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M5 Executive Management Team
Daniel P. Hoffman, CEO
Daniel P. Hoffman joined M5 in early 2001 with more than 11 years of experience managing service providers. Prior to M5, Hoffman co-founded Global Internet Group where he served as President before selling the company to Asia Online,an ISP holding company based in Hong Kong. As Executive Vice President of Operations, Hoffman grew Asia Online to a major pan-Asian Internet services firm with over 1000 employees. Previously, Hoffman advised management teams at several service providers including Interport Communications. Before that he ran operations at Education Loan Services, Inc. Hoffman graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College and received an MBA from the Wharton School of Business and a Masters of International Studies from the Lauder Institute at the University of Pennsylvania. In addition to his work at M5, Hoffman is the Board President of WIBO and was recognized as one of Crain’s New York Top Entrepreneurs.
Phillip Kim – Executive Vice President
Phillip Kim co-founded M5 in May of 2000. He oversees strategic carrier services, corporate development and planning. An Internet entrepreneur since 1993, Phillip was a co-founder of Interport Communications; one of NY’s first pioneering ISP’s. In addition to his CFO responsibilities, Phillip co-led Interport’s operations and technology division that enabled Interport to be recognized as the top-rated business-focused ISP in NY. After selling Interport to RCN, Phillip co-founded Global Internet Group serving as VP of Business Development and then at Asia Online based out of Hong Kong. Prior to his entrepreneurial endeavors, Phillip worked as an engineer for FactSet Data where he gained much of his technical service provider ethic. Afterwards, he was a financial analyst and project manager at Sithe Energies an energy company focused on co-generation, who at the time provided 10% of the electricity to NYC. Phillip graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with BS degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Economics.
Gary Deutsch – Chief Financial Officer
Gary oversees all finance activities at M5, including accounting, budgeting & forecasting, and investment analysis. Prior to joining M5, Gary spent two and a half years at Alcatel Lucent working both to launch start-up business opportunities from Bell Labs and to restructure the go-to-market deal terms for the company’s wireless businesses. Gary was a founding executive of wireless Internet start-up Ztango (now part of Real Networks), and he led strategy and marketing for a $400 million (sales) marketing and digital asset management LBO – Seven Worldwide – that was sold in 2005. He served as a member of the Corporate Disney Finance Group in Los Angeles and earned his business degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder and an MBA from the Wharton School of Business
Eric Raab – Chief Technology Officer
Eric Raab oversees all technology infrastructure and application development for M5. He is responsible for designing a technology vision and strategy that will support and extend M5 as the leader in cloud communications. Eric Raab has built, deployed, and managed commercial communications systems for multiple organizations over the last 25 years. A noted physicist, Eric began his commercial career in the early-90s at AT&T Bell Labs. IDT Corporation recruited Eric to be their CTO shortly before the company went public. Most recently, Raab served as CTO at Toktumi, Inc., and Epana Networks. While at Toktumi, Raab released “Line2″, a critically acclaimed first-to-market VoIP application for the iPhone (www.line2.com). He has authored numerous articles in technical journals and is the listed inventor on two telecommunications patents. Eric Raab graduated from Columbia University and earned his Ph.D. at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Keith Nealon – Chief Revenue Officer 
Keith Nealon brings almost 20 years of strategy, sales and marketing experience to the M5 team. He has responsibility for M5’s direct and channel sales, as well as the marketing and customer success organizations. A well known figure in the software-as-a-service (SaaS) space Keith has grown several SaaS companies to a market leadership position. This includes Conductor, a leading enterprise SaaS platform to optimize organizations natural search performance, and Eloqua, a marketing automation platform company. During his four years at Eloqua, he helped scale the company from a small startup to what became known as “the 800lb gorilla in the space,” with global operations, an average compound growth of 80% year over year, and over 30,000 users in 30 countries. Prior to Eloqua, Nealon held various sales leadership positions at Navisite, Inc. (acquired by Time Warner Cable) where he helped build company revenues from $30 million to $125 million in just 3 years. Earlier in his career Nealon was CEO and co-founder of Nebula Technologies, an award winning international systems integration and consulting firm. The company enjoyed an average of 50% year over year growth and was ultimately sold in 2002. Nealon holds a double major in Math & Computer Science from the University of Dublin, Trinity College.
Heather Bennett – Chief Learning Officer 
Heather Bennett oversees the People department at M5 Networks. Believing that employee satisfaction is key in helping any organization reach its business objectives, the People team supports corporate learning, human resources, performance management, recruiting, employer branding and employee satisfaction. Bennett’s expertise in sales and education leads the growth of M5′s culture by encouraging staff to be successful contributors to the M5 story.
Throughout her career, Bennett has contributed her innovative sales and education approach to clients in many industries including technology, insurance, manufacturing, retail distribution, agriculture and health care. Previously, she was Vice President of Marketing for M5, President of a start-up consulting company, a NYC Teaching Fellow, and a sales executive in the IT industry. Bennett earned a B.A. from New York University and a M.A. from City University of New York.
Jeff Valentine – Senior Vice President of Product Marketing 
Jeff Valentine is Senior Vice President of Product at M5 Networks and is responsible managing and for bringing new M5 products and services to market. Prior to M5′s acquisition of Callfinity in 2011, Jeff was the President & CEO of Callfinity, where he focused on Callfinity’s growth as a call center and communications software leader. Under his tenure, Callfinity revenue increased more than 500% and was named to the INC 5000 list as the 705th fastest growing private company in the US. In 2009, he was the upstate New York finalist for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year and a finalist for Rochester’s Small Business Person of the Year award. Prior to co-founding Callfinity in 1999, Jeff helped to grow Exeter Educational Management Systems, an ERP software vendor in the higher education market that was later sold to Sallie Mae Solutions, as a product manager and sales engineer. Jeff currently serves as a board member and trustee at Geva Theatre Center, The Strong National Museum of Play, Rochester’s Workforce Investment Board, and Pariemus. He is a cum laude graduate of Cornell University in Materials Science and Engineering with a Polymer Chemistry concentration.
Benjamin Irvine – Vice President of Operations
Irvine, VP of Operations, leads the team responsible for deploying and providing account management for clients. Irvine brings extensive expertise in managing operational teams that provide high touch service and has over five years experience working with VoIP. He also has a great deal of experience with Salesforce.com and was instrumental in the development and launching of M5′s salesforce.com integration – M5Connect for Salesforce. Before joining M5 in 2008, Irvine was the CEO of Octopus Networking, Inc., an IT consulting company that specialized in small and medium size businesses. After growing Octopus for seven years, Irvine led the effort to sell the company which resulted in a sale to All Covered, Inc. Prior to Octopus, he worked in as the CTO of a Latin American focused music website called www.dgolpe.com where he was responsible for software development and networking. Irvine received his BA in political science from University of Colorado at Boulder.
Brian Klansky – Vice President of Sales 
Brian Klansky has served as the Vice President of Sales since 2006. Mr. Klansky brings over 15 years of successful experience running and building top performing sales organizations in the telecommunications and software arenas. Brian Klansky is currently responsible for driving the M5 sales programs together with day to day operational responsibilities for the North American region. Prior to joining M5, Brian served as District Manager for Covad Communications, a leading provider of outsourced IP phone systems. Brian began his career at Allnet Communications. Mr. Klansky graduated from the University at Albany with a BS in Business Administration.