The Rollins College Center for Advanced Entrepreneurship and CEO Nexus, in collaboration with the Florida High Tech Corridor Council, cordially invite you to the CEO Forum, a program series that brings together leaders of established growth-stage businesses in a confidential setting to meet and learn from CEO peers who have grown their companies into more advanced stages of business development.

This event is by invitation only.

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Galloway Room, Rollins College

Registration and networking from 6:30 to 7:00 pm

Program and Q&A from 7:00 to 8:00 pm

mike-gallagher
Speaker: Mike Gallagher
Founder, Florida Digital Network

Michael P. Gallagher served as the President of Sales and Marketing for Nuvox Communications, prior to its sale to publicly traded Windstream Communications in February, 2010. Mr. Gallagher began his work with Nuvox after they acquired his company, Florida Digital Network Communication in 2007. At Nuvox, Mr. Gallagher was responsible for managing a 600 person sales force with an associated revenue stream of $570M. While at Nuvox, he helped to create and implement various VOIP business class products such as MPLS networking and large capacity dedicated internet bandwidth.

Mr. Gallagher founded FDN Communications in 1997 and served as its CEO. FDN developed local telephone and broadband networks for business customers in the major cities of Florida. The company raised over $120M in venture capital, making it the largest ever venture backed enterprise in the State of Florida at the time. FDN employed over 700 people and had annual revenue of $175M at the time of its acquisition.

In 1993, Mr. Gallagher co-founded Metro Access Networks and served as President. MAN was a local fiber optic network business based in the state of Texas, which designed products and directly marketed to customers as an alternative to local phone service. The company also created the first broadband network offerings in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. In 1997, the company merged into publicly traded Brooks Fiber Properties generating an eightfold return for investors.

Mr. Gallagher is a graduate of Rollins College with a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics and a minor in Physics. In addition to serving on the Board of Advisors for the Center for Advanced Entrepreneurship, Mr. Gallagher is very active in the local community, serving as a board member for the Destiny Foundation of Central Florida and as a volunteer youth sports coach. In 2006, Mr. Gallagher was an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Finalist for the state of Florida.