Trillion Management Team
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Bear Poth - President and CEO Kevin Bethke - Chief Operating Officer Angela Pierce - Chief Financial Officer
Larry Hamilton - VP of Business Development Lou Olsen - VP of Engineering and Operations
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Jim Dovey - Chairman of the Board
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 Bear PothPresident and CEO Mr. Poth is the founding President and CEO of Trillion and has an extensive entrepreneurial and operations background in the telecommunications industry. Prior to his current role, Mr. Poth served as President and CEO of ClearSource, Inc., a facilities-based competitive broadband company providing telephone, cable TV and high-speed Internet services to markets in Texas. At ClearSource, Mr. Poth raised $170 million in capital and grew the company from its inception to over 50,000 connections before merging ClearSource with an affiliate company creating the largest competitive bundled service provider in Texas. Previously, Mr. Poth was with ChoiceCom, a facilities-based CLEC and long-haul fiber company operating in Austin, Corpus Christi, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio. As the first employee of ChoiceCom, Mr. Poth structured, negotiated and executed a partnership between a large public utility holding company and a competitive local exchange carrier. Mr. Poth served as the senior executive in charge of sales, marketing, customer service and business development. Before ChoiceCom, Mr. Poth served in a variety of leadership roles with the Central and South West Corporation, Deloitte & Touche and Chrysler Technologies Airborne Systems. Mr. Poth Serves on the Engineering Advisory Board of The University of Texas. Mr. Poth received a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering and a Master of Business Administration from The University of Texas. Back to the top |
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Angela PierceChief Financial Officer Angela brings 14 years of corporate finance, accounting, and banking experience to Trillion, with 10 in the broadband and telecommunications industry. Most recently she served as Vice President of Financial Planning and Treasury for Convio, a venture backed software as a service company for nonprofit organizations. Prior to joining Convio, she served as the Vice President of Financial Planning and Treasury for Broadwing Communications, where she had a key role in raising $365M in capital and led the company’s M&A activity. During her nine year tenure with the company she also managed revenue assurance, revenue and cost accounting, budgeting, management reporting, and investor relation functions. Prior to Broadwing, she was Controller of Web America Networks, a Dallas based internet service provider, with more than 60,000 subscribers. Earlier in her career she was an Associate at The Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi and Deutsche Financial Services, supporting senior investment grade and middle market commercial debt for the banks respectively. She has a Bachelors degree in Finance and an MBA from the University of Texas at Austin.
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 Scott SmythVP of Legal and Regulatory Mr. Smyth has over 13 years of legal experience in the telecommunications and broadband industries. He began work in this field with the Public Utility Commission of Texas and the Office of Attorney General of Texas, representing the public interest and state government in the telecommunications area. He was then responsible for the regulatory and legislative activities in several states for two national competitive local exchange carriers. He then performed general counsel and regulatory duties for the successful facilities-based broadband company, ClearSource. Mr. Smyth earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas at Austin and his JurisDoctorate degree from St. Mary’s University School of Law in San Antonio. He has served on the board of directors of several telecommunications trade associations. He was board certified by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization in the field of administrative law from 1994 to 1999. Mr. Smyth has been an attorney licensed in the state of Texas for over 16 years. Back to the top |
 Ken Proud VP of Construction & Engineering Mr. Proud has over 35 years of experience in various broadband industries. He began his career as a district manager for R.F. Brown and Company in Delaware where he managed cable television construction activities. Mr. Proud also worked for nine years for Paragon Cable in San Antonio, Texas, where he served as a construction supervisor, project manager, and district manager. As a senior director of capital projects and materials management for Adelphia Communications Corporation in Coudersport, Pennsylvania, Mr. Proud was involved in the upgrading and rebuilding of approximately 20,000 miles of cable. Most recently, Mr. Proud was Vice President of Operations, Construction and Engineering with ClearSource, where he successfully constructed over 1,200 miles of plant capable of serving 140,000 passings. Mr. Proud maintained overall Profit & Loss responsibility for the Waco, Corpus Christi, and Midland/Odessa markets. He drove each market EBITDA positive prior to the merger of ClearSource with an affiliate company. Mr. Proud obtained a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Pennsylvania State University and a MBA from Our Lady of the Lake University of San Antonio. Back to the top |
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Vice President of Business Development Larry Hamilton has more than 24 years of successful growth and accomplishment in communications and electrical technologies, including major public company positions as Senior Vice President and General Manager. Mr. Hamilton has proven P&L background for enhancing shareholder value in technology companies through internal as well as external acquisition growth. Mr. Hamilton served as the SVP of Sales and Marketing for Carrier Access, SVP/GM for TeleTech Services, SVP/ GM for RELTEC/Marconi, and President/Owner of COMEC Electrical. Mr. Hamilton has a BS and an MBA from Northern Illinois University. |
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VP of Operations and Engineering Mr. Olsen is a highly accomplished senior level technology executive who has been a leader in defining and implementing advanced technology solutions for both publicly held and start-up organizations. He has a wide breadth of experience with wireless and wireless backhaul, VoIP, IP, Next Generation networks, and Cable networks to name a few. His experience includes extensive International work, and he has engineered and deployed networks throughout the United States. As a technology leader, he was Vice Chairman of IEEE standards group 802.16, which forms the basis of WiMAX. Previously, Mr. Olsen was the VP of Radio Architecture for FiberTower, and VP of Technology and Operations for First Avenue Networks. He was the CTO for Centennial Communications, a CDMA based wireless carrier. He was VP of Technology Development for Teligent, and VP of Engineering and Program Management at LCC International. Mr. Olsen has a Master of Science in Systems Management from USC, and a BSEET from the University of Nebraska. |
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With 30 plus years of experience managing and serving on the Board of Fortune 100 as well as smaller companies, Mr. Gabbard is a recognized industry leader. Mr. Gabbard was the CEO of Telecom USA until it merged with MCI in the early 1990s whereupon he served as MCI’s CFO for several of its pre-WorldCom years. Throughout his professional career in telecommunications, Mr. Gabbard has acquired numerous patents in the field of digital communications and has published several articles in trade and professional publications.
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Stephanie McCoy is a Managing Director with Meritage Funds and has more than 16 years of direct investing, investment banking, strategic planning and accounting experience. Ms. McCoy co-founded the corporate finance practice of Arthur Andersen in Moscow, Russia and later worked in investment banking with The Wallach Company. Ms. McCoy received an accounting degree from Texas Christian University and an MBA with high distinction from Harvard. She currently serves as a director of Meritage portfolio companies Trillion Partners (a company she
co-founded) and Atreus Systems, and she also serves on the Entrepreneurial Advisory Board for the Silicon Flatirons Center for Law, Technology, and Entrepreneurship. |
