Board

  • Jim Allen - Chairman

    Jim has more than 39 years of experience in the creation and management of start-up services businesses in the communications industry, having had key roles in building 5 enterprises valued at $1.0 billion or more. He is a Founder of Meritage and is actively involved on the Boards of Meritage portfolio companies Masergy Communications, where he previously served as Executive Chairman, and Miniweb. He was Executive Chairman of Meritage portfolio company Xspedius from 2000 to 2004, which was subsequently sold for $567 million.

    He served as Vice Chairman/CEO of Brooks Fiber Properties, which merged with MCI WorldCom in a $3.4 billion transaction, and was a co-founder/CFO of Cencom Cable Associates, which became the 15th largest cable TV company in the USA and was sold for $1.0 billion. Mr. Allen was also a founding investor in Verio, serving as a company director until its $6.4 billion acquisition by NTT.

    For more information on Meritage Funds, please visit www.meritagefunds.com

  • Lawrence F. De George

    Larry is Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, LPL Investment Group Inc., Florida, a private venture capital firm with investments in Telecommunications, Biotechnology, Internet Infrastructure, Information Display Screens and Financial Services. Investments are located in Europe, South America and the United States.  Previously, Larry was President of Amphenol Corporation Inc a Fortune 500 company and a leading multinational manufacturer of telecommunications interconnect products for commercial and military applications and the cable television industry. Larry is also a director of Advance Display Technologies, iPlan Networks, Chairman of Cervalis LLC and was previously chairman of Completel N.V a European facilities-based competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC) located in Amsterdam and Paris. Earlier, Larry was also Director of United Global Communications, Inc. , a multinational provider of broadband communications services.

  • David Wheeler

    David P. Wheeler is Chairman of Credit Suisse’s European Telecom Group, Deputy Chairman of the European Investment Banking Committee and a Senior Advisor to Credit Suisse. He is a former Vice Chairman of Credit Suisse First Boston. Mr. Wheeler has 30 years of investment banking experience and has worked in London for 24 years. He joined Credit Suisse First Boston in 1996 from Lehman Brothers, where he was Co-head of the Global Media & Telecommunications Group. Previously, he spent 15 years with JP Morgan in New York and London.
     

  • Ryan Pollock, Meritage Funds

    Ryan is a Managing Director at Meritage Funds. Prior to joining Meritage, Ryan was an operating executive at Investec, a $60 billion global asset management company based in South Africa and London. Ryan holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Cape Town, a graduate degree in International Economics, Politics and Philosophy from Oxford University and an MBA from the University of Texas at Austin. He currently also serves as a director of Perlego Systems and the Rocky Mountain Venture Capital Association. He is an executive coach to MBA students at The Daniels College of Business at Denver University, and the founder and Chairman of Starfish Greathearts Foundation USA.

  • Jerome de Vitry - CEO

    In 1998 Jerome joined the founding team of Completel Europe NV, a telecom operator which became publicly listed in 2000. He held various positions including President of the French operations (1999-2001), COO (2001-2002), and CEO (2002-2007). He successfully created the French operations and progressively established Completel as the largest operator specializing in the business sector, and as the third largest business operator in France, after France Telecom and Neuf-Cegetel. Prior to this he worked for Alcatel NV holding senior management positions, and the Boston Consulting Group in Paris.

    Jerome graduated from Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées in France, were he was awarded an engineer degree in 1984 and in 1985 he received an MBA from INSEAD, France

  • Jean-Marie Le Monze - COO

    Between 1998 and 2007, Jean-Marie worked for telecom operator Completel Europe NV, holding various positions - Vice President Engineering (from 1998), Chief Technology Officer (from 2001), and Chief Operating Officer (from 2006). Prior to joining Completel Europe, he spent four and a half years in the UK with cable operator General Cable PLC as Director of Network & Services, and Director of Digital Services.