California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo

COMBS CONSULTING SERVICE

Drive the new product adoption and build distribution channels for an exciting line of hydration and recovery products for athletes.

Osmo Nutrition

Chief Executive Officer

Primary responsibility was to build a distribution network for a new line of Machine to Machine modules that allowed remote administration and control of remote assets.  Primary accomplishment was securing Verizon as a North American distribution partner.

NetComm Wireless

President North America

Grid Net provides a network operating system for the smarter electrical grid through major distribution partners to utilities worldwide. The operating system leverages the existing cellular and other broadband networks to provide a secure, high speed network operating system that enables centralized control with distributed intelligence.

Accomplishments:
•  Implemented the world’s largest cellular based network operating system for AusNet in Melbourne Australia.  There were 300,000 endpoints in service at the end of 2012 with a plan to grow to 720,000 by the end of 2013.  
•  Ausgrid is the electrical utility serving Sydney, Australia.  They were contracted by the Australian government to develop the template for the smart city/smart grid for the country.  We successfully implemented the initial roll out for 15,000 endpoints.

Grid Net

Chairman and CEO

Grew ShoreTel from a company listed in the "Other"category in market share to the third largest IP Telephony supplier in the United States and number one in the world of unified communications desk top applications in the under 500 line size market*. Created a reputation as a fierce competitor that delivered a level of differentiation through superior customer satisfaction that coud not be matched by our competitors. Attracted a world class team of employees with a  culture founded on delivering results. Built a network of distribution partners worldwide based on the principles of delighting our end users and building mutual trust.  Attracted the very best technical talent to transition us from a company with a unique IP architecture to a company with a product that was clearly superior to the competitors' offerings, delivering the most robust capabilities along with the lowest total cost of ownership.
Accomplishments:
 - Grew annual revenues from $19M in June 2004 to $149M in June 2010; Quarterly revenue for September 2010 was over $44M or ~$180M annually.  
 -  Improved gross margins from 50% in FY 2004 to 65% in FY
    2010 and grew cash from $738K in July 2004 to $116M in June
    2010.
 -  Led a successful IPO in July 2007.
 -  Expanded regional partner network to over 800 partners
    worldwide, delivering over 80% of company revenues.
 -  Added Tier 1 partners including: AT&T, Verizon, Qwest, Telstra,
    CDW, Black Box, Telecom Italia and Vodafone.
 -  Built a culture of delighting end user customers and delivering
    world class customer satisfaction every quarter for five
    consecutive years. Number One in customer satisfaction seven
    consecutive years in the Nemertes Research annual CIO
    Survey. For the past two years, was selected as Number One in
    every category verses every major competitor including Cisco,
    Avaya, Microsoft, Mitel, Siemens, Alcatel Lucent and 3Com.
*Synergy Research IP Telephony US March/June 2010

ShoreTel

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Littlefeet was an innovative telecommunications company dedicated to delivering high quality distributed cellular coverage systems to GSM carriers worldwide.

Reduced the monthly operating expense from $1.5M to under $700K.  Developed and manufactured high quality products that were deployed in major cellular carriers throughout Eastern and Western Europe, Asia, North America and Africa.  Completed a $25M venture financing round.

Littlefeet Inc

InternetConnect owned and managed a nationwide data communications network with an ATM backbone that provided reliable high-speed services such as private networking, network management, managed storage and applications hosting.  The challenge was to build a company dedicated to enabling small and medium enterprises to successfully compete in the new IP economy. InternetConnect’s VPN Plus product enabled high speed, private and secure data communication nationwide.

Grew business customers served to over 16,000 - the largest quantity by any private broadband company – adding over 3,000 new customers each month.  Achieved excellent customer satisfaction rating as measured by customers (February 2001 – 84.7%, March 2001 – 84.0%).  Developed a unique network-based private network product that enables businesses to easily and securely communicate.  Raised more than $100M in capital to build the network to serve 28 major cities and acquire customers.

InternetConnect

Nextel Communications was one of the nation’s fastest growing wireless carriers licensed to build a nationwide 800 MHz wireless network utilizing Motorola digital technology. Responsible for engineering, finance, marketing, sales, human resources and fulfillment/service operations for the Southwest area which encompassed a population of 30 million.  The challenge was to oversee the building of the wireless network and launch the first market using this new technology. 

Launched the company’s first market on schedule -- August 1993.  Highest unit penetration per total population in the US and the first area to reach 500,000 customers.  Annual revenue run rate $600M+ generating $300M in positive cash flow.  Led the company every year in customer acquisition, service revenue, average revenue per subscriber and positive cash flow.  Eighty four percent of customers rated their overall satisfaction with the quality of the products and serviced provided by Nextel Communications as a 4 or 5 on a scale of 1 to 5.  Grew the organization to 800+ employees, 350 of whom were direct sales executives averaging over 50 new customers per month.  Built an indirect distribution network that accounted for over 50% of our new customer acquisition.

Nextel

President Southwest Area

L.A. Cellular was one of the largest cellular communications telephone companies in the United States.

In eighteen months, built a direct sales unit to 18 outside sales teams, two major account teams, six superstore retail outlets, and 60 telemarketers.  Total direct sales headcount of over 350 employees.  Sales in the retail channel increased 150% in 1992 and were highlighted by the acquisition of our competitor’s largest retail outlet expanding market share to over 90%.  Customer satisfaction reached as high of 93% representing a 14-percentage point increase since 1989.

L.A. Cellular

Executive Vice President, Sales, Marketing and Customer Care

Mitel, Inc. was the $135 million United States subsidiary of Mitel Corporation, a $430 million multi-national telecommunications corporation.  

Developed a successful corporate strategy, led a turnaround in revenues, a significant increase in employee morale, a sizing of the expenses to match revenues and renewed trust from the dealer network.  Mitel, Inc shipped more private branch exchanges (PBXs) than any other organization in the United States and was the only profitable PBX manufacturer in the United States in 1990.  The organization’s strategic driving force was shifted from product-driven to customer-driven, allowing the company to dominate selected market segments and command premium prices.  Independent customer satisfaction rating rose to 4.22 on a scale of 1 to 5.  Mitel was ranked Number One in customer satisfaction by Dataquest, Inc.

Mitel Inc

President

Fujitsu Business Communications grew to the fifth largest PBX supplier in North America. Joined the start-up organization as its 13th employee. 

Signed every major independent telephone company including GTE, United Telephone, Centel and Continental Telephone.  During the divesture of the Bell System, we secured Bell South, Pacific Bell and Southwestern Bell as resellers.  In 11 years, Fujitsu sold over 120,000 focus telephone systems, serving one million users. Led the formation of a direct sales and service division through the United States that could be differentiated from the competition based on superior customer satisfaction. Launched 11 sales and service offices within 10 months, employing 300 people.  In November 1983, elected to the board of directors and served for five years.

John Combs