Custom Training was founded by Michael L. R. Simpson in 1989. Heidi McCarthy joined us in 1990. Our management team has diverse backgrounds and excellent technical and real world experience.

Michael L. R. Simpson, President and Co-founder

A graduate of Harvard University with degrees in applied mathematics and
music, Mike has authored and taught over 100 courses for Custom Training
Institute in diverse technical areas and supervised the development of many
others. From 1981 to 1989, Mike held technical positions as a Senior
Knowledge Engineer at Teknowledge Inc. of Palo Alto, CA and at Bolt Beranek
and Newman, where he had a major role in the development of the Arpanet, the
forerunner to the Internet. For CTI he conducts extensive knowledge
acquisition interviews of senior engineering and technical staff; completes
assessments of technical knowledge acquisition and knowledge transfer
situations; and writes extensive responses to commercial and military bids.
He has managed the development and monitored the performance of hundreds of
classroom instructors and courseware developers while achieving consistent,
on-time and on-budget deliveries in challenging environments and difficult
situations.

Heidi McCarthy, General Manager and Director of Operations

Heidi earned her BS in Business from National University while working at Petersen Publishing, where she was a manager in the Newsstand Circulation Department. She has been with Custom Training Institute since 1990. Also, prior to joining Custom Training Institute, Heidi had a consulting business and taught workshops in office organization, efficiency, and time management. Heidi oversees/manages the development and customization of Custom Training Institute's courses, scheduling of classes and instructors, the accounting department and general daily operations.