Vincent Oddo, President & Chief Executive Officer.

Vincent is a 20-year veteran of the telecom industry and has specialized in both wireline and wireless properties. Prior to joining Birch, he served for several years as chief operating officer of Network Telephone in Pensacola, Florida. He holds a BA degree and a Master’s of Public Administration (MPA) from Long Island University.

Tom Peterson, Chief Financial Officer.

Tom joined Birch in June 2000. He has served as Birch’s Senior Vice President of Finance and Corporate Controller. Tom has also been integral to all of Birch’s strategic initiatives over the past five years in addition to providing leadership over Birch’s day-to-day financial operations. Prior to joining Birch, Tom held key management positions with GST Telecom, a competitive local exchange carrier in Vancouver, Washington and a public accounting firm in Portland, Oregon. Tom has a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration from Oregon State University and is a Certified Public Accountant.

Allan Samson, Senior Vice President, Sales, Marketing and Network Operations.

Allan has been with Birch since August 2000. With more than 14 years of experience in telecommunications, he is responsible leading the network engineering, operations, product marketing, and sales functions. Allan previously served as Vice President, Product Marketing leading product development, product management, marketing and public relations. Prior to that Allan led product management and regulatory functions at Birch.

Before coming to Birch Allan spent 10 years at ATT (formerly SBC). While at ATT he served in various leadership positions in product management, regulatory and network operations. His last two assignments at SBC included the introduction of managed AIN services and the negotiation of interconnection agreements with competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs). He holds both a Bachelor of Science in industrial engineering from the University of Missouri and an M.B.A. from Southern Methodist University.

Kim Rowell, Senior Vice President, Customer Operations.

Kim joined Birch in January 2004 with more than 17 years experience in telecommunications. A proactive professional leader, Kim has and proven success record in driving results and exceptional customer satisfaction in customer operations and support. Prior to joining Birch, Rowell was senior vice president of product solutions for Touch America. Before that, she held key management positions with Qwest responsible for sales operations, sales support and technical support. Rowell holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Missouri.

Chris Bunce, Vice President, Legal, and General Counsel.

Chris joined Birch in June 2000. He provides leadership over Birch's legal operations, responsible for legal and regulatory compliance and transactional matters. He has fostered numerous relationships between Birch and its vendors and customers over the past six years. Prior to joining Birch, Chris was counsel for GST Telecom in Vancouver, Washington, and he has served as counsel for telecommunications carriers including CallAmerica, ICON Networks, and TotalNet, and Internet service providers Hawaii OnLine and Whole Earth Networks. Chris has a Bachelor’s degree in both History and Journalism/Mass Communication from Iowa State University and a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Iowa College of Law.

Dan Gaston, Vice President, Information Technology.

Dan joined Birch in July 1999 and has more than 10 years experience in the telecommunications industry. He is responsible for leading and implementing the efficient acquisition and management of information technology across Birch, while integrating the company’s information resources. His oversight includes strategic planning, policy, budget planning, systems development, telecommunications, information security data management, enterprise architecture, e-business, and end user computing. Dan has served in a number of leadership roles for Birch, initially leading business process and analytical teams responsible for expanding and implementing product, market, and technology initiatives. Later, leading successful software development initiatives targeted at strategic expense reduction opportunities. Prior to joining Birch, Dan served in a number of operational management roles within Cellular One and attended the University of Kansas majoring in Business Administration and Economics.