Executive Team Overview
David S. Clark - Chief Executive Officer & Founder
Since participating in our founding in June 2003, Mr. Clark has served as President, Chief Executive Officer and a member of our board of directors. Mr. Clark has overall responsibility for strategic guidance, personnel, financing, sales and corporate development/administration for us.
From May 1997 to January 2001, Mr. Clark was Senior Vice President, Sales & Marketing and Senior Vice President, Investor Relations for MGC/Mpower Communications. Mr. Clark’s responsibilities included corporate sales and marketing development and implementation and a leading role in securing nearly $1 billion in private equity, IPO, secondary equity and high yield debt financing. Mr. Clark was also the primary contact for investors and Wall Street funds and analysts at Mpower.
From February 2001 to May 2003, Mr. Clark was a principal with Gallagher Equity Management. Mr. Clark has been in the telecommunications industry since 1989 with companies spanning private pay telephone, inmate phone system, specialty satellite services and CLECs.
Mr. Clark was a civilian contractor to the British military in Bosnia and was responsible for the Welfare Phone Service (via satellite) provided to British troops serving under the United Nations peacekeeping mandate. Mr. Clark serves as a director of Antenna Technology Company, Inc. in Chandler, Arizona, and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Mass Communications from Texas Tech University.
Mr. Clark was named 2006's CEO of the Year-- IP Communications and Voice Services by Frost & Sullivan and 2006 Entrepreneur of the Year by The Technology Business Alliance of Nevada (TBAN).
Gregory K. Roeper - President
Mr. Roeper joined CommPartners in April 2007 as President. Prior to joining CommPartners, Mr. Roeper served most recently as President and CEO of Vodavi Technology, Inc., a leading provider of telecommunications systems which in 2006 was acquired by Vertical Communications.
Mr. Roeper joined Vodavi in 1994 and while there held positions as the company’s chief operating officer; executive vice president, finance, administration and operations; secretary of the company; and as chief financial officer and treasurer.
Prior to Vodavi Technology Inc., Mr. Roeper served as Senior Manager at a major accounting firm where he managed capital formation, deal structuring, SEC compliance, public offerings of debt and equity securities, cost reduction studies, and litigation projects.
Mr. Roeper holds a B.B.A. degree in Finance and Accounting from the University of Iowa and is a Certified Public Accountant.
Patrick J. Chicas - Chief Technology Officer & Director
Since co-founding CommPartners in June 2003, Mr. Chicas has served as our Vice President & Chief Technology Officer and as a member of our board of directors. Mr. Chicas is responsible for the network architecture and topology, vendor selection, POP construction and all engineering aspects of the Company. From August 2000 to November 2003, Mr. Chicas was the president, co-Chairman and a member of the board at Rubicon Media Group, a sector pioneering Internet publishing concern recently sold to Advanstar Communications, Inc. From March 1999 to August 2000, Mr. Chicas was the Vice President for Data Services at Mpower Communications. While at Mpower, Mr. Chicas designed the company's VoIP network for small business services. From January 1997 to September 1998, Mr. Chicas was the first executive hire and Vice President of Operations at Digital Island, Inc. Mr. Chicas has prior telecommunications experience with PacTel Cellular (now Verizon) and GTE Mobilnet (now Verizon).
As an early participant in Internet related businesses, Mr. Chicas was co-founder of Hawaii Online's Internet Access Service. Hawaii Online was the first statewide ISP in Hawaii and was ultimately sold to GST Communications. Mr. Chicas also co-founded LJ.net, an ISP founded to serve rural communities in the western United States.
Mark W. Peterson – Executive Vice President, Sales & Marketing
Mr. Peterson joined us as Executive Vice President, Sales and Marketing in August, 2004. Mr. Peterson has over 25 years experience in executive management roles in marketing, corporate communications and sales.
Mr. Peterson's experience in telecommunications began in 1996 when he served as President, Western Region for Mpower Communications. In this role, he negotiated interconnection agreements with PacBell (now SBC) and GTE (now Verizon). Mr. Peterson was responsible for the companies' profit and loss, sales, marketing and operations in California and Nevada through October 2000 as it became one of the largest Competitive Local Exchange Carrier (CLEC) operations in the region and one of the first companies to deploy VoIP technology for commercial use.
Mr. Peterson also served in executive and management roles with Allegiant Air, Bank of America, WestAir/United Express and AirCal Airlines. He also served as a consultant with Gallagher Equity Management, providing management services to invested companies.
Mr. Peterson holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from California State University, Chico. He also attended the California Northern School of Law.
Gary L. Killoran - Executive Vice President, Carrier Services
Mr. Killoran joined CommPartners in February 2007 as Executive Vice President, Carrier Services. Prior to joining CommPartners, Mr. Killoran served most recently as Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer of Leading Edge Broadband Services, a leading provider of telecommunications services to the call center industry.
Mr. Killoran joined Leading Edge Broadband Services in 2000, where he was responsible for finance, treasury, accounting and human resource functions. Mr. Killoran’s operational experience includes network operations, provisioning, client activations, customer service, technical support, IT, co-location management and carrier relations.
Prior to Leading Edge Broadband Services, Mr. Killoran served as Chief Financial Officer, Secretary, Treasurer and member of the Board of phoneXchange, Inc., a leading provider of International Long Distance Service and as Chief Financial Officer, Secretary, Treasurer and member of the Board of Chadmoore Wireless Group, Inc., a leading provider of Two-way Dispatch Service subsequently purchased by Nextel. Mr. Killoran was responsible for taking each private company “public”, SEC reporting, preparation of a various Private Placement Memorandum and SEC Registration Statements, finance, treasury, accounting and human resource functions.
Mr. Killoran has over 19 years of experience in finance, accounting and operations of publicly-traded and privately-held companies in the telecommunications industry and holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in Accounting from the University of Wisconsin.
Michael E. Burke - Vice President, Network Operations
Mr. Burke joined CommPartners Connect in 2004 and has served in various roles since that time. Mr. Burke began his career with Contel of California where he started as a Field Engineer and progressed to the VP of Engineering and Operations. During that time Contel became one of the first Independent companies to achieve a full digital network. He was responsible for over 300 employees and a $30 million dollar budget. Another first was the placement of a total fiber to the home network. Mr. Burke served as a member of the Board of Directors and took on temporary assignments such as Task Leader for the creation and planning for an entire telephone network in Cairo, Egypt. After Contel merged with GTE, Mr. Burke stayed on in dual roles until leaving in 1996.
In 1996, Mr. Burke came to MPower Communications (formerly NevTel) where he held the positions of Vice President Network Operations and Vice President of Strategic Planning. Responsibilities included setting up NOC functions, securing and building communications networks, and preparing and creating interconnection agreements with all ILECs and several Independent companies.
Prior to joining CommPartners Connect, Mr. Burke also joined several startup companies including Sierra Pacific Communications where he was responsible for creating and constructing a total fiber optic network in Northern and Southern Nevada. At the same time he was asked to Manage E3 Energy Services and bring them back to profitability.
With CommPartners Connect, Mr. Burke is currently responsible for all Network Operations including NOC and Provisioning and Vendor relations.
Mr. Burke holds a Bachelors degree from California State University San Bernardino and a Masters degree in Management from the University of Redlands.
George A. Lara - Vice President, Customer Provisioning Services
Mr. Lara joined CommPartners Connect as Vice President, Service Delivery and is responsible for all service delivery and customer service aspects for the company. Mr. Lara has an extensive operations, customer service and sales leadership background, holding senior management positions in the last 14 years with various telecommunications companies.
Mr. Lara’s telecommunications experience began in 1994 working for AMTEL Communications. From there, he co-found TRITEL Communications and having an eye on the Telecommunications Act of 1996, Mr. Lara positioned the company into one of the first re-sale CLEC’s in the country. Mr. Lara has also held management positions with MPower Communications as General Manager of the San Diego Market, Vice President Sales and Operations, Western Region. He has also founded Aaxis Communications a telecommunications consulting entity and has also held the position of Regional Manager Wholesale Services for OneStar Communications.
Larry G. Costa - Assistant Vice President, Information Systems
Mr. Costa joined CommPartners Connect as Assistant Vice President, Information Services in February 2008. Mr. Costa has over 28 years experience in the telephone industry working primarily in the Information Services and telephone billing areas.
Mr. Costa's experience in telecommunications began in 1980 as a programmer for Centel Corp in Las Vegas, Nevada. During his 15 years with the company, he managed various areas of the Information Services department including Application Development and Quality Assurance with his primary focus being billing systems. Mr. Costa also played a major role in the consolidation of Centel’s multiple billing systems into one ‘Centel Uniform Billing System’ and was later transferred to Chicago to manage the development and quality assurance groups for the new system. In 1992, Centel and Sprint Corp merged giving Sprint local telephone operations in 19 states. In support of this merger, Mr. Costa relocated to Kansas City where his major responsibilities included the conversion of the Centel billing system to Sprint’s billing system, as well as management of the existing Application Development teams in both Chicago and Kansas City.
In October 1996, Mr. Costa accepted a position with Nevtel/MGC/Mpower Communications, which was later acquired by Telepacific Communications, where he worked in various Director-level positions within the Billing, Information Services, and Operations areas for the next 12 years until moving to CommPartners Connect.
Mr. Costa holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California, Davis and Secondary and Adult Education Teaching credentials from San Francisco State University.