- Michael Ruley, CEO, Sparkplug Communications
- Steve Hooper, Director
- Gary O'Malley, Director
- Mikal Thomsen, Director
- Neil Mulholland, Director
Michael Ruley, CEO, Sparkplug Communications
Mike Ruley brings an impressive record of leadership, experience and accomplishment in telecom, data access and managed services to his role as Sparkplug CEO. Most recently he was CEO of Hawaiian Telecom, an independent telecommunications company owned by The Carlyle Group, based in Honolulu, Hawaii, that provides wireline, wireless, long distance, data, managed services and yellow pages. At inception, Hawaiian Telecom had about 1,850 employees with operations that serve all of the major Hawaiian Islands. Prior to that, Ruley was CEO of NextiraOne, a North American voice and data solutions business with about 3,500 employees. He also held several senior positions at XO Communications, including President of Market Sales where he managed about 1,500 people in sales, support, customer care and the indirect channel organizations that delivered nearly $1 billion in annual revenue. Prior to XO Communications, Ruley served in several senior roles at Teleport Communications Group, a competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC) that is now part of AT&T. Mike attended the University of Kansas from 1978 to 1983.
Steve Hooper, Director
Mr. Hooper is a founding partner of Ignition. He invests in telecommunications and wireless companies. He represents Ignition as Director on the boards of RadioFrame Networks, MobileLime, and AVST. Hooper previously served on the board of Avogadro (acquired by OpenWave) and UIEvolution (acquired by SquareEnix). Prior to Ignition, Steve worked closely with Craig McCaw for 18 years and was CEO of every major McCaw Company except Nextel. Most recently, Hooper was the Chairman and CEO of Nextlink Communications (now XO Communications). Prior to Nextlink, he served as the co-CEO of Teledesic with Craig McCaw. In that capacity, he oversaw the operation of the company and the negotiation of the multi-billion dollar satellite contract with Motorola.
From 1994 to 1997, Mr. Hooper served as CEO of AT&T Wireless. As President and CEO of AT&T Wireless, Hooper grew the company from $1.8 billion sales to $4 billion. Prior to becoming CEO of AT&T Wireless, he was part of the small McCaw team that recognized cellular's promise in the early eighties. Hooper financed McCaw's expansion into cellular, raising $200 million in the industry's first high-yield cellular deal and taking the company public in 1987. Steve also had extensive operational responsibility at McCaw. Steve was the President of McCaw's cable operations and successfully sold that business for $750 million. From there he moved into Cellular operations where he was responsible for a large part of the McCaw cellular footprint in the United States.
Gary O'Malley, Director
Gary B. O'Malley is Senior Vice President for The Greenspun Corporation. The Greenspun Corporation manages and oversees the major assets of the Greenspun Family which include real estate, gaming, media and communications. Mr. O'Malley's major responsibilities are related to GC Investments which is the private equity arm of the Greenspun Family. Gary either sits on the board of or has an advisory position with its major investments including Global Locate, Inc., an AGPS technology company supporting location based services and applications to wireless handset manufacturers and operators worldwide; SkyMall, Inc., a retail magazine for airlines and online merchandising; Greenspun Broadcasting Group including KTUD Channel 14, a television broadcast group; as well as other wireless and technology companies. GC Investments also owns Greenspun Media Group, owner and operator of a variety of news and print publications and Vegas.com and LasVegas.com, both travel and tourism portals to Las Vegas.
Prior to Greenspun, Gary was principal in a business advisory and consulting practice that specializes in mergers, acquisitions, business valuation and debt restructuring and previous to these activities, Mr. O'Malley was a founding shareholder and senior executive of Cable Plus Holding Company, a Craig O. McCaw backed company providing integrated telecommunications services largely to the multi-family housing industry including cable television, telephony and high-speed Internet access. Mr. O'Malley had been with Cable Plus since its inception as a co-founder in 1989 and until its divestiture in early 2000 growing annualized service revenues to in excess of $62 million.
Mikal Thomsen, Director
A native of Tacoma, Washington, Mikal graduated from Washington State University in 1979 with a degree in Business (Finance emphasis) and minor emphases in Political Science and Economics. After managing a congressional campaign in 1982, he joined McCaw Communications in 1983 as one of their first employees in the cellular division. After starting up a number of operations in midwestern markets, Mikal became General Manager of McCaw’s Cellular One operation in Salt Lake City in 1986, and moved to Tampa to manage their West Florida operations in 1987. In 1990, he moved back to Bellevue to manage McCaw’s International operations.
In 1992 he helped found Pacific Northwest Cellular, serving as Managing Director. After a series of acquisitions and mergers, he became Chief Operating Officer of Western Wireless in 1994, and its subsidiary, VoiceStream, in 1996. When VoiceStream was spun off in 1999, he became President of Western Wireless. He served in that capacity until Western was sold to Alltel in 2005. In 2006, he helped found Trilogy Partners, and is a Managing Director of their investment company today.
Mikal is the immediate past chairman of the Washington State University Foundation and earlier served as Treasurer and Vice Chair. He currently chairs the Nominating Committee of the Foundation, and is a member of the Board of Governors. He also serves on the boards of SnapIn Software, Sparkplug, WineBid.com, and the Tacoma Museum of Glass.
Neil Mulholland, Director
As co-founder, equity investor and former Chairman and CEO of Prairie iNet, Mr. Mullholland was responsible for driving Prairie iNet's strategic direction, overseeing the company's financial, administrative and investor relations functions and managing the company's overall operations. A wireless industry advocate, Mullholland has appeared before the Federal Communications Commission, the U.S. Department of Commerce and many industry forums. He also serves on the board of directors of Toronto-based Barrett XplorNET, the largest wireless Internet service provider in Canada. Prior to founding Prairie iNet, he was the Senior Vice President of Los Angeles-based Cushman Realty Corp. Neil is currently CEO and President of the National Park Foundation.
