About Us
Critical Alert Systems Corporate:
Ed Meyercord: Co-Founder, Director and CEO - Click to OpenEd Meyercord
Co-Founder, Director and CEOEd brings to Critical Alert Systems a proven track record of leadership and business building within the telecommunications industry. He began his career in investment banking on Wall Street, where he gained detailed insight into the industry’s financial underpinnings as a Vice President in the Telecommunications, Media & Technology Group of Salomon Brothers (now Citigroup).
In 1996, Ed joined Talk America, Inc., a publicly traded company that provided phone and Internet services to consumers and small business operators. During a 10-year tenure during which he became CEO, he helped the business more than double its revenue from $180 million to $400 million and nearly quadrupled its EBITDA from $17 million to $65 million. When the company was sold to Cavalier Telephone & TV, a privately held voice and data services provider with a large fiber optic network in 2006, Ed stayed on to manage the integration of the two companies as Cavalier’s CEO, President and Director. In early 2009, he started his own consulting company before joining the Fowler Group, the founding partners of Critical Alert Systems.
Ed also sits on the board of two publicly traded technology companies: Extreme Networks and Tollgrade Communications.When Ed is away from his management duties behind the scenes at Critical Alert Systems, you can often find him behind the bench of his son’s hockey team in New Jersey, or out on the soccer fields cheering on his daughters.
Edward “Ted” McNaught, Jr: President and COO - Click to OpenEdward “Ted” McNaught, Jr.
President and COOAs the Founding President of the American Association of Paging Carriers (AAPC), few people are as well known, respected and connected in the industry as Ted, making him an ideal ambassador and liaison to new and potential partners of Critical Alert Systems. He has worked in the industry since 1986 and has led Northeast Paging/UCOM, the fifth largest paging company in the United Sates, since 1993. In 2000, Ted, along with seven industry colleagues, created the AAPC to provide the industry with a voice in Washington and to advance the interests of its membership. He currently holds a seat on the AACP’s Executive Committee, as well as a Director’s seat on the Enterprise Wireless Association Board of Directors.
After discovering some of the innovative services being developed by paging carriers in international markets, Ted was instrumental in founding the Global Paging Convention, where he still participates on the Planning Committee and sits on the Board.
A lifelong athlete, Ted played ice hockey at the intercollegiate level and continues to play today with a bunch of jamokes from the Greater Portland, Maine area. He is also a certified scuba diving instructor and an avid golfer with what he claims is a 10 handicap.
Perri-Ann McNaught: Vice President - Click to OpenPerri-Ann McNaught
Vice PresidentInitially hired by Northeast Paging in 1993 as a consultant to build a Customer Service department, Perri-Ann has since been instrumental in helping to build the company into a regional powerhouse. Her operational expertise and leadership has helped the company achieve performance levels among the highest in the industry by virtually any relevant metric — churn rate, operating margin, EBIDTA, you name it — making it arguably the most efficient paging company in the country. Not coincidentally, Northeast Paging/UCOM has grown from a 6-transmitter system serving 900 subscribers to a 176-transmitter system with over 57,000 subscribers. And in the past 4 years, while the US paging market has shrunk by more than 50%, Ms. McNaught has been largely responsible for increasing her companies’ base by over 50% with a primary focus on Health Care accounts.
In addition to her oversight duties with Critical Alert Systems’ subsidiary, Northeast Paging/UCOM, Perri-Ann will now lend her operational expertise and insight to the corporate holding company, as well as its expanding group of partner companies.
As well as she takes care of business, Perri-Ann takes care of herself with similar drive. A certified personal trainer, she has run several marathons and is also an avid scuba diver with over 350 dives under her belt.
Stephen Oshinsky: Chief Technology Officer - Click to OpenStephen Oshinsky
Chief Technology OfficerFrom a technology standpoint, Stephen is a veritable founding father of two-way paging and is widely considered to be one of the industry’s top technical minds. He entered the paging industry when he joined SkyTel as manager of Software Development. His first task was to bring the technology for a nationwide paging system in house, along with leading the software development group to support it and creating new products for the network. The result was a paging network that handled over 1 million pages per day.
It was on the heels of this early career accomplishment that Stephen served as one of SkyTel’s chief architects of the country’s first two-way paging system, an industry-changing innovation. He has since brought his leadership and technical savvy to leadership positions on numerous nationwide industry committees and organizations, including The Paging Technical Committee, where he helped write the paging industry’s standards for the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act. He has also served as the paging industry’s representative on the FCC Commercial Mobile Alert Advisory Committee.
While Stephen’s technical expertise is well documented and has benefitted millions, relatively few have had the privilege of experiencing his ethnic culinary prowess, a craft he has been honing for years to the delight of his friends and family.
Laurie Brochu, CPA: VP of Finance - Click to OpenLaurie Brochu, CPA
Laurie has a daughter and son, who both attend college. When not crunching numbers, Laurie enjoys spending time with her family and friends, and is an avid New England sports fan.
VP of Finance
Laurie graduated from the University of Vermont in 1987 with a BS in Accounting, and joined the firm of Macdonald, Page and Co. where she worked until 1996. She then took the position of Controller/Treasurer of Lavalley Lumber Company, a family-owned business, where she worked until 1999. She then joined a CPA firm in Southern Maine, and in 2007 decided to open her own accounting consulting business. In 2009, she rejoined the firm of Macdonald Page & Co., where she became audit manager, and in February of 2011, earned a designation as a Certified Fraud Examiner. In April 2011, Laurie accepted the position of VP of Finance for Critical Alert Systems. She oversees all financial reporting for the company, as well as assists in a variety of projects, including due diligence procedures for pending acquisitions. Laurie has served as Treasurer of the Kennebunk Land Trust, as well as on the Board of Directors of the Northern York County Family YMCA.
Dan Shaw: Vice President, Northeast Region - Click to OpenDan Shaw
Vice President, Northeast RegionDan joined what was then Northeast Paging and UCOM in 1998 as a Customer Care Representative and moved quickly into Retail Management before being promoted to positions in Sales and then to Key Account Executive. Over the past 12 years he has been instrumental in developing relationships with Hospital and enterprise accounts that have helped grow the business in an otherwise stagnant market.
In his current role, Dan oversees the Customer Care and Sales Department, while providing service and communication solutions to the companies’ 75 Hospital accounts.
Dan loves football and despite being surrounded by hordes of blind Patriots fans, he maintains his steadfast loyalty to the New York Jets.
Lynne Haley: IT Director, Northeast Region - Click to OpenLynne Haley
IT Director, Northeast RegionLynne joined Northeast Paging/UCOM in 1994 after a three-year stint with the New York operation of PageNet, an early national player in the paging business. Since her initial hiring as a part-time customer care representative, she has established herself as a go-to leader of several new initiatives and critical projects. She was instrumental in creating and eventually managing the company’s Reseller Department at a time when she was simultaneously responsible for supporting the company’s billing system.
As the company grew, Lynne became the obvious choice to lead the newly-formed IT Department, with the initial charge of overseeing a complete billing system conversion, as well as the development of the technical infrastructure to support it. As the current IT Director, she works closely with the Network Administrator and the Engineering Department to help keep the systems of these markedly different functions of the business in sync.
Lynne is an unabashed video gamer, a pastime she enjoys with her son, but when possible, she also enjoys escaping technology altogether and retreats for the peacefulness of New England’s mountains and the hiking and snowshoeing opportunities they provide.
Alan Carle: Director of Engineering, Northeast Region - Click to OpenAlan Carle
Director of Engineering, Northeast RegionAlan joined Northeast Paging /UCOM (NEP/UCOM) Paging in 2001 as Director of Engineering, having played critical product design and development roles over the course of a paging industry career that began in 1980. In addition to being responsible for maintaining the NEP/UCOM — now Critical Alert Systems/Northeast — paging network, Alan continues to add his product design and development expertise to Critical Alert Systems in the areas of new product research and development and RF propagation studies. He is also responsible for sales support and the administration of transmitter site legal agreements.
Ala is an avid runner and is very active in the local chapter of the Boy Scouts of America.
Jennifer West: General Manager, South Central Region - Click to OpenJennifer West
General Manager, South Central RegionJennifer joined Teletouch Communications in 1998 in the Billing department. After four months, she transferred to the Reseller Department where she established herself as a go-getter and within a year was managing the Reseller Support Department. In 2000, Jennifer moved to the Corporate Office in Tyler, TX to join the IT Department, where she was responsible for managing the POS system for 50+ retail and business centers while working on special projects. She was a key player in developing and maintaining the Web-based Executive Information System that allowed managers and sales reps to see up-to-date sales goals and progress. Additionally, she helped develop software to reconcile cellular commissions with billing transactions.
In 2006, the Paging Division of TCI was sold to a private company where Jennifer continued with her IT responsibilities, while taking on the additional responsibility of financial reporting. This combination of experience in IT and finance, along with her experience supporting the Engineering and Sales Departments in those roles, gave her unique insights into company-wide operations and made her a good fit for the General Manager’s position she has now held since April 2011.For the last several years, Jennifer has spent her free time traveling Europe and the Caribbean with friends and family.
Terry Poe: Network Manager, South Central Region - Click to OpenTerry Poe
Network Manager, South Central RegionFew have earned a greater understanding and appreciation for all that goes into the business of providing paging services than Terry. In his 25-year paging industry career, Terry has handled just about every role a regional carrier could have. He began in the pager repair department of the Little Rock, Arkansas office of Dial-A-Page in 1986 and moved into a Field Technical Position before relocating to Tyler, Texas when the company merged with Teletouch Communications. There he was promoted to Regional Technical Manager and TNPP Manager.
Away from the technical world, Terry is a champion cross country motorcycle racer with a number of titles to his credit.
Since moving to Tyler, Terry has helped develop and manage the current Teletouch Helpdesk and tower site management systems and is now responsible for managing a seven-state network with nearly 400 transmitter locations and 30 Glenayre paging terminals.
Barbara McClain: Sales Manager, South Central Region - Click to OpenBarbara McClain
Sales Manager, South Central RegionBarbara joined Teletouch in 1999 as a Retail Manager and moved quickly to Retail Supervisor overseeing the daily operations of seven retail locations and the employees. Her leadership and customer relations expertise were quickly noticed and she was soon promoted to help grow the commercial side of the business. As a Sales Senior Account Executive, Barbara developed relationships with numerous hospitals and other key accounts and grew her two-state territory under challenging market conditions.
In her current role as Sales Manager, Barbara now oversees the Sales Team and manages all customer relations, while providing communication solutions to the company’s 150+ Hospitals in the five-state territory.
In her other full-time job, Barbara is a mother of four and manages to attend many sporting events and school related functions. She enjoys cruising to the Caribbean and hiking in the Smokey Mountains.
Mark Fowler: Co-Founder, Advisory Board Chair - Click to OpenMark Fowler
Co-Founder, Advisory Board ChairFor most people, being the longest serving Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission would stand out as the pinnacle of one’s career. But for an insightful telecommunications visionary like Mark, the six years he served President Reagan were a mere step along the way in a career highlighted by not one, but two industry-changing entrepreneurial ventures.
Having witnessed the early growth of the cellular phone industry, Mark identified a future need in the early 1990s and began purchasing the licenses of commercial users in the specialized mobile radio space, which operated at frequencies immediately adjacent to those used by cellular carriers. The result was a 50x return for his investors in 1994, when he sold his three-year old company, PowerFone Holdings, Inc. to Nextel, which at the time was a still-emerging wireless player in need of additional spectrum. He then embarked on a venture that changed the paradigm from carrier ownership of cellular towers — an inefficient and capital-intensive model — to developer ownership, when he founded UniSite, Inc. that same year. Six years later, after aggregating competing carriers onto UniSite’s antennas, he sold the company to American Tower, once again providing returns with multiples in the 10s to UniSite’s original investors.
When he’s not building the next great telecommunications game-changer, Mark enjoys spending time in the North Carolina mountains and devouring books on business, marketing and history.
Bruce Lederman: Co-Founder, Director - Click to OpenBruce Lederman
Co-Founder, DirectorWhen it comes to the art of the deal, few bring the kind of imagination and problem-solving talent to negotiated business transactions that Bruce does. He spent his first career — over 30 years — with the international law firm, Latham & Watkins, where he represented, among other clients, Hughes Aircraft Company and its commercial satellite services unit, Hughes Communications, Inc. It was here that Bruce earned his reputation for breaking down complex transactions and crafting simplified terms that satisfy all parties on industry-leading projects and clients such as Galaxy I, the first satellite dedicated solely to the cable TV industry, JCSat, the first private Japanese satellite operator, DirecTV, and DirecTV Latin America.
After retiring as senior partner of the firm in 2000, Bruce began his second career as an investor-entrepreneur. He has since co-founded several companies, including UniSite, Inc.; Packaging Advantage Corporation, a contract manufacturer of liquid personal care products, which was sold in a leveraged buy-out; and HD Partners Acquisition Corp.
An avid cyclist and fitness enthusiast, Bruce has biked more than 20,000 miles over the last 12 years and co-founded the 2007 Bucknell-Penn Alumni Bike Race from Santa Monica, CA to Atlantic City, NJ, which raised over $1 million for the two universities’ scholarship endowments.
Scott Tollefsen: Co-Founder, Advisory Board Co-Chair, Corporate Secretary - Click to OpenScott Tollefsen
Co-Founder, Advisory Board Co-Chair, and Corporate SecretaryHelping to start Critical Alert Systems is the next step in Scott’s career as a communications industry lawyer and business executive. After serving as General Counsel of USA Mobility, Inc. (NASDAQ: USMO), Scott recognized that there is an opportunity for a new way of serving customers using the resources of paging, and he began assembling the right team to realize this vision.
Scott has considerable experience in managing transactions, regulatory compliance, government policy development, and corporate governance for growing communications companies operating in the U.S. and abroad. He has been General Counsel of Hughes Communications, Inc., helping it become the world’s largest private satellite operator delivering video, voice, and data services; of Vivendi Universal Interactive Publishing, as it developed into a world leader in creating and distributing consumer software and on-line games; and of SES Americom, the U.S. arm of a global satellite operator, as it grew during an industry downturn. Earlier, he was a partner in private law practice.
Scott is a member of the FCC’s Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council and co-chair of the Homeland Security & Emergency Communications Committee of the Federal Communications Bar Association. Aside from his forward thinking in the wireless industry, he maintains an interest in research astronomy and serves on the Advisory Board of the Astronomy Department at the University of Virginia.
