Tell us about your professional background prior to joining AireSpring.
While attending The Ohio State University, I started selling cellular phones through an authorized dealer of Cellular One on a commission-only basis. By the end of my first year at OSU I was making more money than my professors were and decided to chase the money over the education. In 1997, I started the first new authorized agency for Cellular One in the Midwest in nearly 3 years. Over the next 4 years, Cellular One was acquired by AirTouch Cellular and then merged with Bell Atlantic / Nynex Mobile to form Verizon Wireless.
After selling my business in 2002, I went to work in corporate America as a Regional Sales Director for WorldCom Wireless, managing a multi-state multi-sales distribution market. As WorldCom headed toward the largest corporate bankruptcy in US history, I moved into traditional telecom.
From 2004 to 2008, I held various direct and indirect sales roles at 3 competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs). In 2008, I took on the Regional Director of Sales position at XO Communications, leading the Mid-Market, Enterprise, National Accounts, and Indirect sales teams. In 2015, as part of the Verizon acquisition of XO, I volunteered to join the synergies announced in the acquisition.
After spending a year as a telecom broker and agent, I decide to get back into the corporate America game and took a position as an Account Director with Level 3 in Chicago. After that, I moved back home to Ohio and joined a newly created acquisition sales team at Verizon. In 2020, my wife and I moved to Naples, FL, and I started a new role as a Global Account Manager at Masergy/Comcast, supporting the partner / agent community there.
Tell us about your role at AireSpring and how you support our channel partners.
Here at AireSpring, John Young (AireSpring SVP Channel Sales), Scott Hailey (AireSpring Director of Channel Programs), and I are building and executing “The Relentless Pursuit of MindshAIRE” strategy. As part of this strategy, we are constantly positioning AireSpring at the forefront and connecting with key individuals (channel managers, solutions engineers and leadership) at the largest technology service brokers and fostering those relationships in a variety of ways.
Day to day, I work closely with our channel manager community to understand their local marketplaces, to make sure I can best support their business. My primary role is to drive large strategic opportunities into our channel managers’ hands.
Our team is 100% partner-focused, and we work to ensure channel partners deliver the best solutions to their customers. At the end of the day, our goal is to have strategies in place that will make the partner succeed and will delight their customers for years to come.
What do you like about working at AireSpring?
It’s a great opportunity to work at a stable, family-owned company like AireSpring and to grow my career by serving in a leadership position with AireSpring’s outstanding executive team. I have really enjoyed working with all the team members in all of the supporting departments, including the Solutions Engineering, Marketing, and Service Delivery teams — there’s really great synergy among the whole company. I really appreciate that everyone is committed to winning and doing whatever it takes to meet their individual and group goals.
Tell us about your hobbies outside of work.
Outside of work, my wife and I elected to join the Freedom Boat Club over buying a boat ourselves. This gives us the flexibility to boat all over the country and even internationally. Usually when we travel, we look for destinations that are near a Freedom Boat Club marina, as exploring a new area on the water is always an adventure. My favorite, and the most unique destination we’ve been to so far, is The Broadmoor Resort in Colorado Springs, CO. It’s a beautiful state. I also enjoy playing golf as much as I can. Living in southwest Florida allows us to do what we enjoy year-round!
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