Management Team :: CAROLINANET.COM ::

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Nov 21st, 4:05 EST

Management Team

Nicky Smith serves as President and Chief Executive Officer of Carolinanet. With more than 25 years as a senior-level executive for privately owned companies, Nicky has extensive experience with business and partnership development. Nicky is a highly effective manager of people and of growth in fast-paced industries. He is a team builder with strong leadership and communications skills, and is experienced in all aspects of technology, including data/voice communications, computer applications, and engineering. One of his strong characteristics is that he has extensive expertise in all aspects of startup companies and a proven track record in sales of technology, and information services and solutions. Most importantly, he has demonstrated a history of significant company growth and bottom-line profitability.

In 1980, Nicky - with the help of some venture investment-opened one of the first retail computer stores in Charlotte. Nicky enjoyed great success as one of the first business-class computer stores in Charlotte. The company grew from just a few employees in 1981 to more than 50 employees. In 1985, Nicky Smith returned to the Piedmont Triad area and started the company Micro Computer Resources, based in Greensboro with some other enthusiastic computer professionals. By mid-1990, the Internet had become a major focus of many networking companies. The management of this company then created a new corporation, NETMCR Internet Services, with the vision to provide access services, web development and network connectivity for businesses and individuals. This new business grew from just a few dial-up users and fewer than a dozen web sites to more than 4,000 dial-up users, hundreds of web sites, and business customers demanding high-speed access. Partnering with CLECs gave NETMCR a competitive edge, allowing it to offer voice services and high-speed Internet data access, using the unused channels of the T1 to the customer's premises. Annual revenue peaked to more than $3 million just prior to its sale. TriVergent Communications acquired the business and its talented staff on June 26, 2000.

Nicky earned his BS in Business Administration and Information Systems from Appalachian State University. Nicky can be reach by calling (336) 346-6000 or by email: nicky.smith@carolinanet.com

Steven Hinkle - serves as Director of Operations for Carolinanet. Steven Hinkle comes to Carolinanet from a background rich in customer service. His career started at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he spent several years as a Systems and Network Administrator for several departments. During this time, he had the chance to hone his skills in customer relations. The University environment is one in which many different personalities have to be served with similar software, but with an individual touch.

In 1995, when a newfound friendship at a Usenix conference led Steven to a career change at Berkeley Software Design Inc., another path was shown to him. In this job, he worked directly with customers world-wide, as well as with engineering and upper management, to ensure a satisfied customer base. Many of his years of experience, both in support and in management, came from his tenure here. Steven grew with the company, eventually becoming the Director of Technical Support until it was aquired by Wind River Systems, an embedded operating systems company, in 2001. He continued there as a Manager of Customer Support until 2004 when a downsizing eliminated his position. Now forced to take a new path, Steven re-evaluated his options and desires. He wanted to work with a small company where his contributions would really make a difference and he wanted to broaden his experience base. He also wanted the opportunity to learn and grow with a company, meeting new challenges every day. This lead him back to Nicky Smith, an old colleague, at Carolinanet.

Steven brings over twelve years of experience in customer support, system and network administration and over six year of management experience. His leadership and team building skills combined with a "can do" attitude will be a valuable assest to Carolinanet.

When he is not working, Steven enjoys spending time with his family and playing basketball. However, his new found passion is for scuba diving.

Steven can be reach by calling (336) 346-6000 or by email: steven.hinkle@carolinanet.com

Bill Adams - Bill serves as Executive Advisor of Strategic Business Development and handles expansion of the network, contract negotiations with carrier partners and vendors, and serves as a senior technical advisor. Bill has worked in the telecommunications industry since 1960, and he brings a wealth of experience and expertise to his role at Carolinanet.

Bill Adams began his career at Bell Telephone Laboratories in network design for radar systems and later headed the development of the Mechanized Loop Testing system, the most widely deployed system in the old Bell System. He worked for Southern Bell / BellSouth and was President of BellSouth Systems Technology, a shared tenant company, in the mid-1980s.

Bill retired from BellSouth to become Vice President of Operations for SouthernNet, an IXC constructing and operating a fiber optics and switching network in seven states. He directed the building of two Network Operations Centers (NOCs) during the rapid expansion of SouthernNet and its later merger to become TelecomUSA. He was selected to be Vice President of Engineering and Operations for Norlight, a fiber optics transmission company owned by three power companies and operating in Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. He directed the rebuilding and expansion of this startup company's network and construction of an NOC prior to the sale of Norlight to MRC.

As Vice President of Engineering and Operations for Intermedia Communications of Florida (ICI), a competitive access provider (CPA) he expanded the network from two to five cities and built the NOC in Tampa. He returned to North Carolina to become Vice President of Engineering and Operations for Access-On when the company was started. Access-On was a consortium of 14 independent telephone companies that came together to build the NC Information Highway in their territories. Bill founded Diamond Consulting LLC, a telecommunication consulting company that grew to 15 people with major clients such as BellSouth Long Distance, MCI, Cable and Wireless, Comcast, ICG, and several independent telephone companies.

Bill joined TriVergent/NuVox as Senior Vice President of Engineering and directed the network design and construction of over 150 collocation POPs in 17 cities for the CLEC. He retired at the end of 2001 from NuVox. Bill earned a Bachelor in Electrical Engineering degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology and a Masters of Science in Electrical Engineering from N C State University.

Tim McKee - Tim serves as Vice President of Network Engineering for Carolinanet.com. Tim has extensive experience in the operations and management of telecommunications and networking companies. He successfully created and operated two major multi-regional networks based in the Carolinas, one operating on a wholesale basis to ILECs, the other operating on a retail CLEC basis.

Tim is a former US Air Force officer, having held the rank of Captain. He has spent many years operating as both a planning consultant and troubleshooter. He has a diverse range of knowledge and industry experience including aviation, pharmaceuticals, clinical laboratory, biochemistry, industrial process control, database design, systems programming, and data network architecture.

Tim accurately predicted most of the early years of the Internet boom and acted upon those predictions, persuading a conservative independent telephone company to join forces with him. In July 1993, this alliance resulted in the formation of the first commercial ISP in South Carolina, a company now known as Info Avenue Internet Services. Over the next 5 to 6 years, he worked to establish the company as a wholesaler of back-end Internet services, primarily to independent telephone companies across the United States. As a result of this activity, he became rather well-known and respected by the ILEC community.

Tim was recruited in March of 2000 by Charlie Houser to build, integrate, and operate a carrier-class multi-service data network for his new facility-based CLEC, TriVergent Communications. The large ATM/PNNI/IP hybrid network he constructed had over 12,000 T1 and fractional T1 customers connected and operating as of September 2002 and was growing at the rate of approximately 900 customers per month. No significant or customer-impacting network outages ever occurred.

Steve Worrell, CPA - Steve serves as the Chief Financial Officer for Carolinanet.com. With 20+ years of experience, Steve has professional business expertise that includes four years in the Fortune 500 ranks as a financial analyst, eight years as a controller for a privately held $70 million dollar, multi-location company, five years as a finance officer for an international company, and three years as a self-employed CPA. He has always worked very closely with technology including the management of information systems departments, directing hardware/software implementations, and planning for new applications within the business environment. His area of responsibility has included the direct management of administrative professionals in accounting, information technology, human resources, cash/credit management, inventory management, and purchasing.

As the controller for Worth Chemical Corporation, Steve planned and directed the growth of the company's information infrastructure from 12 users to 120 users, as well as the expansion into applications like electronic data interchange, electronic funds transfer, product bar coding, document imaging, data sharing between legacy systems and PCs, credit card authorization systems, and the use of web-based applications. In 1999, he co-founded nowRECORDING, a web-based online recording studio that promotes and enables music collaboration from its members all over the world. This web site received national recognition in Electronic Musician magazine as a top contender for audio collaboration.

Steve holds a BS degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he also earned a varsity letter in soccer. He also holds an MBA from the Lundy-Fetterman School of Business at Campbell University. In 2001, he successfully completed the eight-week Fast Trac Program sponsored by The Council for Entrepreneurial Development (CED). The CED was founded in 1984 to stimulate the creation and growth of high impact companies in the greater Research Triangle area.