About Zuryc

Henry brings a diverse suite of skill sets and passions to his leadership role at Zuryc. Spurred by a professional background in banking, venture capital and consulting, Henry’s entry into technology entrepreneurship was a natural progression for the CEO and Chairman, who spends his spare time studying business ecosystems, making music, and serving his community in various capacities.  

A Forbes magazine-published author, Henry enjoys following the correlations between culture and performance in large-scale organizations, especially as they relate to social innovation. His book, “The Rainforest Scorecard,” provides a tool to measure innovation potential in organizations.     

When he’s not developing technology solutions for Zuryc customers, Henry can be found teaching in the English department at UNC Charlotte, or making music as a signed artist with Lamon Records. A lifelong volunteer for nonprofits including Habitat for Humanity, The United Negro College Fund, and Project Head Start, Henry also makes volunteerism a priority in his personal life. 

Cyrus brings a proven track record of IT leadership to his role as President of Zuryc. Cyrus is accustomed to directing all activities within a full-service technology company, including the management of team members, machines, and servers. From Microsoft, to HIPAA, to Citrix and Cisco, Cyrus boasts over a dozen past and current certifications which enable him to serve clients in myriad industries, including healthcare and government. 

Cyrus’s ability to multi-task while developing innovative technology solutions is rooted in military training and discipline. While in the US Army Reserve 108th Division, Cyrus was responsible for the implementation of NAS servers throughout the Southeast region, which included 4 states and Puerto Rico. The project was mentioned in the March 2004 Edition of Storage magazine, and his ability and achievements netted him the designation of Information Systems Operator-Analyst Military Occupational Specialty by the United States Signal Center at Fort Gordon, GA.  

As CFO, Richard brings a seasoned background in business finance, advising, and accounting to the Zuryc team. His resumé includes a 20-year stint with Merrill Lynch as a Wealth Management Advisor and Certified Financial Planner (CFP®); owner/manager of a private club business; and developer of a successful private consulting practice providing finance, accounting, and organizational services to other small business owners. 

After working with several other private equity startups, Richard began working with Zuryc in a consulting role in October 2018. It didn’t take long for him to realize the potential and opportunity offered by the growing company, as Richard accepted the role of Zuryc’s Chief Financial Officer less than one year later. 

Educated at the University of California, Irvine, Richard has earned multiple finance, tax, and accounting licenses and certifications during his 30+ year career, in addition to CFP®. Those include FINRA Series 7 and Series 63 licenses, Life, Disability, and Variable products insurance licenses, IRS Enrolled Agent (EA) tax certification, and NC Real Estate Broker. He is also certified as a QuickBooks Pro Advisor. 

An entrepreneurial visionary who is both a technology and an adrenaline enthusiast, Howard has focused his career on inventing and deploying positively disruptive technologies. Now Zuryc’s CSO, Howard founded Impact Technologies in 1981—his 17th business and 3rd technology company—which evolved into a 38-year track record of successfully driving innovation in the financial services industry.

Howard patented a unique method to bring transparency to the “black box calculations” in financial software by creating self-explaining code. He was also part of an engineering team that invented a novel memory chip for an early hand-held computer.

Known for his ability to strategize ahead-of-the-curve customer solutions, Howard was the first to advocate adding graphics to present-life policy illustrations, as well as the first to introduce the hand-held computer to the insurance industry as a whole. In addition to prototyping and creating hundreds of software products and technology solutions, Howard has been invited to numerous Fortune 100 companies to introduce and evangelize them.

Howard is a technologist at heart who prefers to devote time to strategy and creating innovations for the thorny business problems that technology can solve. Following the December 2019 merger of Impact and Zuryc, Howard brought his deep expertise and insights to the expanded company—supporting their ability to pioneer a truly complete technology experience for businesses.

How does Zuryc deliver 360˚ technology solutions while competitors with more employees offer one-dimensional solutions? In a word—or, more properly, a name: Heather Vaartjes. Heather is Zuryc’s internal knowledge and business process wizard. Whether the subject is software, internal IT, management, or business process reengineering, Heather is at the forefront of decision-making, ensuring that the organization runs smoothly and profitably to enable the swiftest, most innovative product development and releases.  

A true embodiment of the term self-starter, Heather began her career in direct sales, advancing steadily to learn and tackle new areas of expertise before eventually being named Impact Technologies’ Enterprise Project Manager – and ultimately, their Chief Operating Officer. Today, Heather brings her proven track record and insights to the COO role at Zuryc, following their merge with Impact in December 2019.  

Heather is a Microsoft Certified Professional and Microsoft CRM certified. She received a Certificate for Managing Technical Professionals & Organizations from MIT’s prestigious Sloan School of Business and, attesting to her dedication to quality, she also earned a Six Sigma Green Belt. 

 For technology-driven companies in today’s fast-paced world, it is impossible to succeed without a world-class CTO and resident networking geek. Fortunately, Zuryc has one in Derek Sanderson. Derek, who has wired his home to operate like a remote-controlled spaceship, has done no less with Impact Technologies’—now, Zuryc’s—network.  

Prior to Impact’s merge with Zuryc in December 2019, Derek’s tech-trailblazing track record for the company included: virtualizing Impact’s network of 100 physical servers to utilize cloud technologies, thereby cutting the number of physical servers to fewer than 10, all while improving performance, reliability and maintainability; migrating over 50 database-driven web applications to the private cloud to dramatically improve support, security and reliability to levels of over 99.99% uptime; and establishing partnerships with network consulting vendors and datacenters to optimize Impact’s IT operations and performance. 

Earlier in his career, Derek also created mobile iOS (Apple), Android, and web-based “Competition Dining” apps for professional chefs; was the Grand Prize winner in a national competition for Microsoft SharePoint and Office product development; created and deployed a Skype-driven messaging system that commanded Arduino devices for household purposes; and was the lead SharePoint developer on a school system-wide, 2-year-long, Business Intelligence project.