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Optimum Communications Services, Inc. (OCS) is a wholesale network service provider using its patented ITN technology platform to provide cost-efficient multi-protocol backbone network and broadband VPN solutions for end-user-serving communications providers, on-line service providers and information-intensive enterprises.
OCS was founded in 2005 by Mark Sandstrom, board member and president and CEO, John Pinsent, board member and consulting CFO, and Randy Thompson, board member. In addition, OCS' team includes Richard Huffman, VP of Business Development, Mark O’Shaughnessy, VP of Marketing and Sales, and Chris Gare, advisor for the company's global partner relations. The team bios are provided below.
Management and Directors:
Mark Sandstrom
President and CEO, Member of the Board of Directors
Prior to founding OCS and leading the development of OCS' ITN technology platform, Mr. Sandstrom worked at various R&D capacities for communications system vendors in North America and Europe since 1995, for established companies such as Tellabs, Inc. as well as startups including Cyras Systems, Inc. (acquired by CIENA Corp. in 2001). He holds several issued and pending US and international patents on the innovative techniques enabling the groundbreaking efficiency of the self-optimizing Adaptive-Mesh network architecture OCS' ITN solution. Mr. Sandstrom holds an MSEE degree from Helsinki University of Technology, Finland and an Executive MBA degree from Golden Gate University, San Francisco.
Email: mark at optimumzone.net
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Richard Huffman
Vice President, Business Development
With over twenty years of international experience in the telecommunications industry, Mr. Huffman brings a wealth of knowledge and leadership to OCS in the areas of business development, marketing and service provider network design and engineering. Having worked for various communications service providers, system and software vendors, Mr. Huffman's comprehensive background provides him with extensive insight, knowledge and understanding of the global telecommunications industry. His positions over his career have included various senior management, marketing and engineering roles with high-tech start-ups and established firms such as TierOne OSS Technologies, Syndesis, Cisco Systems, PipeLinks (acquired by Cisco in 1998), TCSI and Fujitsu Network Communications, as well as MTS Allstream, Telstra and Bell Canada. Mr. Huffman holds a Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from Lakehead University. He is based in Toronto.
Email: richard at optimumzone.net
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Mark P. O’Shaughnessy
Vice President, Marketing and Sales
Mr. O’Shaughnessy brings to OCS two decades of market and channels development experience in telecom and IT industries. His extensive experience in the field includes senior manager to executive director level roles held at AT&T Corporation and Concert Communications from 1995 to 2007, in areas of strategic partnerships, corporate client solutions development, new product and project management, and before that as an IT and management consultant for several Fortune 500 technology companies, including AT&T, Citibank and Hewlett-Packard, developing new joint services and distribution channels to increase partnership revenues. Most recently at AT&T, he managed the company’s system integrator partnerships, including with IBM, HP, Accenture and EDS. Mr. O’Shaughnessy utilizes his extensive expertise and network of contacts with leading global technology businesses to effectively bring OCS’ advanced service provider and corporate network solutions to the markets. He is based in New York City.
Email: mos at optimumzone.net
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John Pinsent
Consulting CFO, Member of the Board of Directors
Mr. Pinsent is a founding Senior Associate with St. Arnaud Pinsent & Associates, Chartered Accountants (SA&P), where he specializes in the provision of audit, accounting, tax and business advisory services for startup and growth stage businesses. Prior to co-founding SA&P, Mr. Pinsent was a Director of Technology, Communication and Entertainment assurance services for Northern Alberta with Ernst & Young. His special area of emphasis since late '90s has been hi-tech ventures. From 1999 to 2004, he served as the Steering Committee Chairman and co-author of Ernst & Young's annual Alberta Technology Report. He has served as a director on a number of boards including Info Tech Alberta (Treasurer & Chairman), the Audit Committee of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Alberta (ICAA) and the Steering Committee of Economic Development Edmonton's Deal Generator initiative. Mr. Pinsent is currently a director on the boards of Liberty Mines Inc., a TSX listed company, and of Synodon Inc. and Innovotech Inc., both listed on the TSX.V exchange. In addition, Mr. Pinsent has played a key role in the creation of various hi-tech financing forums across Alberta including the Banff Venture Forum, Alberta's Innovation and Investment Week and the Alberta Venture Channel (AVC). He currently serves as a Director of AVC, as well as of a number of emerging private and public technology companies. He was awarded the ICAA Distinguished Service Award in 2006 for his support of the high technology community in Alberta, the ICAA Early Achievement Award in 2001, and the Economic Development Edmonton Ambassador Award in 2002 for his formation work on the Greater Edmonton Competitiveness Strategy. Mr. Pinsent holds BEd and BComm degrees from University of Alberta, and received his Chartered Accountant designation in 1996 while in public practice with Ernst & Young.
Email: john at optimumzone.net
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R. Stewart (Randy) Thompson
Member of the Board of Directors
Mr. Thompson has been active in the hi-tech venture space since 1992 when he started the first ISP in Alberta, (Alberta Supernet Inc., later on acquired by Norsat Communications), as well as a digital media distribution and production company. In 1999 he began developing angel investor groups in Alberta, starting with an organization that matched deals for Western Canada investors on the Internet. Since that time, he led a team that started Deal Generator, an Edmonton based angel group, and in 2003 he started Keiretsu Forum Calgary, an internationally affiliated angel group with over 400 accredited investors. Currently the group is run as VentureAlberta, which has funded over 25 start ups since 2003. During this time he also began to work as a Venture Capital Advisor to the Province of Alberta, introducing Alberta as an investment region to institutional venture investors in the USA, Europe and Asia. In March 2007, Mr. Thompson parlayed his angel experience into a new role, becoming General Partner in a new cross border Venture Fund, Argon Venture Partners. With General Partners in both Silicon Valley and in Western Canada, the fund is uniquely positioned to allow its portfolio companies utilize the often complementary resources and opportunities across these regions. Mr. Thompson currently serves on the board of directors of four angel or venture funded information and communications technology (ICT) companies. Earlier in his career Randy served as the Executive Assistant for the Minister of Technology for the Province of Alberta, serving on a committee that privatized AGT, forming Telus Corporation, now a publicly traded major telecom service provider in Canada, as well as in a working group that started the High Performance Computing Centre, a private supercomputing facility in Calgary. Mr. Thompson has sat on two public company boards, eight private company boards, as well as on a number of public policy boards including the Banff New Media Advisory committee, the National New Media Advisory Committee for the Canadian Conference of the Arts (Ottawa), and the Alberta Minister of Innovation ICT Committee.
Email: randy at optimumzone.net
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Chris Gare
Advisor, International business and global partner relations
Mr. Gare is currently very active as an industry advisor to innovative high-tech companies. Most recently in the telecom and Internet industry, in 2000 he co-founded Nexagent, a company focusing on the automation of IP-based multi-provider enterprise network services that was acquired by EDS (HP) in 2008. Before Nexagent, Mr. Gare worked eight years at Cable & Wireless' Group Technology team as Vice President, Advanced Services, and pioneered and championed early IP service and application deployment in its business units around the world. These included MPLS-based IP-VPNs, VoIP, WAP, interactive TV, wireless access services, home networks and softswitch IP-PSTN integration. Prior to joining Cable & Wireless, he spent seven years as Corporate Marketing Director with European Silicon Structures (ES2), a European advanced ASIC company. Mr. Gare also worked a number of years in the PC software industry where he was European Managing Director for Perfect Software, the first company to bundle personal productivity tools with PCs. Before this, he opened Microsoft's first European office and served as European Managing Director. He started his hi-tech career in the 1970s with ICL's Advanced Technology Laboratory, Texas Instruments and Motorola Semiconductors, at various R&D, product management and marketing roles. Mr. Gare graduated with Honours in Physical Electronics from University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and has been a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) since 1986. He is based in the UK.
Email: gare at optimumzone.net
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