Leadership

Jerry Kent is a recognized entrepreneur and trailblazer in the telecommunications and technology industries with an outstanding track record for customer service and delivering superior returns for investors. Prior to assuming the role of TierPoint’s CEO, he served as its chairman. He also serves as CEO of Cequel III, which he co-founded in January 2002. Cequel III is a technology management company.

Previously, the Cequel III team built AAT Communications into the largest privately-owned cell tower company in the United States before selling that enterprise in 2006. Cequel III and Jerry also managed Suddenlink Communications, building it into the seventh-largest U.S. cable company with operating results among the best in its industry before it was sold to Altice Group in 2015 for an enterprise value of $9.1 billion.

Jerry began his career as a CPA with Arthur Andersen in 1979, and in 1983 left to head up acquisitions and finance for an upstart cable company, Cencom Cable Associates, Inc. He later became CFO of Cencom, which grew by acquisition and eventually served 550,000 customers in the U.S. before it was sold in 1991.

After serving a year with Cencom’s acquirer, Jerry left and co-founded Charter Communications, Inc., in January 1993. He led Charter to become one of the 10 largest cable operators in the U.S., serving 1.3 million customers. In 1998, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen acquired Charter, providing substantial rewards for Charter’s private investors. Jerry continued as President and CEO, growing Charter to serve more than 7 million customers and making it the nation’s fourth-largest cable company at the time. The company went public in November 1999, in what was then the third-largest IPO in U.S. history. Charter consistently led the industry in superior operating results and from the IPO date until September 2001, the month Jerry left, Charter’s was the best performing public cable stock.

Multichannel News named Jerry it's Executive of the Year in 2011. In 2012, he was inducted into the Broadcasting & Cable Hall of Fame and received the cable industry’s Distinguished Vanguard Award for Leadership. In 2013, he was named CED Magazine’s co-person of the year, with Suddenlink CTO Terry Cordova, and in 2014, Jerry was inducted into The Cable Center Hall of Fame.

A native of the St. Louis metropolitan area, Jerry is very active in the community. He is Chairman of the Compensation Committee and serves on the Board of Trustees and Executive Committee for his alma mater, Washington University, from which he earned his bachelor’s degree and MBA. He is Vice Chairman of The Magic House/St. Louis Children’s Museum Board. He is also a member of the Board of Directors for the St. Louis Zoo and a Commissioner of the St. Louis Zoological Park Subdistrict Commission.

Wendy Knudsen has overseen the legal function of TierPoint since its formation in July 2010, and her current responsibilities include oversight of the Legal, Security, Compliance, and Contracts Administration Departments. She also serves as Executive Vice President, Chief Legal Officer, and Secretary of Cequel III, which manages TierPoint. During her tenure with Cequel III and its managed companies, including TierPoint, she has overseen the legal work for more than $45 billion of M&A transactions and a variety of other operational and legal matters.

Wendy has also held executive roles at several of Cequel III’s managed companies until they were sold, including from 2015 through 2021, as Executive Vice President, Chief Legal Officer, and Secretary of StayLock Storage, a leading multi-state provider of storage services, and from 2005 through 2015, as Executive Vice President and Secretary of Suddenlink Communications, the seventh-largest cable operator in the United States at the time. Previously, she was Senior Vice President, General Counsel, and Secretary of AAT Communications, a telecommunications tower company that was managed by Cequel III. For several years before joining AAT, Wendy was Associate Counsel, Legal and Business Affairs, for the National Football League. Prior to joining the NFL, she worked as an Associate for the law firm currently known as Smith & Duggan, a litigation boutique in Boston.

Wendy is a member of the California, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Jersey, and New York state bars, as well as the United States Supreme Court bar. Wendy is also a member of the Association of Corporate Counsel. She graduated cum laude from Boston University School of Law, where she was named both an Edward F. Hennessey Scholar and a G. Joseph Tauro Scholar. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree cum laude from Colgate University with a double major in International Relations and Spanish and was named to the Konosioni Senior Honor Society at Colgate. Wendy continued her study of classical piano at Colgate, where she gave several solo recitals, including in Madrid, and still plays classical piano today.

Wendy is a member of the Gala Committee that has helped raise millions of dollars over the past several years to benefit the Life Skills/TouchPoint Autism Services division of Easterseals Midwest, which provides life-changing programs for children and adults on the autism spectrum. Wendy was previously a member of the Board of Trustees of the Morris Animal Foundation, the world’s largest nonprofit dedicated to funding humane research studies to improve the health and well-being of companion animals and wildlife all over the world, and served as Chair of the Board’s Audit Committee and a member of the Board’s Development Committee.

Wendy made her Broadway debut as a producer in the 2014 Tony-nominated production of Of Mice and Men starring Chris O’Dowd and Leighton Meester. She is currently an investor and co-producer in the six-time Tony award-winning (including Best Musical) Broadway production of Dear Evan Hansen, originally starring Ben Platt and its current national tour and London tour, and the Tony-nominated Broadway production of Beetlejuice. She has been an investor and co-producer in the Paris and Tony award-winning Broadway productions of An American in Paris and the current national and London tours; the Tony-award winning Broadway revival of The Color of Purple starring Jennifer Hudson and its current national tour; the Tony award-winning Broadway production of Matilda and its current national tour; the Tony-nominated Broadway production of Burn This starring Adam Driver and Keri Russell; the Tony-nominated Broadway production of Evita starring Ricky Martin; the Tony-award winning Broadway production of Peter and the Starcatcher and the off-Broadway and national tour of Peter; the Broadway production of Hughie starring Forest Whitaker; the Broadway production of Act of God starring Sean Hayes; the Australian tour of Driving Miss Daisy starring Dame Angela Lansbury and James Earl Jones; and the United Kingdom tour of Driving Miss Daisy.

Promoted to his current position in 2018, Keith Markley is responsible for the operations of TierPoint’s more than 40 data centers across the country.

Keith has more than 25 years of executive leadership experience in sales, operations, marketing, and customer support. He joined TierPoint through the company’s 2014 acquisition of Xand, where he served as Chief Operating Officer.

Keith’s prior experience includes leadership positions at various companies, including LAI Holdings, DSL.net, Covad Communications, and New England Fiber Communications.

Don joined TierPoint in June 2018 with a 20-year track record of sales and business development leadership in the technology and telecommunications industries. As TierPoint’s EVP and Chief Revenue Officer, he contributes to strategic planning and manages TierPoint’s entire revenue organization, including direct sales, channel sales, solutions engineering, sales operations, professional services, and marketing.

Prior to his current role, Don served TierPoint as Senior Vice President, Sales, West.  Before TierPoint, he served as Vice President of Commercial Management at Digital Realty. Over the course of his career, he has held a variety of sales leadership and product management roles at Telx, Tata Communications, and Level 3 Communications.

Don holds a Masters of Business Administration from the University of Colorado, Denver, and a Bachelor of Science Degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Colorado, Boulder.

Pete Abel oversees the TierPoint marketing and channel sales teams. The former is responsible for the company’s digital, product, content, and event marketing initiatives. The latter is responsible for developing and nurturing partner relationships and mutually beneficial “sell with” strategies.

Previously, Pete was Senior Vice President, Corporate Communications for Suddenlink, before which he supported Cequel III, TierPoint’s management company, across a number of businesses.

Prior to Suddenlink and Cequel III, Pete was a Senior Vice President and Senior Partner at FleishmanHillard, where he led teams of up to 30 professionals on marketing communications and other projects for a diverse range of clients, including Procter & Gamble, Monsanto, Anheuser-Busch (now Anheuser-Busch InBev), SBC Communications (now AT&T), and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Pete started his career as a freelance and later full-time reporter for the St. Louis Suburban Journals, covering municipal politics and local businesses.

Today, in addition to his work at TierPoint, Pete and his wife actively support Easterseals Midwest, which provides support services for developmentally disabled children and adults.

Jenny Cooper oversees TierPoint’s finance and accounting functions, in coordination with CFO Mary Meduski.

Before joining TierPoint, Jenny served as Vice President, Finance and Accounting for the North American operations of Nidec Motor Corporation and has also held leadership positions at SunEdison and LMI Aerospace.

A Certified Public Accountant (CPA), Jenny started her career at KPMG and earned her Master of Accountancy degree from the University of Missouri. She also earned a Bachelor’s degree in Literature from Beijing University in China and a Master’s degree in Literature from Washington University in St. Louis.

As TierPoint’s Chief Information Security Officer, Paul Mazzucco is responsible for all corporate standards governing physical, information, and network security. He also leads the charge in acquiring and maintaining all industry-specific compliance certifications, including PCI, ISO, NIST, HIPAA, and federal security standards.

Paul has spent years developing and testing behavior-based information security policies, information security best practices, disaster recovery/business continuity plans, and forensic services for clients representing multiple industries. A veteran of the IT security market, his background includes security entrepreneur and defense contractor. Paul has successfully trained with multiple government agencies and become an expert in security standards and system hardening. He also helped spin-off Cobalt Computers as a standalone corporation, which grew into one of Pennsylvania’s largest IBM integrators, serving the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, the Department of the Navy, NSA, and the Department of Defense. Paul joined TierPoint through its 2014 acquisition of Xand, where he also served as Chief Security Officer.

Paul completed his undergraduate work at Lehigh University. He is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE), and Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH), working with the FBI, the United States Secret Service, and the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (U.S. CERT).

Mary Porter serves as a strategic business partner to the leadership team and provides guidance to field operations. She is focused on managing all aspects of recruitment initiatives, HRIS data input/output, benefits, payroll, and personnel compliance responsibilities. Mary joined TierPoint in 2016 as Vice President of Human Resources; she was named Senior Vice President of Human Resources in 2017.

Prior to TierPoint, Mary served as Vice President of Human Resources at Suddenlink Communications, managing the corporate HR department and serving as a strategic business partner to the regional HR teams. Mary has more than 25 years of human resources experience. She is passionate about customer service, employee development, and company culture. Mary attended Southeast Missouri State University.

Lucie Poulicakos and her team are responsible for the development and operation of a range of TierPoint IT systems that support clients, partners, and employees.

She joined TierPoint in 2016 as Vice President and General Manager of the company’s Milwaukee and Chicago data centers. Promoted to an enterprise role in 2017, as Vice President, Strategy & Process Improvement, she helped the company enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of core processes that support its business. She was promoted to her current role in October 2018.

Over the course of her career, Lucie has held leadership roles at companies like Recyclebank, MetroFi, and DSL.net

Chris Scaglione guides major, strategic initiatives shaping TierPoint’s future, in coordination with the leaders of all company functions. He also provides leadership on a number of other key programs, including revenue and expense assurance and inventory and supply chain management.

Previously, he served as Vice President and General Manager of TierPoint’s Midwest operations.  He joined the company upon its acquisition of Cosentry in 2016, where he had served as a Regional Vice President of Sales.

Before Cosentry, Chris held leadership positions at Sense Corp, Xiolink, Bick Group, World Wide Technology, and Deloitte Consulting.  He earned both his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and his MBA from Washington University in St. Louis.

Joining TierPoint in December 2015, John today oversees the go-to-market strategies and activities of the company’s national direct sales team. Prior to his current role, John served TierPoint as Senior Vice President, Sales, East, and before that, he helmed the company’s Northeast sales region. His teams have consistently delivered strong sales results, year over year.

Before TierPoint, John built an impressive, multi-decade track record of success in sales, marketing, and operational leadership roles at several companies, including CyrusOne, Hosting.com, NYLX, SAVVIS (now part of CenturyLink), and Sprint. He started his sales career at General Datacom.

A graduate of Fordham University, John is a proud husband and father. He also volunteers time with the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

With over 20 years of experience, Greg joined TierPoint in 2019 and today manages the team responsible for conceiving, designing, and building the industry-leading colocation, cloud, and managed service solutions that help the company’s thousands of clients on their IT transformation journeys.

Before TierPoint, Greg held leadership positions at World Wide Technology and CenturyLink (now Lumen). He started his career as an engineer with Bridge Information Systems.

Greg holds a Bachelor of Science in Information Technology from Lindenwood University.

Joining TierPoint in 2016, Matt Brickey oversees the team of professionals that help the company’s clients navigate a range of IT challenges, offering them cloud readiness assessments, and support on cloud or physical asset migrations, as well as business continuity planning and security assessments.

Matt brings to his position more than 20 years of experience driving growth and innovation through various product and consulting functions. Before TierPoint, he held leadership positions at CenturyLink, Savvis, Mobile Armor, Computer Sciences Corporation, and Arthur Andersen.

Matt earned his bachelor’s degree at the University of Illinois and MBA at Southern Illinois University.

Dave Foster brings nearly 20 years of industry experience to his current role, developing and maintaining unified standards, processes, and key performance indicators for the operation and expansion of the company’s over 40 data centers across the country. He also oversees administrative matters in Raleigh, where the company has more employees than any other single market.

Dave joined TierPoint in 2015 as Vice President and General Manager of the company’s operations in Jacksonville, Florida. He was subsequently promoted to VP, Data Center Facilities, and then to Senior Vice President, Operations Intelligence and Client Experience.

Before TierPoint, Dave served as Director of Data Center Engineering for Windstream Hosted Solutions, where he led efforts to expand that company’s footprint from five to more than 20 data centers. Prior to Windstream, he held a leadership position with Altruent Systems.

Dave earned his Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Wagner College in Staten Island, NY.

At TierPoint, Matt Kent and his teams are responsible for strategic and financial planning, providing key insights and business intelligence across all company functions, supporting corporate development, M&A activities, and financial reporting, and contributing to strategic initiatives.

He holds a similar role at Cequel III, TierPoint’s management company, and is also a member of the board of directors of American Testing and Inspection Services (ATIS), in which Cequel III has invested.

Before joining TierPoint in 2014, Matt worked at Ernst & Young in the St. Louis audit and assurance services practice, focusing on the financial services and gaming industries. There, he earned his CPA license.

Matt received Bachelor of Business Administration and Master of Science in Accountancy degrees from the University of Notre Dame.

Ken Lindsay oversees the TierPoint teams that manage client implementations and provide ongoing client support on cloud solutions, managed services, and more. Prior to TierPoint, he served as Vice President of Client Services at Cosentry, where he led solutions support for enterprises throughout the Midwest.

Ken has over 25 years of global operations experience, in the Americas, Europe, and Asia at companies such as Savvis, Reuters, and Edward Jones.

Ken holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of Missouri-Columbia.

Sean McCarthy joined TierPoint in June 2018 as Senior Vice President, Sales Operations, overseeing a range of initiatives that support and enable the work of the company’s sales and marketing teams. Before TierPoint, he was Senior Vice President of Business Operations at Digital Realty and is a veteran of the technology and telecommunication sectors, with leadership roles at Telx, Tata Communications, AT&T/BellSouth, World Access Communications, and Cable & Wireless.

Sean earned a J.D. from the Catholic University, as well as a Masters of Business Administration in Finance and Strategic Management and a Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance from the University of Iowa.

Linda Metzler leads a team of professionals focused on TierPoint’s bottom line, managing costs through a variety of mechanisms, including competitive bidding, direct negotiation, supplier development, process automation, and vendor contract management.

She joined the company in 2016, implementing its first sourcing function and developing a robust state of automation and maturity for it procurement tools. Over the years, her role expanded to include new areas of responsibility, including IT asset management, inventory management, and telecommunications expense management.

Linda’s career includes varied leadership roles in sourcing and procurement at blue-chip companies, including MasterCard Worldwide and Thomson Reuters.

Promoted to his current position in 2023, Jim Owen is responsible for 15 of TierPoint’s world-class data centers, primarily in the eastern U.S., supporting some of the company’s largest and longest-tenured clients.

Jim has more than 30 years of leadership experience in data center operations and related IT fields. He joined TierPoint through the company’s 2015 acquisition of Windstream Hosted Solutions.

Jim’s prior experience included management positions at Stream International, Sprint, VeriCenter, and elsewhere.

Andrew Ramirez oversees a full-service, in-house team that provides strategic and operational legal oversight to TierPoint’s business units on a variety of matters, including customer and vendor contracts, product development and deployment, regulatory compliance, employment, litigation, collections, real estate, facilities management, and risk mitigation.

Before joining TierPoint in 2018, Andrew held the position of Senior Counsel for the discount supermarket chain, Save-A-Lot, headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri. Prior to Save-A-Lot, Andrew was an Associate with Brown & James.

Andrew earned his Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Vanderbilt University and his Master of Business Administration and J.D. in Law from Saint Louis University. Andrew is a member of the Illinois Bar and the Missouri Bar.

John Stoker oversees TierPoint’s national solutions engineering team and is a veteran leader within the organization. Previously, he served as Vice President and Director, Solutions Engineering for TierPoint’s Western operations since 2016. He joined today’s TierPoint in 2012 when it acquired the Spokane-based company of the same name, where he had led teams of pre-sales engineers and security analysts within TierPoint’s Security Operations Center in the Pacific Northwest since 2006. Prior to TierPoint, John was a consulting engineer at NDM Technologies.

John holds a bachelor’s degree in Management Information Systems from Eastern Washington University. In addition, he has obtained a number of certifications over the course of his career, including ISC² Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), CompTIA Security+ Professional, Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator (MCSA), and VMware Certified Professional (VCP).