Sales Management

RESUME

Paul L. Bennett

**** ******* **. · Leander, TX 78641 · 512-***-**** · ****@********.***

Executive/Senior Level Operational Experience

§ SVP Operations / Sr. Director Technical Sales / Director MIS – managed multiple fiber optic voice and data network builds. Experienced with the following operating company types: Utility Construction, IXC, CLEC, ISP, Carrier, and Cable TV with annual revenues between $100M and $400M.

§ Telecom Operations Knowledge – regulatory, network systems, switch translations, SONET, OSP, SS7, IP, ATM, SMS 800, CALEA, IT/MIS operations, fraud protection, network and customer provisioning, billing (end user, wholesale, and CABS), sales and customer care CRMs, and inbound and outbound call centers operations.

§ Consultative Sales and Project Management - twenty years of customer facing consultative technical sales with follow-on implementation and project management for diverse commercial and governmental projects ranging in size up to $100M.

Telecom Executive * Public and Private Company P&L Management * Operations

Project Management * Technical Sales * Vendor Negotiations

Objective:

Obtain a senior leadership position where engaging my skills and experience will measurably contribute to meeting the company’s stated goals and objectives.

Experience History:

March 2008 to Present AgriA LLC Austin, TX

General Manager for company producing magnetic labeling and indexing systems for electrical panels. The systems provide maintenance engineers with the ability to organize their electrical panels both logically and physically in compliance with the National Electrical Code section 408.4. AgriA’s products are shipped throughout the US and Canada.

January 2006 to March 2008 Xfone USA (AMEX: XFN) Jackson, MS

Senior Vice President US Operations, Executive Management for all US operations of an international voice, video, and data telecommunications company including: voice and data POPs, networks, billing, customer service, credit and collections, information systems, information technology, and field technicians. Operations team included: 90+ employees and 6 direct reports, in 5 regional offices across Mississippi and Louisiana.

As a senior executive, who was responsible to budget the CAPEX and OPEX requirements for all US operations {voice and data networks, customer care, and billing}. In that capacity, directed and led the implementation of a VoATM network throughout LA and MS including the build out of 15 BellSouth central offices with dark fiber SONET interconnection. Also, oversaw the company’s migration from the SCBI billing system to a fully integrated OSS from the Martin Group. Xfone’s customer care center was upgraded and modernized by the installation of a state-of-the-art ACD/IVR system from Avaya.

During 2006 US operating revenue increased by over 100% and EBITDA increased by a corresponding amount.

December 1999 to August 2005 Grande Communications Austin, TX

Senior Director Technical Sales, Grande Communications is a Texas based communications company, which provides voice, video, and data services to retail, commercial, and wholesale customers. Grande has built a state of the art high fiber count metro network in: Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, San Marcos, Waco, Midland, Odessa, and Corpus Christi. Grande owns and operates a 3,000 route mile long haul protected SONET network, which interconnects all Texas MSAs and most of the tier 2 cities including the Rio Grande valley cities Laredo, McAllen, and Harlingen. Out of state, the long haul network connects: Tulsa, Oklahoma City, Little Rock, and Shreveport. Grande also has a robust wholesale business in the following business segments: LD terminations, CLEC services, toll free origination, national directory assistance, ISP services, dark fiber leases, and fiber construction. Grande voice platforms include Nortel DMS-500s and SONUS soft switches, Grande maintains it’s own SS7 network using paired Tekelec Eagle STPs, and Grande’s data network uses Juniper routers and Foundry Network’s Bigiron Ethernet switches.

My major accomplishments at Grande include:

· Directly managed a team of 30+ employees with 5 direct reports

· Management of the Clearsource/Grande business relationship prior to Grande acquiring Clearsource.

· Technical development of Grande’s National Directory Assistance product including the use of the DMS announcement capability to provide customized branding by customer, call completion options with billing, and the use of partially filed authcodes for English/Spanish operator selection and TOD (Time of Day) routing.

· Development of Grande’s wholesale CLEC products to VoIP service providers including: PSTN interface, E-911 services, directory listings, ANI database management, automated wholesale CLEC customer interface into the TAOS provisioning system, separation of local and LD traffic, and wholesale billing. Reviewed and responded to RFP’s from the University of Texas, Texas State University, and the cities of Austin, San Marcos, and San Antonio for Telecommunication services.

· Expansion of Grande’s Internet managed modem footprint to off net local calling scopes served by other CLECs. This was accomplished by working with the CLEC’s to develop a local SS7 interconnection as opposed to the traditional approach of using PRIs. The SS7 architecture realized a 50% reduction in costs over PRIs.

· MAJOR (Managed Jurisdictional OCN Routing) wholesale LD terminations traffic routing scheme using SS7 TCAP queries to compare a wholesale LD call’s originating and terminating ANI. Those ANIs are used to determine the jurisdiction (local, intrastate, or interstate) and the terminating OCN for each LD call. Based on customized lists provided each wholesale customer the calls were either assigned a terminating STS or returned (via SS7 signaling) to the wholesale customer for alternate choice routing. Millions of calls are processed on a daily basis using this product.

· Development and management of Grande’s UNE-P business unit. Prior to the FCC TRO decision the UNE-P operation reached a maximum of 12,000 lines, and Grande’s retail call centers were adding over 500 UNE-P lines per month. Worked with Grande’s regulatory department and the Texas Public Utility Commission to address and respond to consumer complaints and to manage operations within PUC’s regulatory requirements.

· Created a process employing UNE-P and later resell call forwarding with paths to provide dedicated local phone services to customers in SBC rate centers where Grande didn’t have local interconnection.

· Member of a Grande three (3) person team, led by Grande’s EVP of Corporate Policy and Services, negotiating with SBC on follow on business based on the FCC part 251 and 271 agreements.

· Senior member of the team who developed Grande’s Enterprise Business division. Reported directly to the EVP of Enterprise, and led the effort to develop Enterprise products, processes, procedures, and billing requirements.

· Development and management of Grande’s Enterprise Agent program. Our two leading agents produce customer billings of over $20,000.00 per month and growing.

· Member of several corporate M&A teams, led by either Grande’s President or EVP, evaluating the candidate companies’ business practices, customer base, product viability, and EBITDA potential.

· Managed several successful integrations of acquired customer bases. Included the assimilation of operations, customer care, and billing from the acquired company into Grande’s existing or newly developed operations.

May 1998 to December 1999 ITC^DeltaCom Jackson, MS

Regional Manager Technical Sales Consultants, ITC^DeltaCom is a regional facilities based telecommunications company. The Company operates 24 branch locations in eight states, and its 10-state, approximately 7,800-mile fiber optic network reaches over 80 points of presence. ITC^DeltaCom has interconnection agreements with BellSouth, Southwestern Bell, GTE, and Sprint for resale and access to unbundled network elements, and is a certified Competitive Local Exchange Carrier (CLEC) in Arkansas, Texas, and all nine BellSouth states. ITC^DeltaCom switching infrastructure is comprised of Nortel DMS-500 voice switches, Ascend CBX 500 ATM switches, and Ascend B-STDX 9000 Frame Relay switches.

Reporting directly to the V.P. Sales – Western Territory, I led a team of 15 sales engineers it was my team’s responsibility to understand the technical capabilities of our infrastructure and be able to effectively communicate those to customers and our field sales force. Also, act as the liaison between field sales, operations, network operations, and where necessary BellSouth personnel to coordinate major account customer services installations and resolve service issues and outages.

A principal member of the transition team who migrated the I.T. Group customer base including: customer accounts, account balances, billing, switch configurations, feature group D and B networks, 800 SMS numbers, and off-net providers to ITC^DeltaCom. A complex process requiring the developing of close working relationships with all ITC^DeltaCom operational divisions and management personnel including: IS, legal, marketing, sales, network, and account services. The transition was accomplished in methodical manner to insure minimum attrition to the customer base.

A list of major accomplishments includes: providing the first sale and implementation, company wide, for a retail customer using DS3 level connectivity to the internet, fractional DS3 data network to a large regional bank, fractional DS3 data network to a large ship building company. The first proposal, in the western region, for a 100 node network management system. Led the technical training and introduction of trunk side facilities based local service within the region, which included identifying and promoting the technology to shorten the sales cycle and overcome the trunk side limitations of local service. Led the field management and beta testing and product development for integration of BellSouth’s local frame relay products.

Apri 1996 to May 1998 The I.T. Group Jackson, MS

Director of Information Systems, The I.T. Group a facilities based interexchange carrier who deployed NORTEL DMS 250 switch infrastructure and network spanning five (5) states, was acquired by ITC^DeltaCom in 1998. Reporting directly to the Chairman and CEO with dotted line responsibility to the President, I led a team of 10 direct and indirect reports.

My team was responsible for all company systems: customer billing, Internet services, software development and support, network systems, and the computer and communication systems. A list of major accomplishments includes: creating the sales management and activity reporting system used to track the company, district, and individual salespersons activities with results from initial prospect contact through customer provisioning, created software to bill our customers for PICC charges, created software to import CDR’s from WilTel, IXC, USLD, and CommuniGroup into the billing system, created both software and systems enabling the LEC billing of customers, created software to automatically analyze the on-net and off-net routing via FNPA and HNPA DMS-250 switch tables and verified the routing with the LERG, created software to verify least cost routing on a per call basis, created software to parse BellSouth’s monthly bill image format and verify charges, and created systems to track customer account balances and appropriately generate reminder and 10-day demand notices for non-payment resulting in a significant increase to cash flow and reduction in bad debt write-offs.

July 1991 to April 1996 Phoenix Systems Jackson, MS

General Manager/Owner, a consulting firm which prepared conceptual proposals and implemented projects involving I/S support for large to medium sized corporate accounts. A listing of major accomplishments includes: migration of Mississippi’s largest mechanical equipment representative firm’s entire operating system from a multi-user MPM/BASIC computer system to a PC based network system using PARADOX and WINDOWS, developed and implemented a production management reporting system for Pepsi-Cola of Jackson, developed and implemented systems for Pepsi to remotely control the AS/400 corporate MIS functions off-site. Other consulting clients included KLLM, Multicraft International, Hughes-Rawls, The Institute for Technology Development, and Sanderson Construction.

March 1986 to July 1991 Applied Interactive Technologies, Inc. Jackson, MS

Vice President, AIT a high tech startup created with the assistance of university research, governmental, and private funding during the early adopter phase of interactive video technology. Recruited as the Vice President of Operations to lead the product development and project implementation efforts lead a team of 30 employees with 4 direct reports.

A list of major accomplishments includes: designing both the hardware and software operating systems for the IVM controller. The system received national attention and was featured in several publications. Pioneer Electronics chose the IVM system, as one of only three products selected nationally, to be included with their industrial electronics division at major industry trade shows in Washington, DC and Orlando, FL. TEAC Corporation selected the IVM as the control device used to demonstrate their new recordable optical laser videodisc system.

The development of the IVM formed the basis for AIT being the first company in Mississippi to be awarded a Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) grant. The grant was valued at $250,000. Developed the first interactive video projects for the Social Security Administration, DOW Chemical Corporation, International Paper Corporation, and a complete conversion of the State of Florida’s Children Medical Services’ existing nurse training course. Developed, for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, an optical laser disc recording system used to archive historical modeling data, which was being stored on deteriorating magnetic computer tape. The solution was based on concepts from MIS department at the Waterways Experimental Station. We wrote the technical and performance specifications, successfully bid the project against national competition, and delivered the completed the project on time and under budget.

August 1982 to March 1986 Siemens, USA Jackson, MS

Manager of Engineering and Projects P&DS, established and managed estimating, engineering, and project installation groups, which allowed Siemens to provide total turnkey project capabilities. At it’s peak my team consisted of 250+ full time and project contract employees with 8 direct reports.

A list of major accomplishments includes: the establishment and management of regional offices in Atlanta, Cincinnati, Houston, Austin, and San Francisco (our projects were negotiated with my team providing the conceptual design, cost estimates, proposal preparation, engineering, and project management),.

Projects included: the 200MW HVDC intertie between the eastern and western power grids in Sidney, NB, two 138KV gas insulated substation at Exxon’s refinery in Baytown, TX, the complete rebuilding of the electrical distribution system for the TOSCO refinery in Martinez, CA, the cogeneration facility at the San Francisco International Airport, and the 60 foot diameter bucketwheel open cast lignite mining system for LCRA near Austin, TX. Personally, I spent considerable time working in Germany both in Erlangen and Berlin to introduce GIS technology into the U.S., and as a member of the contract negotiating team with Krupp.

July 1973 to June 1982 L.E. Myers Co. – High Voltage Systems Division Cincinnati, OH

Project Engineer, I successfully performed sales, estimating, project management for heavy commercial, industrial, and power distribution electrical projects.

Education and Training

Electrical Engineering (3.5 yrs toward BSEE) • Cornell University

Engineering Science (AAS Engineering Science) • Westchester College

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