PREFERRED NETWORKS
Preferred Networks Inc. announced its founder, president and director, Michael Saner, will retire Dec. 31. Saner previously held upper-management positions at several paging companies, such as Paging Services Inc., a paging repair, maintenance, installation and sales company he founded, which was acquired by PNI in 1996. He also served as president of Message World Inc.; as executive vice president, president and eventually chief executive officer at BBL Industries Inc.; and district manager for Motorola Inc. From 1986 to 1988, Saner served as president of the Georgia Association of Telemessaging Services and was a director on the board of Telemessaging Services International from 1992 to 1993.
SCC COMMUNICATIONS
SCC Communications Corp. named Ira Barron vice president of marketing and business development. Barron’s 20 years of professional and managerial experience in the information and telecommunications industries includes serving as executive director for business development at U S West Wireless, where he led and managed the purchase of personal communications services spectrum. Barron also was a director at U S West Advanced Technologies, where he developed the group’s strategy for Internet, multimedia, wireless and other growth businesses. Before that, Barron was a research scientist at Bellcore and a lawyer lobbying the Federal Communications Commission in Washington D.C.
DELOITTE CONSULTING
Deloitte Consulting announced Chris Simmons was appointed a director in its telecommunications and media practice. Simmons will lead business development activities for Deloitte Consulting’s billing and operational support system services in North America. He also will focus on developing the firm’s alliances and relationships with selected third-party software vendors. Prior to his new appointment, Simmons was director of business development for the competitive local exchange carrier practice of American Management Systems Inc.
TOPP TELECOM
Topp Telecom Inc. named John J. Wiesehan Jr. executive vice president. Wiesehan will be responsible for all sales, marketing, call center operations, carrier operations and quality and project control. Wiesehan comes to Topp Telecom from Top Sales Inc. He also was vice president of sales at Woods Industries and America’s operations manager at General Electric/RCA.
IRIDIUM
Iridium L.L.C. named Lorrie Secrest vice president of public affairs. Secrest will be responsible for the company’s media relations and internal corporate communications, reporting to Edward Staiano, vice chairman and chief executive officer. Secrest had worked with Ameritech Corp. since 1993, most recently as director of media relations in Europe. Before that, she held various senior positions at several federal agencies in Washington, including four years as director of public affairs at the Federal Communications Commission during the Bush Administration.
GLENAYRE TECHNOLOGIES
Glenayre Technologies Inc., announced it has appointed Brian Ponte vice president of sales of the Wireless Access Group. Ponte previously was director of business development for paging at Philips Consumer Communications. He also spent 10 years at Motorola Inc., in positions such as sales and business development.
CALIFORNIA MICRO DEVISES
California Micro Devices Corp. appointed Charles F. Bellavia vice president of worldwide sales. Bellavia joins California Micro Devices after 20 years in executive management positions with such companies as Inter-Manufacturing Inc., Adaptive Logic, IXYS Corp., Intel Corp. and Hewlett Packard Co. During the past two years, Bellavia was president of a private consulting firm, assisting clients in the wireless, Internet, software, semiconductor and hardware industries.
ARRAYCOMM
ArrayComm Inc. selected Robert Helms to fill the newly established position of director of customer operations. Helms will oversee the technical support and customer service organizations, support the field engineering group and be the key liaison between ArrayComm and the network deployment departments within the company. Prior to joining ArrayComm, Helms was the general manager for Spectrum Rays Communications, and before that, he was based in Singapore and the Philippines managing Network Equipment Technologies’ Asian Pacific technical support organization.
AMERICOM
Americom Inc., announced Steven R. Nurnberg has been named executive vice president of the wireless services group. Prior to his new position, Nurnberg was president of Superconducting Core Technologies Inc., in Golden, Colo. His background also includes managerial positions at Bell Atlantic Mobile, AT&T Corp. and Southwestern Bell Telephone.
UNITED STATES CELLULAR
Eva Wohn has been promoted to the newly created position of vice president of external affairs at United States Cellular Corp. Wohn primarily will focus on representing United States Cellular’s interests in industry and governmental forums. Prior to joining the company in 1994, Wohn served as the chief trial counsel and hearing examiner for the Illinois Commerce Commission. She has also worked for a private Chicago law firm and the American Bar Association.
CABLE & WIRELESS
Cable & Wireless appointed Dennis D. Matteucci chief executive officer of Cable & Wireless USA. His career spans 35 years with leading companies such as IBM Corp., Ameritech Corp. and Nortel Networks. He most recently was president of interactive services worldwide with Compuserve.
PrairieComm
Swamy Thangamuthu joined PrairieComm as vice president of operations. Thangamuthu previously held the same position with Transwitch Corp. At Transwitch, he was instrumental in the corporation’s development from start-up to mature operation by establishing foundry relationships, infrastructure for all manufacturing and procurement, product engineering, and the achievement of an ISO-9001 compliance rating.
James Kamke joined PrairieComm in mid-November as director of product marketing. Kamke previously was employed by Rockwell Semiconductor as director of wireless product marketing. In his former position, his primary responsibilities were development and oversight of marketing activities for the Code Division Multiple Access, Personal Handyphone System and cellular digital packet service semiconductor products.
