Officers
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Michael Stein
Chief Executive Officer
Michael Stein, the CEO and Founder of Darkstrand, created the only private 40 Gigabyte-per-second national network infrastructure linking high performance computing and research solutions to solve the innovation and collaboration needs of media and other leading industries. To build Darkstrand, Michael architected one of the largest Public/Private partnerships in the USA with the National LambdaRail and developed the working relationships with several other leading labs across the country including: UCSD CalIT2, Argonne National Labs and New Mexico Supercomputing Center. A serial entrepreneur, Michael was one of the principal executives behind DIGITALKITCHEN, an Emmy Award winning media design firm, where he engineered their expansion into entertainment and major corporate advertising clients. Michael has an extensive background in technology, holding management positions at international engineering consulting firms deploying CAD/CAM and product data solutions.
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William R. Wing, Ph.D
Chief Technology Officer
As Darkstrand's Chief Technology Officer, Dr. Wing's responsibilities include overseeing Darkstrand's network architecture and all of the technical and collaborative solution planning with corporate customers. His key role enables corporate America on Darkstrand's network to shorten time to insight and expands productivity in order to gain a competitive edge.
Prior to Darkstrand, he led as the Senior Research Staff Member of the Networking Research Group in the Computer Science and Mathematics Division of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). Bill was the principal network architect and project manager responsible for architecting, planning and directing the construction of their FutureNet DWDM network infrastructure that links ORNL (and selected research universities in the Tennessee Valley) to Chicago and Atlanta at multiple 10 Gigabits/sec speeds. He additionally served as ORNL's representative on the National Lambda Rail (NLR) board after negotiating ORNL's NLR membership. Bill additionally served as Co-Principal Investigator for the Department of Energy's UltraScience Network testbed, which developed ultra-high performance switched-circuit network capabilities in support of DOE's data intensive science and supercomputing programs. Additionally, Bill has authored numerous papers on network architecture and large data transmission. Bill holds a Ph.D. in plasma physics from the University of Iowa.
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Brent Crebo
Executive Vice President
Brent Crebo comes to Darkstrand with over 12 years of experience provisioning executive-level consulting services to the manufacturing and engineering industries. Most recently Brent was an owner and member of the startup team for eServ, an engineering consulting firm headquartered in Illinois, which was acquired by H. Ross Perot’s company, Perot Systems, in 2006. Brent was instrumental in acquiring and building a major account base that included Fortune 500 companies like Caterpillar, John Deere, Harley-Davidson, CNH, Whirlpool and other tier one manufacturers. He also played a pivotal role in developing and driving eServ’s strategic direction as well as ensuring the use of its business model throughout the entire client base. Brent has designed and launched successful sales and marketing plans that targeted a diverse base of manufacturing industries including engines, mining trucks, construction equipment, electronics, appliances and motorcycles.
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Carol Harte
Executive Vice President
Carol Harte brings 20 years experience in corporate contract negotiations, project turnaround and executive management. She has acted as senior consultant for a diverse client base that includes Walt Disney Corporation, CB Richard Ellis, Columbia University, Jacob Javits Convention Center (NYC), the Business Technology Association, all major hotel corporations and all tier one cities in the United States. Active in dispute resolution, Carol has negotiated and enforced agreements with corporations, labor unions and cities on issues relating to facility construction and expansion, work stoppage, taxing structures and use of municipal project funding. Carol’s team negotiated $457 million in city contracts and $87 million in concessions and damages for the million-member Realtor organization. She has also launched three profitable subsidiaries, built a multi-million dollar trade show and is an award-winning writer across many markets. Carol’s work was a catalyst in the passage of Illinois’ first production tax incentive for filmmakers.
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William M. Shay
Corporate Counsel
William M. Shay has an extensive background in law and business with a focus on deregulation of the electricity, natural gas and telecommunications sectors in the United States and abroad. He also works with new and emerging businesses in various industries. William is the former General Counsel for CILCORP, a major NYSE electric and gas public utility holding company that was acquired by global power conglomerate, AES, in 1999. During his 17-year tenure with CILCORP, he launched critical financial and strategic initiatives while serving in various capacities as Chief financial Officer and Executive Vice President. He also spearheaded negotiations for the AES acquisition and was later instrumental in driving several start-up and acquisition initiatives for AES. William is licensed to practice law in Illinois and is a Certified Public Accountant. He graduated cum laude from the University of Illinois College of Law in 1978. William was a Harno fellow, a member of the Law Review and clerked for Justice Thomas J. Moran of the Illinois Supreme Court for two years.
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Tony Karam
Vice President of Technical Solutions
Tony Karam (PMP) has directed enterprise-level projects since 1999 for Silicon Graphics, Inc (SGI), the world’s leader in high-performance computing, visualization and advanced graphics systems. His strategic accounts include Kodak, Universal Studios, HBO, Viacom, Showtime, CBS, NBC, CNBC, Univision, Walt Disney, Industrial Light & Magic, Vulcan, Medtronic, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, NASA and NOAA. With extensive technical, management and solutions architect experience, Tony provides diverse customer services that include systems integration, custom software development, digital asset management systems and end-to-end workflow solutions.
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Rick Shaughnessy
Chief Marketing Officer
Rick is responsible for brand and go to market strategy and contributes to new product development. For the past four years, Rick headed a boutique consultancy that provided discrete advisory services to advertisers, agencies and media executive management on all facets of marketing across every media channel to maximize top line growth. This included a wide range of brand, integrated market planning and brand-entertainment development for AOL, EA, Showtime, Warner Brothers and VH1, Mercedes Benz, Net Zero, GameStop, Motorola, and Radio Shack. Rick was the Chief Creative Officer, SVP of User Experience at Scient (now Razorfish -Microsoft) a global internet consultancy. Leading the 200-person team, Rick delivered global planning and experience design strategy for brands such as: Coke, Kenneth Cole, Kodak, Kraft, British Airways and Pernod Riccard USA. Rick was also VP Creative Director of an integrated brand design firm working on McDonald’s, Roots, Jim Beam, Eddie Bauer and Deloitte Consulting. Rick started as a film company principal where he wrote and produced hundreds of corporate films, documentaries and commercials. Rick is also a produced screenwriter and member of the Writers Guild of America.
