Leadership

Learn about our leadership team below:

• George Daddis, Chief Executive Officer and President

  George is an experienced CEO and entrepreneur with extensive experience in bringing digital products and services to market, establishing sales channels and raising capital. In 1998, George founded his first company, InSciTek Microsystems Inc. which provided digital hardware and software design services to Fortune 500 companies such as Sharp Electronics, GE, Kodak and many other technology companies worldwide. In 2003, Allworx Corp was founded from the core of InSciTek and quickly established itself as a national provider of small business VoIP telephone systems—a comprehensive technology firm including R&D, manufacturing, marketing/sales and customer support functions. George aggressively grew this VC-backed business to over 75,000 end users with a sales channel of more than 900+ dealers throughout North America, ultimately successfully selling Allworx Corp to PAETEC, a major national telephone services company headquartered in Rochester, N.Y. George began his engineering and management career at Eastman Kodak and subsequently Xerox, building engineering teams for various imaging product lines. These teams focused on quick time-to-market deliveries and “best in class” performance and cost digital product platforms. He received his B.S., M.S., and PhD. from Cornell University in the fields of engineering and mathematics.

• Allan Van Buhler, Senior Vice President, Sales, Marketing and Business Development

  Allan is a seasoned telecommunications industry executive with a proven track record of driving growth and revenue through a focus on new product introductions and distribution partnerships. Most recently he served as ACN’s Chief Marketing Officer responsible globally for ACN’s brand, its marketing strategy and all of its marketing functions including brand, channel and customer marketing, public relations, sales events, training, corporate communications and e-commerce platforms. Prior to joining ACN, Allan was Vice President and General Manager of Voice Services at Global Crossing where he was responsible for the P&L performance of Global Crossing’s $2 billion voice services product line. While at Frontier, Allan was also a co-founder of an internal start-up focusing on VoIP as a replacement for Frontier’s and later Global Crossing’s legacy voice network, growing the team to 125 people operating the world’s first and largest carrier class VoIP network carrying more than one billion minutes per month. During his 15 years with Frontier and Global Crossing, Allan held various executive management positions in Consumer and Business Market Management, Product Management, Product Development, Marketing, Finance and Network Operations.   Allan holds a bachelor’s degree in finance from Wayne State University, and an MBA in marketing and finance from Wayne State University.

• James G. Dole, Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer and Senior Vice President, Finance and Administration

  Prior to joining WorldGate, Jim served as the Chief Corporate Development Officer for EarthLink in Atlanta since August 2007. From February 2005 until August 2006, Mr. Dole served as Senior Vice President of Strategic Implementation of Mpower Holding Corporation. Prior to Mpower, he worked as an independent business consultant from January 2002 until February 2005. Mr. Dole served as Senior Vice President of Global Access Management for Global Crossing North America from February 2000 until December 2001. Previously, he was Chief Financial Officer of the Business Services Division of Frontier Corporation from March 1999 until January 2000. Between 1986 and 1999, Mr. Dole held numerous management positions at Frontier, and its predecessor Rochester Telephone. Mr. Dole earned a M.B.A. in finance and corporate accounting from the University of Rochester Simon School and a bachelor of science degree with distinction in business, finance and economics from State University of New York at Albany.

• Christopher Vitale, Senior Vice President, Legal and Regulatory, General Counsel and Secretary

  Chris is the General Counsel and Secretary for WorldGate.  In his role, Chris is responsible for managing all legal, secretarial governance, compliance, litigation, securities and governmental affairs for WorldGate. Chris was previously with the Philadelphia office of the national law firm of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP.  At Morgan, Lewis, Mr. Vitale’s practice focused on corporate and securities matters, including mergers and acquisitions, public and private debt and equity offerings, corporate governance issues and general client counseling.  Mr. Vitale’s clients included private equity firms and public and emerging growth companies in the distribution, manufacturing, publishing, records management, software and technology, energy, investment management and engineering fields.  Prior to joining Morgan Lewis, Mr. Vitale was corporate counsel at Avaya Inc., and began his practice in the New York office of Sullivan & Cromwell LLP.  Mr. Vitale earned his J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, and his B.S. in accountancy and his B.M.E. in mechanical engineering from Villanova University.  Mr. Vitale is admitted to practice law in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and in front of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

• Whitney Blackmon, Senior Vice President, Engineering

  Whitney Blackmon is responsible for all design, development, product manufacturing activities, including product/systems quality control and assurance. Mr. Blackmon was recruited to pre-IPO WorldGate in 1998 as an embedded hardware/software development manager. At WorldGate, he directed analog and digital embedded engineering, lead the development of the first WorldGate Ojo video phone, advanced to Vice President of Engineering and Operations, and in 2008 was promoted to Senior Vice President, Engineering.  Mr. Blackmon has extensive experience in overseas development and cross-cultural engineering relationships, having worked in North America, Europe, South America, the Middle East, Far East and Asia.  Prior to joining WorldGate, Mr. Blackmon held a series of progressively senior technical design, development, and management positions at Data Systems Analysts, Inc., Raytek Corp, Aydin Computer Systems, Computer Sciences Corporation, and Keystome Computer Associates, primarily in real-time airport/air traffic telecommunications, command and control, display, missile, and combat aerial reconnaissance systems. Mr. Blackmon received a B.S. degree from the Delaware Valley College of Science and Agriculture.

• Lori Sofianek, Senior Vice President, Customer Operations

  Lori has more than 25 years of experience in the telecommunications sector. Prior to joining WorldGate, she was most recently Senior Vice President of Cassara Management Group, Inc. based in Rochester, N.Y. She has spent time in many different areas of the business including sales, sales management, sales support, marketing, customer service, order management, provisioning, billing and customer collections. Lori started her career in telecommunications in 1983 working in Rochester Telephone's long distance division, RCI, leading the first direct sales force for long distance and private line services. As Rochester Telephone and RCI acquired several local and long distance companies, Lori took on operational roles of increasing responsibility, managing the integration of all systems and customer operations. In her last position at Global Crossing (formerly Frontier and RCI) she was the vice president of international customer support for the wholesale division. In recent years, Lori has worked directly with the senior leadership teams of many telecom companies, including Pangea, a European facilities based carrier, ACN, a global direct marketing company for local, long distance, mobile and VoIP services, ION, a start up addressing the New York rural marketplace and Americatel, a reseller of long distance services in the Hispanic marketplace.

• Barry MacCheyne, Vice President Sales

  As Vice President of Sales, Barry is responsible for digital video phone sales to direct and agency customers as well as sales of WorldGate’s turn-key services platform, which offers a complete end-to-end VoIP based digital video and voice solution. Barry brings more than 20 years of sales, management and business development experience to WorldGate. Throughout his career, Barry’s contributions to various companies have been integral to their success. His sharp focus on driving growth and profitability has achieved strong market, financial and operational results. Also, Barry’s extensive international experience and widespread network of relationships distinguishes him among the telecommunications industry. He previously worked for Tata Communications as Senior Vice President of Global Sales and led the expansion into key growth areas while managing a high-performance sales team. While there, he spearheaded the market development and customer feedback around all new value added services. In addition, he grew revenue and managed sales channels domestically and internationally as the Senior Vice President of North American Carrier Services at Global Crossing Ltd. In this role, Barry managed $1.3 billion in annual voice and data revenue generated from wholesale customers. Barry obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from State University of New York at Cortland.