Executive Officers

Bertram Ellis, 67
Chief Executive Officer and Director

Since January 2000, he has been the chairman and CEO of Ellis Capital. Mr. Ellis’s deep transactional and leadership experience within the industry has led to successfully growing and exiting multiple companies. Previously, Mr. Ellis founded Ellis Communications, a telecommunications management services and installation company. As CEO of Ellis Communications, Mr. Ellis successfully grew and sold the company. Prior to Ellis Communications, Mr. Ellis founded and later sold Act III Broadcasting. Mr. Ellis has served on multiple public and private company boards including Vivex Biomedical, Titan Broadcast Management and Raycom Sports. Mr. Ellis received his B.S. in Economics from the University of Virginia, and his M.B.A from the University of Virginia Darden Business School.

Matthew Phelan, 29
Chief Financial Officer

Mr. Phelan will facilitate our target sourcing, target evaluation and transaction execution in this process. Since August 2020, Mr. Phelan has been serving as a Vice President at Navigation Capital, SPAC Operations Group, and has led multiple SPAC deals across the Navigation portfolio, including Navigation’s investment in Shelter Acquisition Corp (Nasdaq: SHQA), CEA Space Partners I Corp. (NYSE: CEAS), and Tristar Acquisition I Corp. (NYSE: TRIS), as well as PIPE investments in Holicity, Inc. (NASDAQ: HOL), which announced a merger with Astra Space, Inc. and Genesis Park Acquisition Corp., which announced a merger with Redwire Space. Previously, from December 2018 to July 2020, Mr. Phelan served as an Associate at Antares Capital in their Leveraged Finance Group, where he led numerous financings in conjunction with leveraged buyouts, recapitalizations, and add-on acquisitions. Prior to that, from October 2017 to December 2018, Mr. Phelan was an analyst at Houlihan Lokey (NYSE: HL), completing dozens of private equity / hedge fund portfolio company valuations on a quarterly basis. Mr. Phelan began his career as a Senior Associate at Grant Thornton in July 2016 working in their Financial Due Diligence group until October 2017. Mr. Phelan currently serves as a board observer for American Virtual Cloud Technologies (NYSE: AVCT) and serves as a board member and founder to the Noonday Foundation. Mr. Phelan is a Certified Public Accountant. He received his Master of Science in Accountancy from Wake Forest University and a B.S. in Finance from the College of Charleston.

Board of Directors

Darrell Mays, 57
Chairman of the Board

Mr. Mays was previously the CEO of Pensare Acquisition Corp (Nasdaq: WRLS), a SPAC which successfully closed a business combination with Computex/Stratos Management, renaming the new public entity American Virtual Cloud Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: AVCT). Since October 2020, Mr. Mays served as the CEO of the new entity, AVCT, negotiating its add-on acquisition of Kandy Communications. Previously, Mr. Mays founded nsoro, a turnkey infrastructure service for telecommunications operators, and successfully sold the firm to MasTec (NYSE: MTZ). Mr. Mays joined MasTec through an earnout as an SVP, leading its Network Solutions division. As SVP of MasTec’s Network Solutions division, Mr. Mays led strategic acquisitions and grew significant revenue for the division. Mr. Mays began his career in telecommunications at AT&T, Inc. where he held various positions in the Network Operations, Engineering, Marketing and Sales divisions for twelve years. In 1996, Mr. Mays was hired by Ericsson, Inc. as Sales Manager for a major account in the Southeastern region of the U.S. After holding the position of Services Director, he was named Vice President of Business Development for Global Accounts. Mr. Mays joined Motorola as the Vice President of Global Accounts in 2000 and in 2002 he was named Vice President/General Manager of Wireless Products at PalmSource, Inc. Mr. Mays serves on the board of multiple public and private companies including AVCT, The Carter Foundation and is the Chairman and founder of the nsoro Foundation. Mr. Mays holds a B.A. degree in Business from Georgia State University.

Kay Kapoor, 57
Director Nominee

She has 29 years of experience leading and running large technology organizations in private sector and public sector markets. Since January 2018, Ms. Kapoor has served as the CEO of Arya Technologies, an advisory and tech consulting firm for government, regulatory and financial industries. From January 2013 to October 2017, Ms. Kapoor was the President and EVP at AT&T (NYSE: T) leading their $15 billion Global Public Sector business. Prior to her role at AT&T, Ms. Kapoor served as the Chairman and CEO of Accenture Federal Services (NYSE: ACN), running the firm’s U.S. Federal practice. Ms. Kapoor received her M.S. in business from Johns Hopkins University.

Christopher Moffett, 52
Director Nominee

Christopher Moffett is a proven strategic-minded executive with significant experience in the telecommunications industry. Since June 2020, Mr. Moffett has served as CEO of USA Groups, and has also served as the founder and CEO of Moffett Consulting, LLC since December 2019. Prior to this, he spent nearly 20 years at Crown Castle, the nation’s largest provider of shared communications infrastructure, in a variety of roles. Most recently, Moffett served as President – South Area from April 2006 until November 2019, where he led a team focused on the strategic operation of wireless macro sites and small cell nodes across the Southern U.S. and Puerto Rico. He also served as a member of the Board of Directors for Crown Castle Australia during key negotiations with Optus (Singtel) which upon completion paved the way for a successful disposition of the Australian business to Macquarie Group Ltd. Mr. Moffett holds a BSM degree in Finance and Marketing from Tulane University, a M.S. in International Accounting and Finance, International Finance degree from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and a Master of International Management, International Finance degree from the Thunderbird School of Global Management.

Kimberly Paige, 52
Director Nominee

She is a seasoned marketer and general manager with many years of experience of driving transformative growth among existing and emerging brands and companies. She has served as EVP and Chief Marketing Officer at BET Networks since October 2019. From May 2018 to October 2019, Kimberly was the Chief Operating and Brand Officer of Sundial Brands and from February 2017 to April 2018, she was the Chief Marketing Officer of the Beauty Division of Coty, Inc. Previously, she held senior positions at The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE: KO) for 16 years, where she managed the Sprite and Flavors portfolio. Additionally, Kimberly played a leading role in the launch and marketing of the New Voices Fund in support of women of color entrepreneurs. She holds a B.A. Degree from Howard University and an M.B.A. from Clark Atlanta University.

Louise Sams, 63
Director Nominee

As a result of her broad range of business and legal experience, Ms. Sams brings valuable business development, corporate governance, technology, and international experience to the Board. Ms. Sams previously was the Executive Vice President and General Counsel of Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., a subsidiary of Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX), a television and media conglomerate, from March 2000 until October 2019. During the last two years of her career, Ms. Sams played a lead role in the $109.9 billion merger of Time Warner Inc. and AT&T (NYSE: T). Ms. Sams also served as President of Turner Broadcasting System International, Inc. from 2003 until 2012. In her role, she oversaw the production, distribution and advertising sales of Turner’s international networks and digital services. Prior to joining Turner in 1993 as a corporate attorney, Ms. Sams was an associate at White & Case, specializing in mergers and acquisitions and securities law. Since December 2019, Ms. Sams has been a Director at CoStar Group (Nasdaq: CSGP), a provider of information, analytics, and online marketplaces to the commercial real estate industry. Since April 2021, she has also been a director at Loop Industries Inc. (Nasdaq: LOOP), a technology company involved in sustainable PET plastics and polyester fiber. Ms. Sams holds a B.A. in English from Princeton University and a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law.