he joined the team at ITG as a Software Engineer. Since that time he has proven himself to be an invaluable element. He is a patient teacher, mild-mannered collaborator, and all around fun person to spend every day with. Now serving as the Director of Software Engineering, he leads ITG’s developers as a solid, composed, cool friend.

Ron Kotlik, Senior Software Engineer

As one of IVR Technology Group (ITG)Senior Software Engineers, Ron is involved with all aspects of our telephony platform.  He’s been developing IVR and telephone applications for over 20 years and has personally developed hundreds of applications.  Ron has been a part of ITG since the beginning.  He has been instrumental in our success and in helping developing ITG’s foundation. 

Prior, Ron served as a lead engineer for five years at Prosodie Interactive.  Prosodie Interactive acquired IVR, Inc. in 1999 where Ron had worked as a software engineer.  Ron was one of IVR, Inc’s original employees and was instrumental in the growth and success of the company.

A dedicated husband, father of two and friend to all…  Ron has owned several of his own small business, including a nightclub and a garage.  He is a spiritual man and enjoys hiking, kayaking, and flying.

Ron, who we can say is the most modest person we have ever met, wouldn’t write his own Bio.  So, we did it for him!

Christopher Fraschetti, Senior Software Engineer

Yan Wang, Software Engineer

From day one, Yan has been an awesome fit for ITG! We consider our team lucky to have snatched this fast learning programmer right out of college.

Yan holds a Master of Science degree from the University of Buffalo. He is meticulously detailed in his work and is adding immense value to our development team. Writing IVR applications through Java Script code is his primary role here at ITG.

Along with being strongly self-motivated and eager to learn, Yan is an all-around great guy. His easy-going disposition adds a fresh vibe to our open shared office space.  When Yan isn’t at the office, he loves playing basketball, ping-pong, swimming, and playing pool.