Our Team

RBCS, Inc. is led by Rex Black, principal consultant and published expert in software, hardware, and systems testing. In addition to our principal consultants, RBCS works with skilled trainers comprised of certified test engineers and managers.

Rex Black, President

With over 35 years of software and systems engineering experience, Rex Black is President of RBCS (www.rbcs-us.com), a software and systems engineering and testing leader, providing consulting, training, and expert services. Since its founding in 1994, RBCS has served over 1,000 clients on six continents, spanning all areas of software and system development, from embedded systems to gaming software to banking and insurance to defense systems to pharmaceuticals and health care. 

Rex has worked with clients from small start-ups to Fortune 20 global enterprises.  He has experience helping clients apply software and systems engineering and testing best practices in a wide variety of development lifecycles, including Kanban, Scrum, DevOps, Waterfall, and Spiral.

Rex has served as an expert witness for three cases, including one $180 million breach of contract case. He is the Senior DevSecOps/QA Consultant in a Software Quality Oversight Organization overseeing a multi-year corporate integrity agreement between the US Office of Inspector General and a major electronic health records company.

Rex is also the most prolific author practicing in the field of software testing today, having written fourteen books and dozens of articles over the last 20 years. He is Founder and past President of the ISTQB and of the ASTQB, a past Chair, Co-author, Editor, and Project Manager for many of the ISTQB syllabi, and Founder and President of TMMi America.

Laurel Becker, Vice President

As Vice President of RBCS, Inc., Laurel Becker is responsible for the company's day to day operations and helps manage each client relationship. Having a strong background in human behavior and psychometric testing, Laurel focuses on usability studies, human factors testing, and consulting team dynamics. She helps clients narrow the gap between their products and human behavior and needs. In addition, Laurel recruits and places highly skilled QA and Test professionals to meet each individual client's unique needs. Laurel works closely with the company's Principal Consultant to ensure the best job fit between the client and the employee.

Laurel received a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology from UCLA and a Masters of Education with a Specialty in Counseling and Guidance from the University of Texas at San Antonio. Prior to joining RBCS, Laurel worked in the fields of clinical and research-oriented application of human behavior skills. Laurel is a Licensed Professional Counselor and a member of the Texas Counseling Association.

Dena Pauletti, Systems Engineer

Dena Pauletti, RBCS’ Systems Engineer, assists with the day to day operations of RBCS, with responsibilities ranging from fulfilling orders and coordinating training courses to helping with the maintenance of e-learning courses and handling licensee relations. Dena has a career history in Software Development, which gives her valuable insight into how to manage every detail of her daily job responsibilities. After earning a Bachelors of Business Administration in Computer Information Systems from Stephen F. Austin State University, Dena began her career as a software developer. She developed and maintained software used by customer business systems and sales force groups for a semiconductor and computer technology company. Dena and her husband moved to Colorado for a few years where she worked as a software developer for a call center system for a local cable company.

After a 9 year career break to focus on being a full time mom, Dena is now enjoying the best of both worlds assisting with RBCS’ operations as well as managing her family’s operations. Hers is often the first voice clients will hear when making initial calls to RBCS. She is also the main point of contact for many of our long-time clients. Her pleasant personality and dedication to customer service lends itself to making the overall client relationship an extremely positive experience right from the start.

Barton Layne, Consultant

As a Senior Test Engineer, Barton Layne creates and executes test plans, test cases, and automation frameworks for performance and stress tests. In his over 18 years of experience in testing hardware and software applications, Barton has set up, staffed, and managed testing projects for clients in industries including: energy, pharmaceuticals, insurance, state agencies, telecommunications, finance, accounting, computer manufacturing, poultry processing and distribution, custom manufacturing, and test laboratories.

Barton has developed highly-structured testing processes and procedures using both pre-packaged and open source tools. His adaptability, attention to detail, and analytical ability are valuable assets to any organization. In addition, he has co-authored and contributed articles and papers on performance testing.

Jose Mata, Consultant

Jose has been in the software and system test arena for almost two decades, much of it as a consultant for small and large corporations such as Motorola, Dell, IBM, Texas Instruments, and Compaq. Jose is ISTQB Foundation Level certified. His breadth of experience has afforded him the ability to assimilate information rapidly, and within a competitive context. With a Bachelor of Arts (and an improbable Minor in Electrical Engineering) from the University of Texas at Austin, he started his career as a technical writer, before moving to software testing in 1987.

In addition to his technical skills, Jose's communication skills are superb, which help bridge the gap between the technical and user-experienced worlds. Jose is conversational in Spanish and French and knows a smattering of other languages and cultures, which adds to his experience with language localization issues. In his spare time, Jose is also a writer and an award-winning filmmaker.

Jamie Mitchell, Consultant

Jamie has worked as tester, automator, and tool developer for many organizations of all sizes, both as an employee and consultant. He is a pioneer in the test automation field, working with many different commercial test automation tools since Windows 3.0, as well as developing and maintaining custom test tools for several other platforms. In his role as Principal Technical Consultant at Jamie Mitchell Consulting, Inc, Jamie is responsible for developing and implementing testing and automation initiatives for a range of clients. He also provides training, mentoring, and expert technical support.

Jamie holds a Master of Computer Science degree from Lehigh University in Bethlehem, PA, as well as QAI and ISTQB testing certifications. He has been a regular speaker at several international conferences, including QAI, STAR, and PSQT.

Gary Mogyorodi, Consultant

Gary Mogyorodi has over 30 years of experience in the computing industry. He is the Principal Consultant with Software Testing Services, consulting, training and mentoring in software testing, specializing in Requirements-based Testing. He is the President of the Canadian Software Testing Board and an ISTQB testing instructor.

Gary is an ISTQB Certified Tester Foundation Level, Advanced Test Manager, Advanced Test Analyst and Advanced Technical Tester.

Mark Tannian, Consultant and Professional Development Provider

Mark works in two capacities for RBCS.  Mark provides security and design consulting services to RBCS clients.  As a professional development provider, Mark, develops courseware and delivers training services.  Mark teaches the ISQTB Advanced Security Tester certification preparation course and the A4Q Design Thinking Foundation course.  As part of the RBCS course development team, Mark was the primary developer of the A4Q Design Thinking Foundation certification and training course.  He teaches both of these courses virtually and in person.

Mark has been in the cybersecurity field since 1995 working for Trusted Information Systems as a Gauntlet Firewall support engineer and installer.  He has been an employee of startups and large corporations.  His roles have ranged from pre- and post-sales engineering, product management, security operations, systems engineer, services designer and security consultant.  He holds the cybersecurity CISSP and the project management PMP certifications.  He earned his Ph.D.  in Computer Engineering from Iowa State University and has a M.S. and B.E. of Electrical Engineering.  He has written or co-written a number of peer-reviewed papers in areas of security. He also has written about design thinking.  He is an experienced college professor and continues to teach college students.