Michael F. Mies

Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer

Mike is a seasoned executive with extensive experience in several functional and managerial areas, including General Management, Finance, M&A, Operations, Strategic Planning, Supply Chain Management and Marketing. Prior to founding Main Street Broadband, Mike had a successful management consulting practice. He earlier served as Chief Financial Officer to AirGate PCS, the Atlanta-based wireless provider and Sprint affiliate, serving Tier 3 and rural markets in the Carolinas and Georgia, and previously was the SVP – Finance for World Access, Inc., a $2 billion, publicly traded telecom services provider.

Mike was also a member of the Management Board of TelDaFax AG, based in Marburg, Germany, which was the third-largest alternative telephone company in Germany. Mike began his career in the automotive industry with Federal-Mogul Corporation, a Fortune 500 manufacturer and distributor of vehicular components. Mike held various operational, financial, and marketing management positions for Federal-Mogul’s European Aftermarket Operations, including Director of European Operations, Director of Marketing and Director, Finance & Administration. Prior to his European assignments, he held corporate development and financial management positions at Federal-Mogul’s corporate headquarters in Southfield, Michigan. Mike earned his BA in economics, magna cum laude, from the University of Michigan and his MBA-Finance & Marketing, magna cum laude, from Wayne State University. He has been an active volunteer with such organizations as Junior Achievement, the Better Business Bureau and youth recreation leagues. A former religious education teacher, Mike is currently a volunteer caseworker and spiritual advisor with the St. Vincent de Paul Society, a Catholic charity organization.

Walter M. “Bud” Zirkle III

Co-Founder, President and Chief Operating Officer

Bud, Co-Founder, President and COO of Main Street Broadband has more than 25 years of experience in wireless and wireline telecommunications, and has held senior management positions in large and small enterprises, both public and private. Bud has significant experience with start ups and new ventures. He has also raised in excess of $350 million through a variety of debt and equity offerings. Bud was co-founder of Labrador Communications, Inc., (“Labrador”), where he served as President and CEO. Prior to Labrador, he co-founded Broadslate Networks, Inc. (“Broadslate”), a company which provided DSL based Broadband Internet access to businesses in 14 states. As Senior Vice President, Bud was responsible for the development and operation of the network, customer service operations, LEC provisioning and all IT functions. Before Broadslate, he served as Chief Operating Officer of Virginia PCS Alliance, Inc. and was responsible for all non-financial aspects of the operation. The company, along with the subsequently formed West Virginia PCS alliance served 2.5 million pops in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities in two states.

Prior to Virgina PCS Alliance, Bud was Principal and Co-Founder of Essex Communications Partners, Inc. (“Essex”), a company providing consulting services to the financial community and development services for independent wireless licensees. Bud began his career in telecommunications at Contel Corporation where he started as Network Design Staff for Contel Service Corporation and later became the Director of Operations for Contel of Virginia. Bud earned his Bachelor of Science Degree in electrical engineering at Virginia Military Institute.

Mark Graves

Chief Financial Officer

Mark has over 25 years of finance, telecom and technology experience in both large and growth organizations.  Prior to Main Street Broadband, Mark served as President & CFO for Reignmaker Communications, a Hosted VoIP service provider to the SMB market where he secured financing, restructured the balance sheet, rationalized its channel strategy and then managed its consolidation into another provider.  Before joining Reignmaker, Mark was a consultant in corporate strategy & finance, market development and M&A.

In 2002, Mark joined Headwaters MB LLC as a managing director to open its Southeast office and lead its telecommunications practice.  Prior to Headwaters, Mark served as the CFO & COO for NetVendor Inc. a provider of B-to-B collaborative commerce software focusing on design and sell-side functions.  In this role, he managed operational, engineering and financial aspects of the business and led the organization into a successful merger. 

Prior to NetVendor, Mark was an early employee of Cypress Communications as its CFO, COO and then President.  As CFO, Mark successfully raised $15 million of B-round venture capital and, as President/COO, was integral in raising $80 million of C-round venture & strategic capital and then $195 million in an IPO while managing its initial national network rollout.  Prior to Cypress, Mark served as Executive Director for Bellsouth, performing strategic and tactical work in its Corporate Development Group.  In that role he executed M&A, divestitures, non-equity alliances, strategic equity-linked ventures and strategic sourcing contract negotiations.  Mark began his finance career as a banker with The First Boston Corporation and Sterling Payot Company in New York, San Francisco & Atlanta.

A native of Alabama, Mark graduated with an AB in Economics from Harvard College and an MBA from the Harvard Business School.  He and his family participate in activities for children with special needs and Boy Scouts.

Randy Lindsey

Vice President of Sales & Marketing

Randy, VP of Sales & Marketing, leads the overall sales and marketing strategy for Main Street Broadband and has over 13 years of sales and marketing management experience both for private and public organizations primarily in the telecommunications industry. His background in the field spans across the entire spectrum of the sales and marketing including, channel development, B2B and B2C sales, advertising, public relations, merchandising, program management, and product marketing.

Prior to MSB, Randy led the marketing department at AFL Telecommunications, a $600 million global manufacturer of telecommunications and power transmission equipment. Before joining AFL, he managed the marketing department for the regional wireless carrier, Revol Wireless, where he launched many of the carrier’s new markets and implemented multiple sales and marketing programs. Preceding his time at Revol, Randy served at AirGate PCS and led strategic marketing plans for over 10 markets in the Southeast and Midwest, and held corporate duties of program and product management, and customer retention before leaving as a result of the acquisition and eventual merging into Sprint/Nextel. Prior to AirGate, Randy was a consultant developing marketing and advertising campaigns for various clients in the Southeast.

Bill Jesser

Director of Engineering

Bill leads the engineering activities for Main Street Broadband and has enjoyed a successful 17 year engineering career with a large variety of wireless companies. As director of product management with Arieso, Bill pioneered one of the first self-optimizing wireless networks.  He directed the RF engineering efforts at Sprint affiliate AirGate PCS including pre-commercial design and optimization, corporate engineering support, capacity planning, and performance engineering. Jesser has also led engineering teams at infrastructure provider Motorola to launch several PCS and cellular CDMA networks. Bill has experience with large greenfield network deployments during his tenure at NextWave Telecom in the Baltimore/Washington market. He also developed the first CDMA network planning and optimization tools at LCC, formulated deployment strategies, and designed many of the first CDMA networks. While at J. S. Lee Associates, Bill wrote much of the material for the book CDMA Systems Engineering Handbook, as well as researched intercepting and jamming techniques for the Department of Defense.

Bill has a Master of Science degree in wireless communications from Virginia Tech, and a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from the University of Virginia.