This month, we introduce Matthew Valdez, a systems technician/Premium+ technician here at Platte River Networks. Matthew has his Bachelor of Business Administration in Management Information Systems from Angelo State University and is currently working on his Master of Science in Information Systems with a Cybersecurity and Information Assurance specialization at CU Denver. Prior to joining PRN, Matthew worked as an IT administrator for a manufacturing company with about 300 employees. And when he was getting his Bachelor’s degree, he worked for the University’s IT department as a field services technician, applications support specialist and a team lead.
Matthew has been with PRN since February of 2020. As a Premium+ technician, he is the dedicated technician for one of PRN’s client’s and his most rewarding experience has been helping the client get into a better place than they were a year ago, especially with how tough this last year has been. He has learned a lot and must be a jack of all trades, doing everything from troubleshooting hardware, to managing the network, to endpoint management, and server administration.
Matthew is originally from Midland Texas and grew up in Odessa Texas. For the last 9 years, he has been in the Abilene and San Angelo parts of Texas. He has two rescue cats, one is part Maine coon, named Raven, and the other is part red point Siamese, named Si. In his free time, he listens to podcasts and youtube videos such as Darknet Diaries and SmarterEveryDay. He also enjoys kayak fishing, PC gaming, 3D printing, and fermentations. As a sociable person, he is happiest when he is around his family and friends. A fun fact about Matthew is that in college, he started a collegiate shooting team, and that team now wins regional and national awards and awards scholarships to members.
The person that Matthew admires the most is his father, who is a perfect example of having what you want in life if you work hard enough. If he could be anybody else, he would want to be Keanu Reeves, because who wouldn’t want to be Keanu. When he was a child, Matthew always wanted to be able to help people, which is why he wants to go into security, and why he truly appreciates his role at PRN.
We are happy to have Matthew on our team!