As President and Chief Operating Officer and a member of the Board of Directors, Mark Dunaway has full responsibility for the execution of Verso's business strategy. He works closely with Steve Odom, Verso's Chief Executive Officer/Chairman, and other members of the board.
He has more than three decades of experience in growing and leading telecommunications and industrial companies and has served on the Verso board since 2005. Most of his career has been in the telecommunications sector, including 25 years in the wireless sector. Prior to accepting the President and Chief Operating Officer position at Verso, he was the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Composite Materials Technology.
Mark has successfully founded several startups in his career and has also acquired a number of companies. Most recently, he co-founded Criterion Partners and Growth Strategies Group and was a founder of Preferred Networks, a wireless network and services business. He also co-founded and served as CEO at two national wireless companies, both of which grew to more than $100 million in revenues and were later sold to Bell Atlantic Corporation. Mark has also served as President of British Telecom's pager subsidiary in North America, founded The Beeper Company, a national company which was later sold to Arch Communications Group, and co-founded Friend Technologies in San Francisco, California which was later sold to a public technology company in Atlanta, Georgia. In addition, Mark has served as a board member for several telecommunications and technology companies.
Mr. Heck has served as a director of Verso since September 2000. From January 2000 until September 2000, he served as a director of Cereus.
Mr. Heck has been a consultant since 1989, most recently serving as a Managing Partner and co-founder of PacifiCom, a consulting services company. From 1987 until 1989, he was President and Chief Executive Officer of Telematics Products, Inc., a telecommunications products company. From 1983 until 1987, he held various executive positions at Pacific Telesis Corporation, one of the nation's largest Regional Bell Operating Companies and completed his tenure as a corporate officer of several subsidiaries of Pacific Telesis and Chief Executive Officer of PacTel products Corporation.
From 1977 until 1983, Mr. Heck was a Division Manager and District Manager at AT&T where he was responsible for sales and marketing programs. From 1967 until 1977, he held various positions at Pacific Telephone & Telegraph.
James Kanely joined the Verso Board of Directors in August 2005 and has more than 35 years of experience in the telecommunications sector. He is currently a director of three companies, including The Alpine Group, Inc., an industrial holding company with interests in the manufacturing of electrical wire and cable.
From 1992 to 1997, Mr. Kanely served as President and Chief Executive Officer and was the majority owner of Road Atlanta, Ltd., a major sports facility in Georgia. From 1993 through 1995, Mr. Kanely served as President and Chief Operating Officer of The Alpine Group, and he continues to serve on its board of directors.
He previously served as President, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Superior TeleTec, Inc., a publicly traded manufacturer of copper and fiber optic cable, as well as other telecommunications hardware. Mr. Kanely led a leveraged buy out and restructuring of the financially troubled company, which restored it to high growth and profitability.
Other positions include President and Chief Executive Officer of Valtec, a public company which was the third largest producer of optical fiber in the United States. The company was sold to M/A-COM, which is now a subsidiary of Tyco International, Ltd.
Mr. Kanely has a Masters of Science degree from George Washington University and a Bachelor's of Science degree in mechanical engineering from Johns Hopkins University.
Mr. Greenwald joined Verso's board of directors in December 2007. Dr. Greenwald was the director of research and product development at C.R. Bard and practiced at the professional engineering and consulting firm he founded which specialized in hospital, industrial electrical, and energy systems until he sold the company to one of the largest privately owned engineering firms in the Southeastern United States. Dr. Greenwald has taught at the University of Columbia, Missouri and The Ohio State University where he earned his PhD. He is a professor emeritus from the college of engineering at the University of WisconsinMadison.
Dr. Verbrugge joined Verso's board of directors in November 2004. He is Emeritus Professor of Finance in the Terry College of Business at the University of Georgia, where he also served as Chairman of the Department of Banking and Finance. Previously, he was a visiting professor at the University of Virginia, where he held the Virginia Bankers Association Chair of Banking.
In addition to his academic career, Dr. Verbrugge has served on a number of public company boards, including companies involved in banking, Internet banking software, textiles, health care, real estate, and decision support systems. He is currently a member of the board of directors of eResources Capital Group, Inc. and Crown Crafts, Inc. He will also become a director of Tri-S Security Corporation upon completion of its planned initial public offering. Dr. Verbrugge also serves on the boards of two private companies. He received his Ph.D. and M.A. from the University of Kentucky and his A.B. from Calvin College.
Mr. West joined Verso's board in April 2006 with more than 25 years in the telecommunications industry and extensive experience with service providers. He recently served as president, chief operating officer and as a board member of Carolina PCS, the PCS operator for South Carolina, where he directed a statewide GSM network build-out, developed a statewide distribution system and initiated the development and marketing of a branded prepaid product.
Mr. West currently serves as a partner of the Innovate Group, a board-level consulting firm focused on financial services. In 1996, he founded Solo America, a nationwide paging reseller. During his time at Solo, he developed affinity marketing relationships with companies such as ESPN, Motorola and Atlas Communications. He served as president and chief executive officer of Solo until 1999, when the company merged with Metrocall. Prior to Solo, Mr. West served as president and chief operating officer of Dial Page, the sixth largest paging provider in the United States. Under his leadership, Dial Page gained an industry reputation as a high value provider as he built the company through strong internal growth and acquisitions before managing the company's eventual sale to Mobilmedia. Additionally, he held several executive positions with AT&T for 10 years.
Mr. West currently serves as an advisory board member of privately held Transactis and Strikeiron. He was a founding team member of privately held Rabode.com and Fullscope, and he served as a board member of several other privately held companies, including DataFlux, Unified Signal, Carolina PCS, The Latin Broadband Group and Readycom.
Mr. West holds an MBA from Fordham University and an undergraduate degree from Manhattan College. He is married with four children.