Paul W. Hobby
Kent Major
Francisco Maella
Edward E. Stacey
Stephen W. Crawford
Karen E. Hanson-Flowers
Chip Robertson
Patti Hogue
Stephanie Adams
Paul W. Hobby – Chairman & CEO
Mr. Hobby is a founding partner of Genesis Park, a Houston-based private equity firm and lead investor in Alpheus Communications. Mr. Hobby has been intimately involved in traditional media businesses, working in and around radio, newspaper and television operations. In 1994, Mr. Hobby conceived and executed a strategy for integrating station operations through improved information technology. That company, Columbine JDS Systems, Inc., became, through internal software development and acquisitions, the largest provider of media software and services in the world. Mr. Hobby sold that company in late 1997 to a NYSE listed company. Until February 2006, Mr. Hobby was Chairman of CapRock Services, Inc., the largest satellite telecommunications provider serving the global energy business. He currently serves as the Deputy Chairman of the Houston Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, and on the boards of several publicly traded companies. Mr. Hobby is a graduate of the University of Virginia and the University of Texas School of Law, where he has served as an adjunct faculty member and been honored as an Outstanding Young Alumnus.
Kent Major – President
Mr. Major leads the Company’s Commercial Management division and is responsible for business development, pricing, strategy and asset management. He was Director of Business Development and Strategic Investments for Compaq Computer Corporation prior to joining Alpheus and its predecessor. Mr. Major also spent eight years at SBC Communications, most recently as Director of Sales & Implementation, where he was responsible for maintaining and growing a $2.3 billion revenue stream from SBC’s largest customer. Additionally, he was a Director of Sales & Implementation in SBC’s Select Accounts organization, where his team handled a base of over 200 interexchange carriers with a revenue stream of over $335 million. Mr. Major also served as Director of Wholesale Marketing, responsible for leading the regulatory and operational efforts to open SBC’s local markets to competition in the areas of Operational Support Systems (OSS) and Ancillary Services. Mr. Major received his bachelor’s degree from Oklahoma State University and his Masters Degree in Business Administration from Dallas Baptist University.
Francisco Maella – Chief Operating Officer
Mr. Maella leads operations for the Company including Network Planning, Network Engineering, Implementation, Sales Engineering Provisioning, OSS and Product Development. He is also responsible for the technology selection, network design and new product deployment plans for the Alpheus production network. Mr. Maella has been with Alpheus and its predecessor company since 2001. He has managed the architecture and design organization for Valiant Networks, a start-up in Silicon Valley, responsible for working with carrier customers in the product development, design and implementation of Voice, Data and Optical/Transport networks and products. Mr. Maella served as a Network Architect and Chief Technologist for Data Architecture and Design at Williams Communications. He has also held a variety of engineering positions with MCI WorldCom working with Voice, Data and Transport technologies. Mr. Maella holds a degree from the University of Louisiana in Electrical Engineering.
Edward E. Stacey – Chief Financial Officer
Mr. Stacey manages the company’s financial affairs and plays a key role in execution of the company’s acquisition strategy. Prior to joining Alpheus, Mr. Stacey served as Executive Vice President, Chief Financial and Administrative Officer for Clear Channel Entertainment, the world’s largest promoter and producer of live entertainment events where he financially and administratively managed worldwide operations with revenues of $2.7 billion and over 3,500 employees. Mr. Stacey also served as Executive Director and Controller for Williams Communications Group and a number of senior management positions with Compaq Computer Corporation as it grew from $500 million in to over $31 billion in revenues, including an ex-pat assignment in Asia as Director and Controller of the Asia Pacific Region. Mr. Stacey holds a Master’s of Business Administration in Finance from the University of Texas and a bachelor’s degree with majors in Business, Economics and Human Services Administration from Hastings College.
Stephen W. Crawford – General Counsel and Senior Vice President
Mr. Crawford is responsible for the legal affairs of the Company and also leads all acquisition and divestiture activity. He has worked for the company for approximately five years. Mr. Crawford also served as Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary of Global Signal, a publicly traded wireless tower company. While at Global Signal, Mr. Crawford facilitated the company’s successful IPO on the NYSE and a $400 million asset securitization, which was the first of its kind in the wireless tower space. Prior to working for Alpheus, Mr. Crawford worked for Houston Cellular Telephone Company (a regional joint venture of AT&T and BellSouth) for over three years as General Counsel, member of the executive committee and Director of External Affairs. Prior to practicing in-house, Mr. Crawford practiced law with Locke, Liddell, & Sapp in Houston. Mr. Crawford holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Louisiana State University, magna cum laude, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School, magna cum laude.
Karen E. Hanson-Flowers – Senior Vice President
Ms. Hanson-Flowers leads the company’s Contract Administration efforts as well as the Human Resources functions. Before joining Alpheus and its predecessor, Ms. Hanson-Flowers spent 22 years with Sonat Exploration Company prior to its merger with El Paso Corporation in 1999. While at Sonat and El Paso, Ms. Hanson-Flowers negotiated and managed the contracts for the various business units in which she worked as well as being a key participant on the due diligence team for the many acquisitions Sonat made over a 10 year period of time. Ms. Hanson-Flowers received her bachelor’s degree in German and English with a Texas teaching certificate from Southwestern University. She is a member of The Junior League of Houston and a Captain of the President’s Council on the Annual Giving Board at Southwestern University.
Chip Robertson – Senior Vice President
Mr. Robertson leads the company’s Carrier and Wholesale Sales division. Mr. Robertson was senior vice president of carrier sales for both McLeod USA and CapRock Communications, where he was responsible for selling a vast array of carrier products including dark fiber, international and domestic terminations, and private line services. Mr. Robertson has been with Alpheus and its predecessor company since 2001. He also worked for WorldCom and Metropolitan Fiber Systems as City Vice President of the Denver Colorado network. He has also worked for Sprint in several different roles. Mr. Robertson graduated from Texas A&M University with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree.
Patti Hogue - Senior Vice President
Ms. Hogue leads the company’s regulatory and carrier relations division. She spent 30 years at SBC in a variety of roles before joining Alpheus and its predecessor in 2000. Most recently, she was SBC’s Director of Contract Negotiations, managing SBC’s CLEC Interconnection and UNE negotiations, arbitrations, and contract implementations. She was also responsible for training SBC’s contract negotiation team, covering all states in the SBC territory. Ms. Hogue’s previous roles at SBC range from national sales account executive to wire center engineer. As an SBC engineer, Ms Hogue’s responsibilities included the deployment of transmission facilities and equipment in central offices as well as its outside plant, giving her a good operational understanding of SBC’s network architecture and capabilities. Ms. Hogue holds a Bachelor of Science degree, magna cum laude, and a Master of Science degree, with honors, from Amber University. Ms. Hogue serves on the board of Texaltel, a telecommunications trade association in Texas.
Stephanie Adams - Director
Ms. Adams oversees office administration and assists with the company’s human resources functions. Prior to joining Alpheus, Ms. Adams served as Director of Research for Genesis Park, a Houston-based private equity firm, where she was responsible for database administration and reporting for Genesis Park's deal, partner and talent tracking tools. Ms. Adams also played a key part in deal screening and due diligence. Ms. Adams worked as the Director of Training for the Computer Division of Pro Staff Personnel Services and has also owned and operated a database training and administration company whose clients included EECC, Battle Mountain Gold, Hoechst Celanese and Baylor.
