Our Team

CastlePointe is led by a team of Principal Consultants who oversee all operations and consulting engagements.  Each of our Principals has extensive experience both working within IT as well as leading transformation efforts for clients.

Charles Araujo is the President and Managing Consultant of CastlePointe. Since founding CastlePointe in 1997, he has worked with a wide range of Fortune 2000 clients and has personally led numerous, significant IT transformation projects. He has worked with clients including Avery Dennison, Westfield, Capital Group, Metropolitan Water District and Fidelity National. Prior to founding CastlePointe, Mr. Araujo spent over 10 years in IT management and in technical roles working in the healthcare, aerospace and entertainment industries. You can learn more about Mr. Araujo at www.charlesaraujo.com.

Jim Cross has over 20 years of industry experience covering a wide range of technical and business disciplines with cross-functional experience from high level consulting to hands-on technical management. As a Principal Consultant, he has successfully led organization-wide initiatives in identifying opportunities and developing innovative strategies to improve reliability, productivity and service. He has worked extensively as a consultant in the practice areas of ITSM/ITIL, IT Quality and process improvement since 2003.  Prior to that, Mr. Cross spent over 14 years in senior technical and IT management roles in the healthcare industry for firms including MemorialCare and MedPartners.

John Palinkas has spent over three decades in the IT services industry working for industry leaders AT&T, AT&T Solutions and British Telecom. He has led numerous multi-million dollar, multi-year outsourcing and service delivery engagements for dozens of Fortune 500 firms during his career. He has extensive experience and expertise in IT transformation efforts, outsourcing analysis, M&A integrations and service implementations. Prior to his customer-facing work, Mr. Palinkas spent many years running internal infrastructure operations and serving in senior management roles within AT&T and BT.

Leo Peay has over twenty years of experience as a leader, advisor, and change agent experienced in all facets of information systems across financial, automotive, healthcare, and defense industries. A creative yet practical leader, he is skilled at partnering with business and IT leaders to apply information, processes, and technology to improve business efficiency, realize new products, and grow client profitability. Leo has many years of success in both strategic and operational roles. Operational roles have included building and transforming IT teams, leading software development and integration projects, and deploying enterprise scale network and security infrastructures. Strategic roles have included leading enterprise technology strategy and architecture, product innovation, and M&A integration. Prior to joining CastlePointe, he held senior strategic and operational positions at TRW and Experian, including serving as the Vice President of Information Technology at Experian leading a team of over 180 staff members and managing a budget in excess of $40MM.

Ben Singleton

As Director of Sales and Business Development, Ben Singleton is responsible for all direct sales, and strategic partnerships at CastlePointe. Ben joined CastlePointe in January, 2010 after a twenty five year information technology career in Sales, New Business Development, and Practice Management. Prior to joining CastlePointe, Ben held executive level positions at several start up and large scale technology consulting firms. Additionally, Ben was a Strategic Alliance Director at AT&T. He was responsible for the go to market relationship with one of AT&T's strategic partners. Prior to joining AT&T, Ben was head of Practice Management – Communications and Media Industry for NCR's Professional Services Division. Ben is a graduate of Villanova University's School of Business.