Management Team
SimpleSignal’s C-level management team consists of these men whose backgrounds and experience make them ideally suited to their respective roles. A brief review of the experience and expertise they bring to SimpleSignal are as follows:
Dave Gilbert is CEO and Founder of SimpleSignal. In 2004 Gilbert's vision to create a disruptive communications service provider attracted a team of telecom industry veterans to develop and engineer one of the first Cloud Communications platforms designed from the ground up specifically for SMB's. Since that time he has inspired his team to excel in the areas of Unified Communication and customer satisfaction. This dedication to innovation and excellence has taken SimpleSignal from startup to serving tens of thousands of satisfied business customers in all 50 States and three Countries. No stranger to controversy, Gilbert has become known in the industry as the "Big Cheese" and is a blogger, thought leader and frequent speaker at cloud-based Unified Communications industry events.
A risk taker, serial entrepreneur and holder of two Master's degrees from Biola University, Gilbert has focused for the last 6 years on bringing SimpleSignal's Cloud-based technology into the enterprise. Under Dave's direction and revolutionary approach to the market, SimpleSignal has gone from fledgling startup to a respected force to be reckoned within the Telecom industry. Dave's leadership has led to numerous awards including being named as one of the Fierce 15, CRN magazine's "75 coolest Telecoms" and Telecom Associates Shootout winner. Dave and his wife live in the California seaside town of San Clemente, CA. He has many cool hats because he can’t change his hairstyle.
Michael Sterl is Vice President and part of the founding management team of SimpleSignal, where he is responsible for the sales organization including resellers and channel partners. Sterl has more than 8 years’ experience in the telecom industry, having previously served in both sales and operations at XO and Allegiance Telecom. Sterl’s creative and innovative approach to sales and marketing have served him well, as he is largely responsible for the growth and long term success of SimpleSignal’s partner program. He has excelled in his role of managing the sales team in the areas of go-to-market innovation, channel partner training, operations and customer satisfaction.
Michael is now focused on driving the development of fixed mobile convergence that addresses the growing demand in today's business environment for seamless connectivity between fixed and wireless communications services. Michael lives in Denver, CO but is frequently on the road preparing our channel partners for success. He received his Bachelor of Arts in Computer Technology from Cleveland State University. Michael is well known for his ability to talk on his iPhone, text and ski at the same time.
Aric Applefield, Vice President of Operations, has over 20 years of sales, sales operations and marketing experience including his 6 years with SimpleSignal. Aric's focus on team building, both internally and with our partner base was developed first out of his experience at Bauer Nike Hockey, and then at other technology firms like Redwire Broadband, a prominent San Diego-based service provider. His extensive team building experience and knowledge of the strategies necessary to manage sales people in a traditional and virtual office environment have resulted in consistent month-over-month gains. Aric's knowledge of SimpleSignal’s technology, combined with skilled people management allows him to be successful at managing operations and our expanding channel-focused sales team. His common sense approach of driving revenues with realistic business modeling has produced successful results. He oversees Sales Operations, Provisioning, Project Management and creative solutions with our vendors and partners while supporting our existing customer base with outrageous service. Aric's enthusiasm for business efficiencies and cloud-based solutions comes from his first hand experience in seeing SimpleSignal and it's customers thrive with successful implementations.
Aric, his wife and three children live in San Diego, CA. On at least one occasion, Aric has been mistaken for Alec Baldwin.
Ujjval Karihaloo, SimpleSignal’s CTO, has over 12 years of telecom experience working for various carriers and VoIP product companies. He is responsible for the overall company product roadmap at SimpleSignal, new product launches, existing infrastructure and vendor relations. With his leadership and depth of knowledge, he has designed and built a highly efficient and reliable technology infrastructure for SimpleSignal Customers. Ujjval's role was monumental in making SimpleSignal one of the first carriers to be included in the XConnect HD VoIP peering alliance. He has also led SimpleSignal’s surge in deploying game-changing hosted applications for our customers like SimpleSignal FMC, HD Audio/Video Conferencing, Call-recording-in-the-cloud and E-faxing among many others. Ujjval comes to SimpleSignal with experience in a variety of telecom fields, having worked in all aspects pertaining to a telco provider including Service Provider Network Design, VoIP Architecture and Development, Engineering Process Life Cycle and Network Operations.
Before joining SimpleSignal, Ujjval was one of the chief engineers leading Level 3 Communications' VoIP platform migration - including Sonus deployment, E911 Service migration and implementing a comprehensive network monitoring and troubleshooting framework for the complete Level 3 VoIP network. Before that, while working for Verso technologies (acquired by VIASAT), Ujjval led the worldwide design and deployment of the Clarent softswitch platform at customers like Telefonica (Argentina), Siemens(USA), BSNL (ILEC in India) and Qatar Telecom.
Ujjval holds a Masters in Telecommunications from the University of Colorado at Boulder. In his off time he likes to go into enclosed rooms and hit little balls....with a racquet.
Stephen Bauer is SimpleSignal’s VP of Network Engineering. One of SimpleSignal’s long-time employees, Stephen has been responsible for growing SimpleSignal’s network into a geographically-redundant platform spanning two Tier III data centers, located in Colorado and California. Stephen also oversees SimpleSignal’s support department and helped implement a state-of-the-art trouble ticket system that integrates with the Company’s CRM.
Stephen’s expertise with networking and communications has also been an asset to SimpleSignal’s customer base. With familiarity in the latest WAN and LAN technologies, Stephen has molded solutions for customer’s that integrate VoIP into their existing infrastructure, creating secure, scalable networks.
During his service in the United States Navy, Stephen spent six years as an electronics and computer technician. Over the last 11 years he has been actively involved with networking and server support. Stephen’s experience working for industry giants, successful startups and international non-profit organizations, has enabled him to meet the needs of SimpleSignal’s customers, regardless of size and scope. Stephen earned his Bachelor’s degree in engineering and holds numerous industry certifications which make him a well-rounded expert who is comfortable working in the background in a data center, or front and center in a customer’s sales engineering meeting.
Stephen, his wife, and new baby live in South Denver and you can frequently find them hiking the mountains of Colorado or rooting for their beloved Colorado Rockies team. Stephen's wife deems his baseball obsession unhealthy.
Zachary Rupas, Director of Network Operations, brings 11 years of experience working at several national carriers providing VoIP and enhanced telephony applications. Zak’s experience with VoIP since it became an industry in late 1999 has allowed him to learn the different aspects of successful carriers and how to implement process and standards. Armed with this knowledge and expertise Zak provides the direction for our support teams. Leveraging Zak’s engineering experience at carriers like NGT, Comcast, and PCCW Global has allowed SimpleSignal to develop its industry-leading customer service experience.
His duties include overseeing SimpleSignal's IT/customer support department. He has implemented the current technical staff, policies and procedures utilized by the Company's support department. He also serves as an escalation point for our technical staff and conducts regular training sessions to further educate our technicians in the ever-expanding features and equipment at SimpleSignal. Zak is fond of a cold beer and a hot greek woman.
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