Fred is thought of as a skilled executive who has been building teams and guiding companies to significant successes in the telecommunications and technology markets for the past 39 years. Fred started his career as an engineer with Michigan Bell and departed AT&T as a Division Manager in New York twelve years later when he joined Sprint Corporation as President of United Telephone of Florida a $1.2 billion telco. Fred was tasked by the Sprint Board of Directors as the senior executive to lead the planning, engineering, construction and maintenance of Sprint's state-of-the-art $3.5 billion global fiber optic network. The first ever fiber optic network in the world.After a successful tenure at Sprint, Fred joined ADC Telecommunications as President of the Transmission Group a $400 million business unit and was responsible for product lines ranging from optical transmission systems and wireless transmission systems to voice/video/data networking systems and was responsible for consistent year over year growth of 25%.
After growing ADC substantially, Fred joined ComStream Corp. as CEO. The company was an internationally recognized leader in satellite based communications technology. While at ComStream the company developed the first direct to home satellite receiver technology, what is widely used today in the DirecTV and the Dish Network. The company was also the market leader in satellite modems, audio rand data receivers as well as rural telephony systems worldwide. Upon successfully selling satellite DTV receiver business to Rockwell Semiconductor, Fred left to become Chairman, President and CEO of California Microwave, a publicly traded, diverse manufacturer of telecommunications transmission products and defense related intelligence services.
While at California Microwave Fred successfully transformed this $150 million company into Adaptive Broadband Corp, which became a $2 billion global market leader of broadband wireless transmission products. Since retiring from corporate operational positions Fred is an active venture partner of California Capital and Shepherd Ventures, both are Southern California based venture capital firms. Fred as also been active on several Boards of Directors and also spends time instructing MBA students at San Diego State University.
Ken Hood | Founder and Senior VP of Sales & Marketing
Ken Hood is the Founder of ClearAccess and is responsible for marketing and business development for the Company. Ken has more than 15 years of high-tech experience in sales, marketing, and product management. Most recently Ken held the position of Vice President of Product Management and Marketing at Paradyne Corporation. In 2004 Ken was Paradyne's Sales Executive of the Year award recipient for his contributions as Vice President of International Sales.
Prior to Paradyne, Ken was CEO of Centennial Systems, a broadband voice applications company, and was formerly Vice President of International Sales and Business Development with Jetstream Communications. Ken has held management roles with 3Com Corporation in marketing, sales, and business development and started his career with The Boston Consulting Group as an associate consultant. Ken holds a B.A. from Pomona College and an MBA from Stanford University.
Joel Pennington | Founder & Managing Director of EMEA
Joel Pennington is the Founder of ClearAccess and the Managing Director of Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA). Former executive roles within ClearAccess include Business Development and Marketing. Prior to ClearAccess, Joel spent over 10 years based in Australia, Europe and the US holding various roles in business advisory firms and companies in the Telecom industry. Most recently Joel held a management position in BearingPoint's Australian practice focused on the development and growth of alliances with strategic software and hardware vendors. Prior to BearingPoint, Joel served as an initial member of Jetstream Communication's EMEA sales team based in London. Joel began his telecommunications career in the US with Nortel Networks were he was selected to participate in Nortel's Leadership Development Program. He was subsequently awarded a long-term expatriate assignment to the UK in 2000 to strengthen Nortel's European DSL business.
Joel is an ambassador for the Broadband Forum and holds a B.S. in Computer Information Systems from Clemson University in addition to a Masters in Commercial Law and an MBA from Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia.
Jeff McInnis | Vice President, Solution Sales
Jeff McInnis is Vice President, Solution Sales for ClearAccess. Jeff brings 24 years of Direct Sales, Sales Operations and Product Marketing experience to the company, with over 15 of them dedicated to the highly competitive North American service provider sector. Prior to joining the Company, Jeff spent over 13 years with Cisco Systems Inc., based in Toronto, Canada where he held a number of individual contributor and sales leadership positions. In 1999, Jeff was honored to receive Cisco's "Global Account Manager of the Year" award directly from John T Chambers, President & CEO of Cisco, and followed that up with numerous Sales Leadership awards in his subsequent years with the company.
Prior to Cisco, Jeff was a co-founder of E-Connect Advanced Solutions, a company focused on building fiber optic-based metropolitan area networks combined with world class applications development, network engineering and hosting services. In late 1996, Jeff oversaw the transition of E-Connect to Metronet Communications in Calgary, Alberta. Prior to founding E-Connect ASD, Jeff held sales and marketing positions with market leaders Silicon Graphics, AVID Technology and Aldus Corporation in Seattle, WA.
In addition to his direct involvement in several charitable organizations, Jeff served as Vice Chair of the Telecom Applications Research Alliance (2003-2006), has advised numerous early stage technology companies and is a member of both the SCTE and the Ontario Association of Engineers and Technologists. Jeff graduated (EET) Electronics Engineering Technology (1987) from DeVry University and currently resides with his family in Toronto, Canada.
Anthony Dupré | Senior Director of Technology
Anthony Dupré leads R&D at ClearAccess, bringing over 15 years of experience in software engineering. Most recently, Anthony held the position of Software Architect at New Edge Networks, a subsidiary of Earthlink, in the context of professional broadband networking. Prior to New Edge Networks, Anthony held various software engineering positions both in Europe and in the US. Anthony holds a B.A. in Computer Engineering from the University of Burgundy, France as well as a Master's degree in Computer Engineering from EPITA, Paris, France.
Steve Gorretta | Director of Product Management and Marketing
Steve Gorretta is Director of Product Management and Marketing at ClearAccess and has over 10 years of experience in quality engineering, product management, and product marketing. Steve brings an engineering background combined with extensive market knowledge of broadband networking and services management.
Prior to joining ClearAccess Steve was Director of Product Marketing for 2Wire's residential gateway and management systems business unit. Before 2Wire, Steve held test engineering roles at Jetstream Communications, Andes Networks, and Intel Corp. Steve received a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Santa Clara University.
