Leadership

Learn about our leadership team below:

• 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.

• Christopher Vitale, Chief Adminstrative Officer and General Counsel

  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.