Joseph P. Gillette
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Joe has twenty-five years of experience in the telecommunications industry and is a recognized industry pioneer and visionary leader. Following seven years as a top performer in sales and sales management at Executone Information Systems, Joe founded his first company, Gillette Global Network, in 1995. GGN quickly became one of New York’s most successful CLEC’s. As the company grew, he raised significant additional capital to pursue a building-centric or “BLEC” model, a term he coined. GGN became a recognized leader in that marketplace as well.
In December, 2000 Joe merged GGN with Eureka Broadband to create Eureka Networks and ran the combined entity for 4 years; shortly thereafter, Eureka was sold to Broadview Networks for $100M. Mr. Gillette founded Stage 2 Networks in late 2004 and launched operations in early 2005.
During his entrepreneurial career, Joe has received more than $70M in investor capital. He was awarded the American Business Awards Gold Stevie® for Executive of the Year in Telecom in 2012.
Joe graduated from the Harrisburg Academy, which named him Alumnus of the Year and featured speaker for the Class of 2012 graduation ceremony. He was inducted into the Harrisburg Academy Athletics Hall of Fame in 2004 and served on the Harrisburg Academy Athletics Hall of Fame Committee in 2006 and 2007. He is a current member of the Board of Trustees and serves as President of the Alumni Council.
Mr. Gillette earned a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania, where he served as President of his fraternity and Captain of the lacrosse team. He was also inducted into the Friars Senior Honor Society.
Gillette co-founded the Cloud Communications Alliance with other regionally successful telecommunications companies. He currently serves on the Alliance Board, as well as on the boards of two other privately held telecommunications companies in the NY metro area.
Matthew Kessler
Vice President – Sales Engineering
Matt is responsible for managing Stage 2’s network and customer support operations. Daily responsibilities include driving process improvement and quality assurance initiatives to provide an exceptional customer experience, increase revenue, and enhance profitability with a focus of improving the company’s competitive advantage.
Matt has over 18 years of experience in communications. During his service in the United States Marine Corps, he was responsible for numerous microwave and satellite communications deployments both within the continental US and deployments abroad. He was recognized and awarded the Navy Achievement Medal for exceptional service during Operation Cobra Gold in 1997. Since leaving the military, Matt has held several operations management positions, including three years with On-Site Access, where he was Director of Field Operations. Prior to joining Stage 2, he was the Manager of Network Operations and Customer Engineering at Eureka Networks.
Laura Hobbs
Director – Service Delivery
Laura is responsible for the management and execution of Stage 2’s service implementation activities. Her responsibilities include oversight of the Company’s Service Delivery teams, ensuring an outstanding service delivery experience for new and existing customers, administration and refinement of the Company’s policies and procedures for service fulfillment and providing guidance on the features and capabilities of Stage 2’s service offering.
Laura has over 17 years of experience deploying and supporting mission-critical data and voice communications solutions for business customers. She has held a diverse range of senior level Operational positions while working for regional service providers since early 1999.
Prior to joining Stage 2 Networks in 2011 Laura worked at CTI, Eureka-InfoHighway which was bought by Broadview and eLink Communications which was bought by Eureka Networks.
Laura received her BA in English with minors in Business Management and Psychology from Washington College.
Eleni Toumazatos
Controller
Eleni has over 20 years of financial experience in the telecommunications sector. She was the first employee of Stage 2 Networks and has maintained the firm’s books and managed cash flow since inception. Previously, Eleni held the Controller position at Gillette Global Network, a marketplace leader in telecommunications, and prior to that she worked in accounting at Executone. Ms. Toumazatos earned a masters degree in Accounting from St. Johns University. She is married with three children and resides in Valley Stream, NY.
George Panagiotou
Senior Vice President and General Manager
With over 20-years’ experience in technology sales, sales management and operations, primarily in the IP, wireless, colocation, cloud and managed services segments, George Panagiotou has assembled and managed several successful teams in the technology industry. Beginning with a successful 10-year run at IntelliSpace, one of New York City’s first building-centric IP service providers, George has since transitioned into the IaaS, colocation, managed services and fixed wireless arenas.
With Voxel dot Net, George established the company’s first foray into direct Enterprise sales focusing on the healthcare, gaming and entertainment industries. Voxel was later acquired by Internap Network Services where George continued in a leadership role.
Most recently, George was the Director of Leasing for Sabey Data Centers tasked with initiating Sabey’s entry into the retail colocation market and rooftop network services to augment Sabey’s traditional powered-shell and wholesale colocation offerings. George has been a frequent participant on technology panels and roundtables in the New York area.