Executive Team

 

Steve Miller

President and Chief Executive Officer
As president and CEO of Highwinds, Steve Miller plays a key role in managing all operational responsibilities for the company, including direct management of the sales, information technology, customer service and finance organizations. Under his direction, Highwinds has established a global presence and achieved majority market share of their software and hosting IP services product lines. He has played an instrumental role in launching the company's content delivery services, which today is the fastest growing CDN on the planet.

Mr. Miller's extensive experience in the software industry includes working with Openwave Systems in their enterprise software division, serving as vice president of WebUsenet's software division, and serving as director of sales for bCandid Corporation. In these previous roles, he led an aggressive penetration into the enterprise IP services software market, driving sales initiatives and winning business with the world's leading telecommunications and Internet service providers, including Cox Communications, EarthLink, Telecom Italia, Time Warner Cable, UPC Chello and Verizon.

In both 2007 and 2008, Mr. Miller was named a finalist for the prestigious Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award. In 2010 he accepted top honors in the 2010 SMART Awards on behalf of Highwinds.  He holds a bachelor's degree in business management from the University of Alabama.
 

 

Chance Brannen

President, Hosted IP Services
As president, Hosted IP Services, Chance Brannen is responsible for overseeing operations for the division.  Mr. Brannen also manages the company's network of channel partners, affiliates, and worldwide sales representatives. 

Prior to joining Highwinds, he was a vice president with BLR Capital Management and a senior sales executive at Indigo Investment Systems.

Mr. Brannen holds a bachelor's degree in management from Florida State University.

 

Steve Liddell

President, Content Delivery and Network Services
As president, Content Delivery and Network Services, Steve Liddell is responsible for overseeing operations for the CDN (content delivery network) and network infrastructure products (IP transit, transport, colocation, peering, etc.).  In July 2010 Mr. Liddell oversaw the acquisition of BandCon and managed the integration of the two products, networks and teams.

Liddell came to Highwinds after serving as an independent consultant advising a number of private equity and venture capital firms. During that time he served as CEO of Panther Express – a distressed CDN which he successfully turned around and divested in early 2009. Prior to joining Panther, Liddell was the COO of Clearwire International. From 1999 until 2005, Liddell held senior leadership roles at Level 3, first as president Asia based in Hong Kong and later as group vice president based in Colorado. Liddell also served in executive positions at British Telecom and MFS, which became MCI WorldCom, where he was also president Asia.  In his career, Steve has lived and worked in Europe, Asia and the US building and scaling large international telecom and Internet businesses.

Mr. Liddell holds an MBA, as well as a master's degree in semiconductor electronics and a bachelor's degree in physics.

 

Josh Gagliardi

Chief Technology Officer
Josh Gagliardi oversees all aspects of software development, including direct management of the development staff, for the Highwinds suite of NNTP and other carrier-class Internet protocol servers. He is responsible for maintaining and extending the technological advantages of the company's products and leveraging those advantages for entry into new markets. Mr. Gagliardi managed all aspects of software development and quality assurance during the creation of Highwinds' Cyclone and Typhoon products as well as the Twister discussion server.

Prior to joining Highwinds, Mr. Gagliardi worked as a software engineer with Language Engineering Corporation, and with BBN Systems and Technologies, where he helped develop content aggregation and filtering technology for an early news aggregator.

Mr. Gagliardi received a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering and computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

 

Gabe Miller

Chief Financial Officer
In his role as CFO, Gabe Miller is responsible for Highwinds' overall financial management, including accounting, budgeting, banking and asset administration. He also manages the company's outsourced legal, accounting, tax, payroll, and banking and insurance relationships, as well as internal human resources functions.

Mr. Miller previously worked as a business analyst with Rotech Healthcare, focused on the integration of an acquired company with $20 million in sales into a parent organization with $650 million in sales. He has also worked as a senior consultant with Nephron Pharmaceuticals.

Mr. Miller holds bachelor's and master's degrees in business administration from the University of Florida.

 

Van Macatee

Chief Operating Officer, Content Delivery and Network Services
As COO, Van Macatee is responsible for all operational aspects of Highwinds' Content Delivery and Network Services business.  In this role he is instrumental in ensuring that Highwinds' customer eperience remains a top priority.  Among his duties includes overseeing the integration of newly acquired network and technology companies and the expansion of the Highwinds RollingThunder network to new, international points of presence.

Macatee’s experience includes high-profile technical leadership roles for the U.S. Department of Defense, Sprint Long Distance, TCI and Level 3.   While serving as group vice president, global operations, for Level 3, Macatee organized and ran the company’s worldwide network operations function, overseeing field operations, network provisioning and management, customer service and IT. Most recently, as founder of consultancy The Evermore Group, he assisted international cable and telecom operators in improving their operational strategies, execution and performance.

 Mr. Macatee is a published author and an accomplished public speaker and motivator.
 

Scott Munger

Chief Operating Officer, Hosted IP Services
Scott Munger has worked with Highwinds technology and deployments since 1999. During that time, he has played pivotal roles in building the Highwinds global network infrastructure and overseeing the installation and configuration of the company's products. As Chief Operating Officer, Mr. Munger directs 24x7x365 operation of Highwinds' U.S. and European services, pushing hundreds of gigabits worldwide.

Prior to joining Highwinds, Mr. Munger gained valuable strategic and tactical experience in enterprise messaging and software internationalization. He served as an enterprise messaging consultant to CNET, where he designed, installed and supported ZDNet's online discussion forums project.

Mr. Munger holds a bachelor's degree in computer science from the University of Colorado.

 

Ari Benowitz

Chief Revenue Officer
Ari Benowitz joined Highwinds in 2010 when the company acquired his firm, BandCon.  As Chief Revenue Officer he is responsible for growing the revenue of the combined businesses, which include CDN, IP transit, transport, colocation, peering and more. Mr. Benowitz founded BandCon in 2000 to provide a full suite of internet infrastructure services to small and growing companies who were unable to procure the high quality services they needed at affordable prices. 

As CEO of BandCon, Mr. Benowitz provided the vision and strategy for the company as it became one of the largest service providers in its class. Much of BandCon’s success is the result of the company’s commitment to customer service, a thorough understanding of the Web 2.0 marketplace and their customer’s dynamic network requirements.

Prior to founding BandCon, Mr. Benowitz was involved in developing the sales organizations of some of the earliest internet service providers (ISP’s) and hosting companies in the country including PrimeNet and Global Crossing.

Mr. Benowits is a graduate of the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University.

 

Michael Brownstein

Vice President of Network Services
Michael Brownstein is responsible for Highwinds' network services, including peering and transit planning, and network deployment and administration. Mr. Brownstein joined Highwinds as a result of the company's acquisition of TowerGrove Technology Partners. As managing partner, he was ultimately responsible for the success of all TowerGrove projects.

Mr. Brownstein also served as the vice president of strategic network planning for Savvis Communications, where he was responsible for developing and leveraging new strategic relationships, negotiating Internet peering agreements and carrier master service agreements worldwide. He joined Savvis as a result of Savvis' acquisition of IXA, one of the Pacific Northwest's leading regional Internet backbone providers, where he served as president and co-founder and grew the company through his hands-on leadership style.

Mr. Brownstein earned a master's degree in business administration from the University of Washington and a bachelor's degree from Dartmouth College.

 

Bob Bosco

Vice President of IP Operations
With over 20 years of data networking experience, Bob Bosco is a leader in managing network operations. He came to Highwinds from Comcast, where he served for two years as the national director of operations, for both residential and commercial, overseeing new product delivery and enhancements. He was the key executive responsible for coordinating the migration strategy for all HSD products for Time Warner and Adelphia property acquisitions, in which three million video and two million HSD subscribers were migrated in 94 markets.

Previously, Mr. Bosco was the senior director of IP services for Charter Communications, where he managed all aspects of application and network engineering, and ensured network performance, availability and SLA compliance of North America's third largest e-mail platform. He also served as director of operations for CoreExpress, where he was responsible for all DWDM backbone certification acceptance testing, provisioning, network operations center surveillance, and monitoring of a 20K-mile backbone, as well as management of all private peering connections. He has also held key technology positions at Savvis Communications and WilTel/WorldCom.

Mr. Bosco began his communications career in the United States Air Force, managing mission-critical data networks in direct support of the National Command Authorities missile warning and National Security Agency intelligence communities.

 

David Barmann

Vice President of Network Engineering
A recognized leader in engineering and management of fast-growing data networks, David Barmann brings over 20 years of industry experience to Highwinds. He is the inventor and patent owner of an Internet routing technique for maintaining Quality of Service between different networks. He came to Highwinds from TowerGrove where he served as CTO and was responsible for all the technical services operations of the company. A skilled technical operations planner and software engineer, TowerGrove's clients benefited from his hands-on style and involvement.

Previously, Mr. Barmann was responsible for designing CoreExpress' nationwide optical backbone, and for evaluating and integrating new technology. As chief scientist, he led the testing of new equipment in the lab and provided guidance for those testing in the field. Prior to his experience with CoreExpress, Mr. Barmann served as senior scientist at Savvis Communications, where he was responsible for the building and engineering of a nationwide ATM and frame relay network. He was also a senior engineer at WilTel/WorldCom where he was responsible for engineering of the first public frame relay network.

Mr. Barmann received his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the University of Missouri.

 

Brad Beard

Vice President of Global Support
Brad Beard has worked with Highwinds since 2004, running a managed services project in London and serving on the technical operations team. As vice president of global support, Mr. Beard is responsible for customer and technical support for all of Highwinds' customers around the world. He directs the Network Operations Center in Phoenix, Arizona, and manages all other support teams throughout the company. This includes the 24x7x365 handling of all customer issues as well as monitoring the network, servers and service level agreements.

Prior to joining Highwinds, Mr. Beard worked with American Management Systems (now CGI) for five years. At American Management Systems, he worked on CMM Level 3 projects, serving as the software configuration manager, systems administrator and operations support engineer.

Mr. Beard holds a bachelor's degree in management information systems with a minor in computer science from the University of Alabama.

 
 

Michael Linos

Vice President of Sales
Michael Linos joined Highwinds in 2010 as part of the acquisition of BandCon.  In his new role, he drives Highwinds' high growth initiatives in the Content Delivery and Network Services business and leads the sales force which includes teams in Winter Park, FL, Phoenix, AZ, Costa Mesa, CA and individuals throughout North America, South America and Europe.

Prior to joining Highwinds and BandCon, Mr. Linos has worked with several technology companies helping them to drive revenue and add significant scale through strategic partnerships and acquisitions. With a broad range of experience in content delivery, enterprise hosting, IP transit and colocation, he has held senior sales and business development positions including Vice President of Business Development at Internap, Executive Vice President of Sales at VitalStream and Vice President of Sales at Verio.
 

 

The Highwinds Board of Directors

Steve Miller, President and Chief Executive Officer, Highwinds
 

Brian Bedol, Senior Advisor, CBS
 

Frank Bergen, Chief Executive Officer, Simplicita Software, Inc.
 

Andrew Mulderry, General Partner, Alta Communications
 

Don Padgett, Certified Public Accountant
 

Albert A. Prast, Chief Information Officer, Connextions, Inc.
 

Neil Sequeira, Managing Director, General Catalyst Partners