About / Project Management Team

Claudia Burcke, Acting Managing Manager
Claudia Burcke is the Acting Managing Director of Finger Lakes Wired. Finger Lakes Wired, with RochesterWorks, Inc. as the lead agency, was recently awarded $15 million over a three year period through the US Department of Labor's Wired Initiative. Finger Lakes Wired is a partnership representing 21 business, higher education, philanthropic, economic and workforce development organizations in the nine county Finger Lakes region dedicated to transforming the regional economy.

Claudia Burcke is responsible for monitoring Wired project operations and ensuring that contractors are meeting required outcomes to support regional economic transformation.

She develops, recommends, and implements initiatives and strategies related to all aspects of the Finger Lakes Wired Initiative to support the achievement of performance goals for the project. She also monitors project outcomes and goals, ensures adherence to USDOL policies and procedures, ensures communication among partners in support of regional strategies, and collaborates with partners for the coordination and delivery of services.

Claudia also serves as Business Services Manager for RochesterWorks!, which she joined in 2002. She has several years experience in job counseling and corporate recruiting.

Claudia holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and Economics from Western New England College, Springfield, Massachusetts. She is a member of the National Human Resource Association.

She lives in Charlotte, NY with her husband, Matt.

Pat Piles, Project Manager
Pat brings over 25 years of corporate and independent business experience in organization and business development, productivity improvement and marketing, and sales. He brings expertise in the areas of strategic planning, targeted innovation, high-impact team development and in the application of problem solving methodologies.

He has designed and developed materials, delivered multi-module programs for all levels of an organization on subject areas ranging from performance improvement, employee retention, leadership & managerial skills, to career planning and career management.

Pat's consulting experiences include being a staff consultant for an internationally recognized innovation consulting company and operating his own consulting practice, Top Line Performance. Client experiences include having worked with Fortune 100 and 500 companies and a branch of the United States Military; but Pat's focus is on small to medium-sized businesses.

When it comes to the corporate arena, Pat held positions of Vice President and Senior Vice President of Human Resources in two retail department store operations and Director of Organization Development at a third retailer.

His background also includes familiarity with the private business sector having owned and operated a personnel staffing, permanent placement and executive search company for eight years, and as Director of Business Operations for a privately owned software development company.

Debby Bartow, Executive Assistant
Debby Bartow is a member of the executive team for RochesterWorks, Inc. and Finger Lakes WIRED. She has worked in several industry sectors including information technology, human services, direct marketing, sales promotion, academia, and manufacturing.

Just prior to joining RochesterWorks Debby worked in information technology as a HIPAA consultant and project manager guiding several local not-for-profits and health care providers to HIPAA compliance.

She and her husband live in Victor, New York .

Last updated: 3/31/07