Management Team

 John B. Spirtos, Chief Executive Officer

John B. Spirtos is Chief Executive Officer and responsible for overseeing the day-to-day operations of the company. Prior to GridPoint, Mr. Spirtos was Senior Vice President of Comverse Technology (NASDAQ; CMVT), the leading billing and messaging software provider to the global communications industry.

Previously, Mr. Spirtos was Senior Vice President of NeuStar, Inc. (NYSE; NSR), a provider of clearinghouse and directory services to the communications and Internet industry, and President of Corvis Corporation and its wholly owned subsidiary, Broadwing Communications, LLC (NASDAQ; BWNG), an integrated communications equipment and services provider.  He holds a B.S. from the University of California, a J.D. from Southwestern University, and LL.M. and M.B.A. degrees from Georgetown University.

Joseph R. Chinnici, Executive Vice President & CFO

Joseph R. Chinnici is Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for GridPoint and is responsible for leading the company’s endeavors in the areas of finance, human resources, corporate information technology, and investor relations. Mr. Chinnici brings more than 30 years of leadership experience with companies ranging from early-stage, venture-backed startups to category-leading, publicly traded multinational enterprises in a variety of competitive industries. He utilizes his entrepreneurial spirit, focus and determination combined with his acumen in finance, compliance, risk management, and mergers and acquisitions to drive companies to achieve their full potential.

Most recently, Mr. Chinnici served as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at Comverse Technology (NASDAQ; CMVT), the leading global provider of billing and messaging software solutions to the communications industry. Previous to that, he served as CFO for 12 years at telecommunications technology supplier Ciena Corporation (NASDAQ; CIEN). Prior to Ciena, he held a variety of financial positions at Sara Lee Corporation and Playtex Corporation.

Mr. Chinnici’s service on both public and private company boards has included OTG Software, Brix Networks, Guilford Pharmaceuticals, Sourcefire, Inc., and Optium Corporation. He holds a B.S.A. from Villanova University and an M.B.A. from Southern Illinois University and has studied corporate governance at the Harvard Graduate School of Business.

Denis A. Curran, Executive Vice President & General Counsel

Denis A. Curran is Executive Vice President and General Counsel for GridPoint and responsible for the company’s legal affairs. Mr. Curran was Vice President and Assistant General Counsel of NeuStar, Inc., a provider of clearinghouse and directory services to the global communications and Internet industry. There he managed legal operations relating to corporate and securities matters, including M&A and financing activities, SEC compliance, and corporate governance.

Previously, Mr. Curran was an associate at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, where he represented a wide range of business organizations on corporate securities, corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions and general business and contract matters. Mr. Curran holds an A.B. from Princeton University and a J.D., with highest honors, from The George Washington University Law School. He is a member of the California, District of Columbia and Virginia bars.

Jeffrey Hatef, Senior Vice President, Data Services and PMO

Jeff Hatef leads GridPoint’s Data Services and Project Management teams. In this role he is responsible for Energy Advisory Services, data warehouse, advanced analytics, as well as delivery of new software innovations.  Mr. Hatef brings more than 25 years of management and technology experience with companies in multiple industries.   Prior to joining GridPoint, Mr. Hatef was Strategic Advisor at Neustar, where he managed restructuring efforts and helped plan and kick off large engineering efforts.   Prior to this he managed a large engineering team in Neustar’s telecommunications order management business line, leading more than 100 local, remote and offshore engineering resources building multiple products.

Previously, Mr. Hatef managed a large consulting team delivering software development and testing services at a mobile communications provider.  Mr. Hatef has also managed technology and operations for a non-profit group involved in medical research and clinical trials in the U.S. and Europe.  Mr. Hatef began his career as a consultant and software developer, working on a variety of NASA and DoD projects.  Mr. Hatef holds an M.B.A., M.S. and B.S. from the University of Maryland and an MPH from the George Washington University.

Kenneth H. Stewart, Senior Vice President, Sales

Ken Stewart has 20 years of global experience in technology innovation, business development, emerging markets and sales in both start-up and mature corporations. For GridPoint, he has overall responsibility for global sales and channel partnerships for GridPoint’s suite of energy management and smart grid solutions.

Prior to joining GridPoint, Mr. Stewart was Vice President of Network Services at Payfone where he was responsible for Product and Network Services including the development of Payfone’s cloud-based mobile payment platform.

Mr. Stewart has previously held positions at Syniverse, NeuStar and MACH successfully leading these company’s efforts to establish and build its business in the Asia Pacific region.  Mr. Stewart holds an M.B.A. in International Business from Saint Leo University, a B.A. from Saint Leo University and Certificate in Innovation Management University of Maryland - Robert H. Smith School of Business. 

Steven W. Fisher, Senior Vice President, Operations

As Senior Vice President of Operations at GridPoint, Mr. Fisher oversees supply chain operations, quality, facilities, service, installation and logistic services. He has solid management experience with proven results in the electronics, manufacturing, telecommunications, and aerospace industries.

Prior to joining GridPoint, Mr. Fisher spent eight years with the Ciena Corporation where he held several positions including Senior Manager of New Product Introduction, Senior Director of Manufacturing and Vice President of Supply Chain Management and Materials where he was responsible for all aspects of outsourced manufacturing, purchasing, warehousing, new product introduction, and operations engineering. He successfully developed and led operations and material procurement teams in three locations that managed over 75 suppliers on multiple continents.

Prior to joining Ciena, Mr. Fisher was a Program Manager at Honeywell for the AN/SLA-10B mil-spec production programs for NAVSEA. Mr. Fisher was responsible for developing and managing all aspects of TEMPEST security programs from concept through full scale production with both DoD and commercial customers.

Mr. Fisher has a B.S. in Technical Management from the University of Maryland University College.

Rick Wilhelm, Senior Vice President, Engineering

Rick Wilhelm leads GridPoint’s hardware and software engineering as well as system operations. For more than 20 years, Wilhelm has lead engineering teams in architecting and operating large-scale high availability architectures, including Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions for some of today’s most successful software and internet-based companies, including Network Solutions and NeuStar. An experienced leader in system integrations, technology strategy and client service, Mr. Wilhelm brings tremendous expertise in developing eCommerce and mobile applications allowing enterprise and web professionals to increase business intelligence and customer success.

Mr. Wilhelm received a B.S. in Engineering and Computer Science from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign where he graduated magna cum laude. He an active member of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) Security and Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC) and was a significant contributor to the ANSI/ISO C++ Standard. In 1994, Wilhelm was awarded a patent for the invention of workflow server software and was selected to attend the MIT CISR (Center for Information Systems Research) conference in 2011.

Mark Straton, Senior Vice President, Marketing

Mark Straton leads GridPoint’s marketing team and is responsible for marketing communications, branding, content development, event management, analyst and press relations, digital marketing, social media, demand generation, channel marketing, sales enablement, field marketing, and marketing strategy development.

Over the last 20 years, Mr. Straton has held senior leadership positions at Siemens, where he led award-winning global marketing campaigns and spearheaded strategic corporate development projects which enabled investments and acquisitions in cloud service and next-generation user interface initiatives.

Most recently, Mr. Straton served as SVP of Global Solutions Marketing where he specialized in marketing intelligence, brand introductions, new product launch, content marketing, digital marketing, and go-to-market strategies to ensure faster time-to-revenue and increased profitability. During his tenure, Mr. Straton brought several division product brands to market, including the market-leading HiPath and OpenScape platforms for Siemens Enterprise Communications, totaling over 55 million licenses.  In addition, Mr. Straton is on the Board of Directors for SocialExtract which specializes in Social CRM engagement workflow optimization cloud-based solutions. Mr. Straton received several prestigious awards for his work at Siemens, including the Wall Street Journal Innovation Europe Technology Award, and was named a Frost & Sullivan Marketing World 2012 Advisor. Mr. Straton holds a B.A. in Economics from the University of Michigan.