Granite Broadband

Overview

The management team at Granite Broadband has a great deal of experience running technology-dependent companies. One of the founders and CEO of the company, Mr. Franklin Cumberbatch, was a member of the management team of the only cellular company started in Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Industar. Mark Dodge, Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, has experience managing the mission-critical information-technology systems of other successful companies. Cumberbatch and Dodge have built relationships at every level in rural Wisconsin, which is invaluable in turning prospects into customers.

Management Team

James Connelly is an attorney of national prominence and has served in leadership positions on many corporate boards and community organizations, and as founder of many successful business interests in Wisconsin. He provides visionary leadership and guidance to Granite Broadband; the role is complementary to his law practice, entrepreneurial history, and community service.

Frank Cumberbatch began his career in information technology, so has a great understanding of the technical aspects of the business. He added to his technical knowledge with career experience in community and corporate leadership. Having learned the power of partnerships between business and government, he has created and implemented many such win-win scenarios in Milwaukee and rural Wisconsin.

Mark Dodge created and led a regional start-up wireless Internet service provider that was sold to a larger purchaser in 2009. Beyond his start-up experience, Dodge has managed, with innovative techniques and tremendous results, the mission-critical information technology systems of insurance and other successful companies.

Leslie Tector is an attorney with a corporate practice focused on real estate acquisitions, regulatory matters, private and public financing, and other issues related to real estate and business development. She provides legal and business guidance.

The leadership team of Connelly, Cumberbatch, Dodge and Tector have worked together for more than a year on the successful formation and implementation of Granite Broadband. In addition to this most recent endeavor, each of them have known and worked with one or more of the others on various business and community projects, and in varied roles, for many years.

Technical, Customer, and Operations Management

The technical, customer, and operations management, Jesse Vander Woude, and Seth Mall, have worked together successfully for several years as well, in similar roles with predecessor internet provider companies to Granite Broadband.

James P. Connelly

James P. Connelly is a key practice leader and the largest business developer for Foley & Lardner, one of the top ten law firms in the United States. He has been a member of the firm for thirty-seven years, and a partner and member of the management team for thirty-two years. He has served the firm in key positions, including Founding Chair of Health Law Department, Chair of the Strategic Planning Committee, and Chair of the Budget and Finance Committee. As Chair of Health Law Department and leading partner of an 160 attorney health law practice, he directs the largest and most complex practice of its kind present in any law firm in the United States.

In addition to his Health Law Practice and business development activities with the firm, Connelly is an active and successful entrepreneur, investor and community leader. He is co-founder, director and owner of eight management and operating companies, founding director and investor in ten businesses, founder, owner and managing general partner or managing member of seven real estate partnerships, and currently on the board of five nonprofit community organizations. Connelly's leadership is fundamental to each company's success, and a major factor in the accountability and viability of the community organizations.

As a founder and Chairman of the Board of Granite Broadband, Connelly provides knowledge and leadership developed over a career devoted not only to building and advising large organizations of national prominence, but actively creating and managing entrepreneurships. He guides the company on all matters including optimal structure, management, operations, technology, and financial practices.

Connelly, a Wisconsin Bar member since 1972, is a graduate of Georgetown University Law Center (J.D., with distinction, 1972), where he was editor-in-chief of the Georgetown Law Journal, and of Marquette University (B.A., with honors, 1969). Among the many honors received, Connelly was chosen by President Gerald R. Ford as one of twelve White House Fellows from among more than 15,000 applicants.

Franklin E. Cumberbatch, Chief Executive Officer

Frank Cumberbatch leads Granite Broadband as an owner, CEO, and New Development Market Manager. Granite Broadband is focused on deploying wireless broadband services to rural Wisconsin.

Cumberbatch founded the Trinidad Group, LLC in August 2006, and also serves as its President. Trinidad Group is a certified minority-owned company specializing in real estate and wireless broadband communications; its network of world-class professionals in finance, technology, and law focus expertise on business development activities in rural Wisconsin. Cumberbatch's previous experience, described below, provided him with invaluable preparation for his current roles, as he gained experience not only in technology-related business enterprise, but the interaction and partnerships between business and government.

From 2004-2006, Cumberbatch served as Senior Advisor to Mayor Tom Barrett of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Highlights of that role include:
· Advised mayor on business, economic development, community development and jobs related issues.
· Facilitated and maintained city's relationships with hundreds of businesses and organizations, big and small.
· Obtained White House designation of Urban Entrepreneur Partnership Program.
· Established the mayor's Summer Jobs Program for Youth, which provided almost 1,000 jobs for Milwaukee's youth in 2006.
· Leadership role on city's Communications and Information Management Committee; part of team that negotiated city's wireless agreement with the private sector.

In 2003-2004, Cumberbatch was a candidate for Mayor of Milwaukee. Previous to the campaign, he served as a lobbyist with the state's largest government relations firm. Cumberbatch developed technical expertise in a series of upper management positions in e-commerce and telecommunications businesses, and county government entities, including as a vice president of service delivery for a local e-commerce startup, Kedestra, and director of back-office technologies for a local wireless startup, Industar.

Cumberbatch received his Bachelor of Business Administration in 1984 from the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, with an emphasis in Information Technology. He emigrated from Trinidad in 1979.

Mark E. Dodge, Chief Technology Officer

Mark Dodge brings executive experience in start-up and established companies. He is a visionary and strategic leader with a pragmatic approach to technology and translating the customers' voice to product differentiation.

Dodge's strengths include recognizing and capitalizing on market opportunities to drive revenue, profit, and growth. Dodge's technical expertise allows him to translate technologies to business values via new products and offerings with a wide understanding of networking and wireless infrastructure (WAN, VoIP, Wireless, SONET, ATM); software (CRM, Portal, networking protocols, software security); and web 2.0 (blog, SEO, web services).

Before becoming a principal with Granite Broadband, Dodge successfully launched a rural Internet start-up company after years of implementing innovative technology solutions for established corporations. Highlights of his experience include:

Granite Wireless, Inc., Shawano, WI, 2005 -2009. Co-founder of small wireless Internet service provider with a focus on helping bring high-speed Internet service to rural Wisconsin and Illinois. Granite Wireless grew from 15 customers in August 2005 to over 2,300 in 2009.

Travel Guard International, Stevens Point, WI 2000 - 2005. As Director of Information Systems and Electronic Marketing, for this privately held travel insurance and call center company, Dodge helped to develop and create a number of world-class call centers for major corporations that, upon completion, encompassed the globe in 25 countries with 15,000 daily users. He successfully maintained and operated multiple call center operations around the globe, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

Sentry Insurance, Stevens Point, WI 1995 - 2000. As Manager, IT Project Management, Dodge led his team of project managers and network and software implementation engineers to create and maintain a project management process for the department that was later adopted by other areas within Sentry.

Dodge received his Bachelor of Arts from the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh. He is a graduate of and trainer for Steven Covey's "Seven Habits of Highly Effective People." Dodge is a Rotary International past president and recipient of the Rotary Paul Harris Fellowship. He has published numerous articles in trade journals and books.

Leslie M. Tector, General Counsel

Leslie Tector's leadership qualifications are built on world class education and experience in legal, business, and medical fields. Trained as a nurse, Tector has both a juris doctor and master of law degree, and a successful legal practice focused on regulatory, financial and business matters. With this unique combination of skills and expertise, Tector provides a great advantage to Granite Broadband, LLC.

In addition to serving as a corporate officer and General Counsel of Granite Broadband, she is General Counsel for Boca Grande Capital, LLC. Her practice on behalf of Boca Grande Capital is focused on general corporate matters, including real estate acquisitions, regulatory affairs, private and public financing, management of outside counsel and other business issues related to real estate development projects.

Prior to joining Boca Grande Capital and Granite Broadband, Tector was Senior Counsel with a national leading law firm, Foley & Lardner, LLP, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. During her tenure at Foley and Lardner, Tector specialized in representation of health care providers regarding medical research, FDA drug and device regulations, health information privacy, health care contracts, fraud and abuse, and other regulatory and business issues relevant to the health care industry.

Previously, Tector practiced law with Morrison, Mahoney & Miller law firm in Boston, Massachusetts, then played a start-up role in the establishment of Rindler, Morgan.

While in law school, she was chosen for an externship with the Honorable John L. Coffey, United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Tector drafted bench memos used for oral argument, and researched and wrote legal memoranda.

Tector received her LL.M. in Health Law, High Distinction, February 1996, from University of DePaul College of Law, in Chicago, Illinois. She served on the Journal of Health and Hospital Law editorial board; her thesis explored Congressional response to "Drive-Through Deliveries" and the Impact on Managed Care under ERISA. Tector received her J.D. from Boston College School of Law in May, 1994; and her B.S. in Nursing from Georgetown University in Washington D.C., cum laude, in 1991.

At Georgetown, Tector's honors included Dean's List, Dean's Citation 1991, Loyola Award Recipient 1991, outstanding professional and cultural development given by the Georgetown University chapter of Sigma Theta Tau National Nursing Honor Society. She studied French and French culture at the Universite de Tourraine, with the Georgetown Summer Abroad Program. Tector is a member of the Massachusetts Bar, the United States Federal Court District of Massachusetts, the Wisconsin Bar, and the American Bar Association. She has served as Facilitator for a Medical Ethics and Palliative Medicine Course at Medical College of Wisconsin, and as Adjunct Professor at Marquette University Law teaching Bioethics and Law. She is a Past Board Member of Children's Hospital of Wisconsin.

Project Team

Jesse Vander Woude, Network Manager

As a network manager, Vander Woude oversees systems administration and wireless network development and deployment, and manages the department's two employees. Vander Woude plans network upgrades and expansions, maintains security and backups of customer data, implements new wireless base stations and backhauls, and plans new wireless service locations. He also serves as the 24/7 on call emergency contact for business and government customers, as well as network outage repairs.

Granite Broadband acquired Vander Woude's services when its forerunner company, Dotnet, acquired Spirit USA. Vander Woude began as a technician with Spirit USA, and has steadily increased his knowledge and responsibilities moving through tech support, wireless tech support, sales tech support, wireless installations, and systems administration. Vander Woude has expertise in and responsibility for:
Wide Area Network (WAN)
· Maintaining/Installing CISCO Routers and Switches
· Maintaining/Installing Servers including (Windows, Linux)
· Maintaining/Installing Server Services including (http, dns, ftp, mysql, pop3, smtp)
· Administration of all NOC and PoP locations (8 locations within Wisconsin)
· Administration of all Telco lines and expenses (Fiber Optic, DS3, T-1, DSL, Dialup)
· Administration of all Co-Located Servers and Routers Local Area Network (LAN)
· Maintaining the office environment in the Fond du Lac and Ripon offices (switches, copiers, fax, PC, and telephone systems).

Seth Mall, Customer Service Support Manager

Seth Mall provides Granite Broadband customers with an excellent level of customer care, and fills a strong role internally by preventing technical problems, and providing technical sales support. Mall's expertise allows him to anticipate and serve customer needs, answer customer questions, and resolve problems for each technology platform. He also serves customers by configuring and maintaining necessary or requested account changes, and diagnosing and advising on customer internal network issues as related to the Granite product.

As a corollary to his technical and customer support, Seth supports systems administration. In this role he:
· Configures and maintains servers that provide web hosting services to customers (Apache, IIS 6, IIS 7)
· Configures and maintains servers that provide email services to customers (Exim, SendMail, PostFix, QPopper)
· Configures and maintains servers that provide DNS services to customers (BIND, Windows DNS Service)
· Configures and maintains servers that provide all other services (FTP, MySQL, MSSQL, etc.);
· Configures and maintains workstations and servers on the internal network for employees
· Provides technical support to customers with co-location services (customer machines housed with Granite servers).

The Granite Broadband team also relies on Mall for assistance and recommendations on vendor selection, product analysis and purchasing, and for special project and new services research. Mall's experience with technical support in an internet services setting began in 1998, with Spirit USA, a local Internet service provider. He has continued with new ownership through the acquisition by Dotnet, and then Dotnet Acquisition Company, the forerunner to Granite Broadband, LLC.

Felecia M. Ransom, Billing and Collections Manager

Felecia Ransom serves as Granite's Billing and Collections Manager. She performs her duties with superior interpersonal skills, upon a strong foundation of experience with computer database systems, customer service, and best business practices.

Current responsibilities include:
· Enter customer payments (checks, cash, and credit cards).
· Answer questions about wireless service and availability.
· Answer any billing or Accounts receivable questions.
· Prepare and send out bills weekly.
· Monitor past due accounts and suspend customers who are past due, post late fees, and send out suspension notices. Send customers to collections when appropriate.
· Close accounts for customers who want to cancel.

Prior to joining Granite Broadband, Ransom worked as a Service Department Manager at Ransom's Audio Video, Inc., and a Billing Department Representative for Charter Communications. In those roles, Ransom learned and excelled in customer service, order fulfillment, office organization, payment processing, computer skills, various internet applications and specific office management and billing software programs such as Microsoft Word, WordPerfect, Adobe Photoshop, PowerPoint, QuickBooks, and Excel.

Ransom earned her Associates of Arts Degree from the University of Wisconsin Fond du Lac in 2006, and has continued course work at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh.

Ransom is committed to success in every endeavor, and leads by example. She is involved in community activities in the local Granite service area, such as mentoring elementary children, coaching youth in a free basketball camp, and with Big Brothers, Big Sisters. Her knowledge of, and involvement in, the community are an asset to Granite Broadband.