AVST Board of Directors Biographies
The Board of Directors of Applied Voice & Speech Technologies, Inc. ("AVST" or the "Company") has a strong commitment to effective corporate governance.
The Board is responsible for supervising the management of the business of AVST. The Board reviews, discusses and approves various matters related to the strategic direction, business, operations and organizational structure of AVST.
The day-to-day business of AVST is conducted by its employees, including its officers and other members of senior management. The Board expects management to be responsible for the implementation of approved corporate objectives and strategic business plans within the context of authorized budgets, specific delegations of authority for various matters and corporate policies and procedures. Management is expected to report regularly to the Board of Directors in a comprehensive, accurate and timely manner on the business and affairs of the Company. The relationship between management and the Board is to be characterized by integrity, candor and mutual trust and respect, together with an understanding of the different roles and responsibilities of management and the Board of Directors in serving the interests of shareholders.
AVST's Board of Directors includes the following industry leaders and visionaries:
| Steve Hooper | Founding Partner of Ignition Partners, former CEO of AT&T Wireless and Nextlink | ||
| Pat Howard |
Former CEO of VMX and Mosaix | ||
| Dennis O'Connell |
Partner of Dolphin Equity Partners, former Senior Executive at AT&T Wireless, XO Communications and McCaw Cellular | ||
| Charles Stevens |
Former Microsoft Corporate Vice President, Enterprise Sales, Enterprise and Partner Group |
Steve Hooper
Founding Partner of Ignition Partners, former CEO of AT&T Wireless and Nextlink
Mr. Hooper is a founding partner of Ignition Partners. He invests in telecommunications and wireless companies. Mr. Hooper represents Ignition as Director on the Boards of AVST, MobileLime and RadioFrame Networks. He previously served on the Board of Avogadro (acquired by OpenWave) and UIEvolution (acquired by SquareEnix).
Prior to Ignition, Mr. Hooper worked closely with Craig McCaw for 18 years and was CEO of every major McCaw Company except Nextel. Most recently, Mr. Hooper was the Chairman and CEO of Nextlink Communications (now XO Communications), where he was responsible for repositioning the company to a true Integrated Communications Provider offering a full complement of voice and data services.
Prior to Nextlink, Mr. Hooper served as the co-CEO of Teledesic with Craig McCaw. In that capacity, he oversaw the operation of the company and the negotiation of a multi-billion dollar satellite contract with Motorola.
From 1994 to 1997, Mr. Hooper served as CEO of AT&T Wireless. As President and CEO of AT&T Wireless, Mr. Hooper grew the company from $1.8 billion in sales to $4 billion. As CEO, Mr. Hooper bought LIN Broadcasting for $3.5 billion; expanded AT&T's footprint via the PCS auctions; built national GSM networks in India, Hong Kong and Taiwan; worked with Nokia to build the cornerstone of AT&T's "Digital One Rate" offering; deployed the first nationwide packet-based data network; and launched the first nationwide digital air-to-ground network, achieving 40% market share.
Prior to becoming CEO of AT&T Wireless, Mr. Hooper was part of the small McCaw team that recognized cellular's promise in the early eighties. Mr. Hooper financed McCaw's expansion into cellular, raising $200 million in the industry's first high-yield cellular deal and taking the company public in 1987. Mr. Hooper also had extensive operational responsibility at McCaw. Mr. Hooper was the president of McCaw's cable operations and successfully sold that business for $750 million. From there he moved into cellular operations where he was responsible for a large part of the McCaw cellular footprint in the United States.
Mr. Hooper holds an MBA from the Wharton School and a B.S. in Civil Engineering from Seattle University, where he now serves as the Chairman of the Seattle University Board. Mr. Hooper is also the President of the University Prep board of trustees.
Pat Howard
Former CEO of VMX and Mosaix
With 30 years of experience in the telecom and technology markets and building and managing the distribution channels that support them, Mr. Howard brings a wealth of knowledge to the AVST Board of Directors. Throughout his career, Mr. Howard has focused his energies on developing profitable and uniquely valuable products, services and companies in the converged voice and data applications space.
Mr. Howard has served as the CEO of a variety of publicly-traded firms in the telecom sector including VMX, one of the premier call processing and voice messaging companies in the world, where he led the company from near startup to a global leader with strong profitability and over $120 million in annual sales, and Mosaix, a call center software and systems company, where, during his three years as CEO of the company, he doubled sales and tripled earnings-per-share.
Mr. Howard most recently served as CEO of QuantumShift, where he increased the company's telecom management hosted services and reduced the company's dependence on its reseller business before selling it in 2004. In addition to these public companies, Mr. Howard has also led various private companies including ComPath, Soundlogic, PhoneZone and Banter through early stage product and company development to profitable operations and/or highly-valued liquidity events.
His past and current independent consulting or directorship roles include Banter (intelligent e-mail response automation), StraightSource (recruitment process outsourcing), Circa (IP telephone development, sold to Polycom), Séance (presence-based communications integration), LiteScape (IP applications platform) and Angel Flight (charitable aviation organization).
Mr. Howard is a graduate of the Stanford Executive Management Program and San Diego State University.
Dennis O'Connell
Partner of Dolphin Equity Partners, former Senior Executive at AT&T Wireless, XO Communications and McCaw Cellular
Mr. O'Connell joined Dolphin Equity Partners in April 2001. Mr. O'Connell has served as a director on various boards as a result of Dolphin's investments.
Mr. O'Connell brings to Dolphin over 25 years of successful operating experience in all segments of the communications industry: wireless; local; long distance and broadband. Prior to joining the Dolphin team, Mr. O'Connell served as the North Region President of XO Communications, a leading integrated communications provider, where he led market operations in the Northeast and Midwest, successfully building a $200 million business.
Before joining XO Communications, Mr. O'Connell was the Northeast Region President for AT&T Wireless. He successfully led the AT&T Wireless operations in New York and Pittsburgh. He also oversaw the successful launch of the Washington/Baltimore, Philadelphia and Boston markets. His region had annual revenues in excess of $1 billion and over 1.5 million customers.
Previously, Mr. O'Connell was with McCaw Cellular for 10 years, from the initial launch of McCaw's cellular business in 1985 through its sale to AT&T in 1995. While at McCaw, Mr. O'Connell had a variety of increasing senior operating responsibilities across the U.S.
Mr. O'Connell holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing from the University of Maryland.
Charles Stevens
Former Microsoft Corporate Vice President, Enterprise Sales, Enterprise and Partner Group
Joining Microsoft in 1984, Charles Stevens held a variety of senior management positions in both the sales and marketing and product development groups during his career, including managing Enterprise Sales, Microsoft's Asia region, and supporting new business strategies in Unified Communications, Enterprise Servers (Storage), and Office productivity and database software efforts.
Mr. Stevens most recently worked in the Unified Communications Group and, before that, the Enterprise Storage and Management Group, creating new sales and marketing strategies, including a new sales model for incubation products, comprised of OEMs, VAR channels, and technical solutions professionals.
Before that, Mr. Stevens was Vice President for the Enterprise and Partner Group, where he was responsible for Microsoft's enterprise sales and partner strategy worldwide and where he developed and implemented a new enterprise solution selling model. In this role, Mr. Stevens also managed Global Account customers and Global Systems Integrator and ISV relationships. Before that, Mr. Stevens managed the Business Solutions Groups and Applications Developer Customer Unit, which handled vertical industry strategy and relationships with ISVs and developers.
From 1994 to 1997, Mr. Stevens was Vice President of Microsoft's Asia region, responsible for sales, marketing, and services for Microsoft's products in Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, the People's Republic of China, and Taiwan. Under Mr. Stevens's leadership, the Asia region was Microsoft's fastest-growing geographic market, with over 100% annual growth.
Prior to 1994, Mr. Stevens held a variety of leadership positions at Microsoft, including General Manager of Worldwide Business Strategy, in which he oversaw global marketing and sales strategies. As General Manager of the Database Programmability Group, Mr. Stevens managed the development and marketing of database products, including the introduction of Microsoft Access and the Visual FoxPro database development system, and of programming tools, including the Visual Basic development system. Mr. Stevens also served as Director of Marketing for the Applications Division that introduced Microsoft Office and as Group Product Manager for Microsoft Word and email products.
Before joining Microsoft, Mr. Stevens was a Product Manager for Hewlett-Packard Co. in the Office Products Division. A native of Great Britain and a U.S. citizen, Mr. Stevens holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a Bachelors of Arts degree in History and English from Bristol University.