Management Team

Chris Adams - Chief Executive Officer

Chris began his career in retail where he had a variety of differing management roles. He entered the telecoms market when he joined Interoute in 1999 where he played a key role in developing the emerging wholesale business. He was instrumental in setting up and growing numerous European PTT relationships, which continue to thrive today. Chris joined WaveCrest in 2003 to become European Sales Director where his responsibilities spanned Continental Europe, including breaking into the more recently liberalised Eastern European locations. Chris’ role broadened in May 2005 when he took responsibility for all commercial functions within the wholesale division. In July 2006 he accepted the opportunity to become Chief Executive Officer, and was instrumental in closing the deal with Sistema. He holds an Honours degree in Business Studies.

Rhys Williams - Group CTO & Head of Strategic Development

Rhys brings more than 14 years of telecom technology experience to the management team. As a founding member and CTO of EDC, a VoIP carrier acquired by WaveCrest in 2002, he was responsible for the design and implementation of an international Carrier Class VoIP network. Previously Rhys spent 10 years at GEC-Marconi Communications in research, development and system design where he specialized in mobile radio networks. In 1994/95 Rhys led a team that developed one of the world’s first radio base stations conforming to the digital TETRA standard. Rhys holds an honours degree from Brunel University in Electrical and Electronic Engineering.

Marco Faasse - Senior Vice President Retail Services

Marco has been with WaveCrest since we acquired Interoute in November 2002, where he was Finance Director for the Benelux region. At WaveCrest, Marco became Country Manager for the Benelux organisation and, in April 2005, was promoted to his current position. Marco’s background includes assignments with organisations like the Achmea group, The Ministry of Transportation and Communication and was co-founder of an Internet start up company. Marco holds an honours degree from Erasmus University Rotterdam in Business Economics.

Joe Rothstein - Senior Vice President Commercial Operations

Joe started in the telecommunications industry in the reseller business, running the provisioning, customer care and order management departments of a corporate, residential and calling card reseller. He moved to Storm Telecommunications in 1998 as senior billing executive, becoming the department manager and implementing the processes and procedures of the billing department, which became a feature of the company. He has initiated and managed major projects on revenue assurance, data validation, system integration and fraud prevention. Joe has an honours degree in Philosophy.

John Kirkpatrick - Chief Financial Officer

John has twenty years experience in finance with leading blue chip container shipping firm P&O Nedlloyd involving all aspects of finance including major capital investment appraisal and detailed evaluation of tenders leading to ship orders. He was Far East regional Financial Controller overseeing finance for both profit and cost divisions with turnover in excess of US$700m. He also served as Group Corporate Finance Project Manager leading business systems implementation of Hyperion and bespoke integrated commercial and financial systems. He moved into the telecoms industry in 2001 as Finance Director of Interoute Telecommunications (UK) Ltd. and, when the wholesale business was acquired by WaveCrest, led the system implementation and integration of the new group.

Tim French - Vice President Network & IT Systems

Tim entered the telecommunications industry in 1996 at a retail & calling card service provider, working predominantly on billing systems. In 1998 he moved to Storm Telecommunications to work on their wholesale billing system, later becoming IT Systems Manager responsible for the smooth operation of the back-office IT systems. At WaveCrest, Tim became responsible for the whole IT organisation and, in September 2004, was promoted to his current position. He has extensive experience of billing systems implementation, upgrade and migration, systems development and systems integration. Tim holds an honours degree in Environmental Science & Technology.

Graham Packer - Vice President Corporate Services

As founding member of EDC, a VoIP carrier acquired by WaveCrest in 2002, Graham has been with WaveCrest since its inception. Graham has over twenty five years communications industry experience both in the UK and overseas in various business development and management roles. After leaving Technical College Graham joined GEC-Marconi Communications, spending 14 years with them in a variety of Sales, Marketing and Project Management roles for both military and civilian communication systems at home and overseas. This was followed by a period with a well known international mobile services provider in an export management role, following which he joined a major Canadian communications systems provider, with a lead role in the set up, operation and management of their overseas subsidiary based in Cyprus.

Caroline Gardiner - Head of HR

Caroline has 10 years experience in Human Resources, and is a Graduate of the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development. Caroline started her HR career at Legal & General, one of Britain's top 50 FTSE companies, working mainly in HR generalist roles within the company, with some focus on compensation and benefits. In the summer of 2001, Caroline moved to join Interoute in a generalist role, and then became part of the WaveCrest team in the early part of 2003. Now as Head of HR, Caroline is responsible for all HR activity across the Company, which involves providing support, advice and guidance to Management regarding Employee Relations, Employment Law, Policies & Procedures, Performance Management, Diversity & Equality and Training & Recruitment.