BUILD IT LIVE 2027 Sponsorships Are Now Open | Reserve Your Spot Today
Book your Room
Register Now

The Coaching by Design lineup is being curated right now, bringing together visionary leaders, proven operators, and transformative coaches who will deliver more than inspiration. Practical frameworks, tested strategies, and candid conversations designed to help you reimagine leadership and unlock AI-native growth.

AI Coaches

Alex Bratton

CEO & Chief Geek

Lextech Global Services and AIWhy

Alex Bratton

Alex Bratton has been working on AI implementation inside real businesses since before it became a channel conversation. At Lextech and AIWhy, he helps organizations move from AI interest to AI decisions, specifically the business conversations that determine whether an AI initiative produces results or just produces activity. His coaching covers AI strategy, AI implementation, and how to talk about AI with clients, leadership teams, and boards in a way that leads to actual forward movement.

Area of Expertise

  • AI strategy
  • AI implementation
  • AI business conversations

Christopher M. Carter

Founder

Approyo

Christopher M. Carter

Christopher Carter has spent his career inside the infrastructure layer that AI actually runs on, and his coaching reflects that. At Approyo, he works with organizations on cloud implementation, infrastructure readiness, and the security considerations that most AI conversations skip over entirely. He coaches MSP owners on AI scaling, AI strategy, AI implementation, and AI security best practices, and brings cloud expertise across implementation, infrastructure, and what he calls the Cloud Wars, the vendor and platform decisions that shape your margins for years. If you're moving past AI curiosity into AI execution, this is the session to book.

Area of Expertise

  • AI scaling
  • AI implementation
  • AI strategy
  • AI security best practices
  • Cloud implementation
  • Cloud infrastructure readiness
  • Cloud Wars

Habib Malik

CEO

MSP Corp

HABIB MALIK

Habib Malik has built MSP Corp into a multi-region platform by figuring out how to make M&A actually compound value rather than just add headcount. His coaching covers the full arc of platform building: acquisition strategy, post-close integration, governance across multiple offices, and the leadership team structure required to run a distributed operation at scale. He also works on talent strategy and using data and AI to improve operational performance across a business that can’t rely on one person having visibility into everything. If you’re acquiring, being acquired, or building something you want to be acquirable, Habib has been through each version of that conversation.

Area of Expertise

  • Scaling MSP platforms through M&A (integration, governance, and value realization)
  • Building and operating across multi-office, multi-region environments
  • Building leadership teams to grow the company
  • Talent strategy and leadership development in professional services
  • Using data and AI to improve operational performance

Serge Bukhar

Founder & CEO

Atlas Technica

ITBD Coach Popup

SERGE BUKHAR

Serge Bukhar has been building and operating MSPs for more than 20 years. He developed a service delivery model built for precision, and his coaching draws directly from that operating history. He works with MSP owners on service delivery scaling, AI implementation in day-to-day operations, talent strategy, and the kind of operational maturity that doesn’t show up on a slide deck but does show up in your margins. He doesn’t coach from a framework. He coaches from what he’s actually done, including what broke and what he’d do differently.

Area of Expertise

  • Service delivery scaling for MSPs
  • AI implementation in day-to-day operations
  • Talent strategy and team development
  • Building operational maturity to improve efficiency and margins
  • General MSP consulting backed by 20+ years of operating experience

Rich Carlton

President

Aunalytics

RICH CARLTON

Rich Carlton coaches at the intersection of AI, M&A, and team building, three areas where most MSPs are making decisions they haven’t fully thought through yet. At aunalytics, he’s led a technically advanced organization through multiple acquisitions and built the team required to execute on both sides of that work. His coaching covers how to bring AI into MSP operations in a way that actually changes performance, how to approach M&A whether you’re buying or selling, and how to build the leadership bench that makes any of it sustainable. If you’re sitting on a decision in any of these areas and want to pressure-test it with someone who’s been inside it, Rich is the right person in the room.

Area of Expertise

  • Integrating AI into MSP operations
  • M&A integration and post-acquisition execution
  • Navigating the M&A process as a buyer or seller
  • Building high-performing leadership teams
Business Coaches

Michael Deutsch

Certified EOS® Implementer & Managing Partner

The Deutsch Group

MICHAEL DEUTSCH

Michael Deutsch coaches MSP owners who are still the bottleneck in their own business and know it. His work draws on EOS tools and implementation, and he works with operators on the specific problem of building a structure where strategy actually reaches execution without the owner having to carry every step personally. His four focus areas connect directly: get the right people hired, implement the right operating system, stop being the ceiling, and close the gap between where the plan says you're going and what the team is actually doing.

Area of Expertise

  • EOS Tools and Implementation
  • Talent Acquisition (i.e. hiring)
  • Escaping the owner-as-a-bottleneck trap
  • Strategy to execution

Chris Caprio

CEO

Focus Technology

CHRIS CAPRIO

Chris Caprio’s coaching is for the MSP owner who knows the business is growing but can’t get the financial picture to tell a clean story. He built the financial reporting infrastructure from the ground up, and he works with operators on exactly that: setting up reporting that actually reflects what the business costs to run, raising debt and equity when the timing is right, and understanding the financial mechanics of M&A from both sides. He’s direct about what the numbers mean and what they’re hiding. If you’re heading into a fundraise, a transaction, or just trying to read your own financials like a CEO, this is the session.

Area of Expertise

  • Setting up financial reporting and performance metrics
  • Raising debt and equity for business growth
  • Understanding the financial realities of M&A

Dave DelVecchio

VP of Marketing and Communications

Sourcepass

DAVE DELVECCHIO

Habib Malik has built MSP Corp into a multi-region platform by figuring out how to make M&A actually compound value rather than just add headcount. His coaching covers the full arc of platform building: acquisition strategy, post-close integration, governance across multiple offices, and the leadership team structure required to run a distributed operation at scale. He also works on talent strategy and using data and AI to improve operational performance across a business that can’t rely on one person having visibility into everything. If you’re acquiring, being acquired, or building something you want to be acquirable, Habib has been through each version of that conversation.

Area of Expertise

  • Scaling MSP platforms through M&A (integration, governance, and value realization)
  • Building and operating across multi-office, multi-region environments
  • Building leadership teams to grow the company
  • Talent strategy and leadership development in professional services
  • Using data and AI to improve operational performance

Lisa Shorr

Author | Business & Communication Coach | MSP Owner

Shorr Success

LISA SHORR

Lisa Shorr works with MSP owners on the people side of running a business, which turns out to be most of it. Her coaching covers talent strategy and leadership development built around emotional intelligence, the client experience and retention decisions that determine whether your best accounts stay or quietly start looking elsewhere, and the communication skills that matter more as AI handles more of the routine work. She also coaches on handling difficult conversations and marketing strategies specific to MSP growth. If the technical side of your business is ahead of the people side, Lisa is the right session to book.

Area of Expertise

  • Talent Strategy and Leadership Growth - Emotional Intelligent behaviors that drive relationship loyalty
  • Client Experience / Client Retention strategies
  • Handling Difficult Conversations
  • Human Communication Skills needed in an AI -driven world
  • Marketing strategies to grow your MSP

Will Nobles

Master Coach

MSP Mastery Group

Mike Schmidtmann

Peer Group Facilitator and Business Coach

Trans4mers

Brent Whitfield

VP of Mergers and Acquisitions

New Charter Technologies

Let’s Find the Right Coach for You
Services
Learning
About
Events
Legal
Contact
Media

IT By Design is SOC 2 compliant​

IT BY DESIGN Logo

IT By Design is a registered trademark.
©2026 | All rights reserved.

Facebook Twitter Linkedin-in Instagram Youtube