Adaptive Spirit
 

Leadership

2023-2024 Adaptive Spirit Board of Directors

 

Nomi Bergman, Director

Nomi is a senior executive at Advance focused on corporate development and strategic partnerships. She has over 25 years of experience as an operator, investor and advisor to technology companies, where she has focused on mobile, data and video communications, space technology, information technology and data services, advanced advertising, and emerging technologies centered on reimagining and improving the customer experience. Previously, President of Bright House Networks, Nomi was one of the company’s founders who led it to become the sixth-largest cable operator in the United States, with 8,500 employees, 2.5 million customers, and over $4B in annual revenue. Nomi is an experienced board member who previously served as director of Comcast Corporation in addition to her current roles as a director of publicly-held Visteon Corporation and privately-held HawkEye360 and Black & Veatch. Nomi is a trustee of her alma mater, the University of Rochester, Adaptive Spirit, Bridging Voice, the Cable Center and One Revolution. She is also a longstanding member of the FCC Technological Advisory Council (TAC). Nomi is an avid skier and also enjoys running, swimming, cycling, and hiking. Her real moments of brightness derive from her role as a wife to her husband, Neal, and a proud mother of their three wonderful daughters, Rebecca, Dori and Allie.

 

Rich DiGeronimo, Director

Rich was appointed to his current position as President, Product and Technology in 2022. He joined Charter in 2008. Prior to Charter, Rich came from Level 3 Communications where he served in multiple leadership roles over eight years, Rich started his career at Bear Stearns focusing on technology investment banking. In 2015, Rich was named WICT Rocky Mountain Mentor of the Year. He has a B.B.A. from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan where he graduated with high distinction.

 

Deborah Flippo, Secretary

Deborah has over 25 years of experience in the telecommunications industry. She has held executive sales positions at Friend MTS, Amdocs Media (formerly VUBIQUITY) and iN DEMAND Networks. Her non-profit experience beyond Adaptive Spirit includes co-chairing the Cable Positive Denver Chapter and Positively Cable Show where she was a Brad Wojoski and Beacon Award winner. She also served as President of the Virginia Tech Denver Alumni Chapter where the Outstanding Chapter award was achieved 10 years in a row. Deborah is currently completing her sixth year on Virginia Tech’s National Alumni Board. She has served as secretary of the board since the organization’s inception and communications chair on the event committee since 2004.

 

Ewam de Freitas, Director 

Ewam is vice president of product and technology for Liberty Latin America with responsibilities across 20 consumer markets delivering communications, high-speed connectivity and entertainment products. Liberty Latin America is an integrated telecommunications company focused on the Caribbean and Latin America. Prior to joining Liberty Latin America in 2019, Ewam held Product and Technology leadership roles at Level 3, Charter and Comcast. As a competitive athlete from his early to late years in soccer and cycling, he is passionate about athletic endeavors. His greatest passion is creating experiences with his wife and daughter. He received a B.S. in Biology from James Madison University.

 

Ralph Green, Director

Ralph Green is a Customer Manager at PepsiCo (Quaker) calling on Hannaford Brothers. After living in the west for 23 years (Colorado and Seattle), Ralph and his fiancé Dina moved to New Hampshire shortly after he joined the Quaker team. Adaptive Spirit attendees may remember Ralph as an 11-year member of the U.S. Paralympics Ski Team. While active as a ski racer Ralph partnered with and built relationships with decision makers of major corporations such as Cox, United Airlines, and The Home Depot to name a few. A former board member of Disabled Sports USA, Ralph’s current passions are motivational speaking, RV’ing, and figuring out ways to grow market share for the categories he manages. While competing on the National Team Ralph finished his undergrad, and then went on to earn an M.B.A. with a marketing concentration from Keller Graduate School of Management. Ralph is currently active with Mosaic, (a PepsiCo’s ERG), and his goal remains to make a personal impact in sports, work, and life!

 

Tim Gropp, Director

With over 40 years in the telecommunications industry, Tim joined Gridmetrics, a subsidiary of CableLabs, in February 2022 to lead sales and client engagement. He left CommScope in 2019 where he led sales teams for ARRIS Group, Inc. in North America, Latin America and Asia Pacific. He led global sales at C-COR until ARRIS acquired C-COR in 2007. Tim’s telecommunications career began with Southwestern Bell, moved to AT&T and then to Lucent Technologies before leaving in 2001. In addition to his work with Adaptive Spirit, he serves as a director and Vice President of Arrowhead Association HOA in the Vail Valley. Tim has a B.A. from the University of Texas and is active in SCTE. He was inducted into the Cable TV Pioneers in 2017. And speaking of pioneers, Tim is considered an Adaptive Spirit pioneer attending the event beginning in 1997 and almost every year since then.

 

Colleen Langner, Director

Colleen is EVP / Chief Operating Officer for Cox Communications. In this role, she has enterprise responsibility for field operations across the company including field services, outside plant maintenance, field operations strategy, and vendor management. Government and Public Affairs and Human Resources teams are also under her leadership. Colleen is a 25-year Cox veteran holding senior-level marketing and sales roles. As the former SVP of marketing operations, she is a driving force in helping Cox to adapt to new market conditions, customer expectations, and unrelenting competition. She has been honored by MultiChannel News with a Wonder Woman award, which is given to female executives at the forefront of cable television and communication industry. She is the recipient of multiple CableFax’s Most Powerful Women Awards and the Woman of the Year from Women in Cable Southern California Chapter. A cable industry veteran and honored by a number of industry organizations, Colleen got her degree at Marquette University. A Midwestern at heart, she now lives in Atlanta with her family.

 

Doug Moore, Director

Doug is a global technology executive advisor and recently retired President and CEO of Fujitsu North America, Inc., and head of the Americas region where he oversaw Fujitsu’s digital services businesses in the U.S., Canada, Latin America and the Caribbean. Doug’s previous work includes positions in sales, marketing, development, manufacturing and engineering. He received his B.S in mechanical engineering from the University of Arizona and M.B.A. from Arizona State University. Doug is a passionate supporter of STEM education and the growth of the digital economy. He is a board member and chairman emeritus of the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA), member of the advisory board of the DFW Alliance of Technology and Women, advisory board member of iCode LLC, and Hall of Fame Inductee, board member, and chairman emeritus of Tech Titans. As an avid outdoorsman, he relishes all summer and winter sports. Doug is passionate about being a good steward of the environment and along with his day jobs, owns and manages a working cattle ranch in Texas. He especially enjoys his work as an Adaptive Spirit board member.

 

Brad Parobek, Director

Brad is a 35-year veteran in the telecom industry and currently works for Friend MTS as Senior Vice President, Americas Sales. Brad has worked for Disney Channel, Bravo, Encore/STARZ!, Amdocs, Nokia and CSG. He is also a seed investor in BT&O Consulting, a data and analytics consulting company. Brad has been involved with Adaptive Spirit since 1999 and is a race co-chair and board member. Brad is passionate about mentoring young adults interested in business and technical sales roles and an avid golfer, conservationist and outdoorsman. Brad resides in the Denver metro area with his wife, Sandra, and two daughters. Brad has a B.A. from Ohio University.

 

Steve Raymond, Chairperson

Steve Raymond is Vice President of Accessibility for Charter. In his role, Steve leads efforts to drive, launch and refine accessibility and universal design in Charter’s accessibility products, features and services. Previously, Steve was VP Client Solutions for Nielsen Connectivity. Before Nielsen, Steve was SVP at VUBIQUITY, Inc. From 2014–2017, Steve served as vice president of affiliate relations for AT&T Sports Networks in Denver. Prior to that position, he spent 25 years in affiliate sales at the Walt Disney Company ending his time with them as SVP National Accounts. Steve has won numerous awards for his volunteer work in the adaptive skiing arena such as the CTAM Chairman’s Award and ESPN Volunteer of the Year in 2003. He served on the board of directors for the National Sports Center for the Disabled in Winter Park, Colorado. Steve serves on the Paralympic Working Group and Paralympic Strategic Task Force for the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Foundation and was inducted into the Colorado Snowsports Hall of Fame in 2019.

 

Amos Smith, Treasurer

Formerly VP Operations at T-Mobile Home & Entertainment, Amos has been in the cable industry since 1994. As CFO of Denver based startup Layer3TV, he successfully helped sell the startup to T-Mobile in 2018. He held previous positions at Time Warner Cable including SVP/CFO of the Residential Business and GVP Tech Ops, Care & Payment Services. Prior to Time Warner Cable, he spent seven years at AT&T Broadband (formerly TCI) in various financial positions. Prior to those finance positions, Amos was a registered Professional Civil Engineer in Southern California. He has a B.S. in Civil Engineering from the University of Colorado and an M.B.A. with an emphasis in finance from the University of Kansas.

 

Pete Wisowaty, Director

Pete is a telecom industry veteran with over 30 years of sales, sales management and business development experience. Most recently, he was VP of Sales at Akamai as a result of the acquisition of Nominum. While at Nominum, Pete was EVP of Sales & Marketing and during his tenure grew the business to 135 tier one/two telco, cable and mobile providers in 40 countries. His prior leadership include roles at Grand Central Communications (Google/SFDC), WhereNet (Zebra), ZeitNet (Cabletron) and Kalpana (Cisco). Pete founded Azure Sky Ventures, an advisory/consulting business. He has been actively involved with Adaptive Spirit for five years. Pete and his wife have two boys in college and split their time between Palo Alto, California and Vail, Colorado.

 

Tom Wlodkowski, Director

Tom is the Vice President of Accessibility at Comcast. In this role, he is responsible for developing and executing the company’s strategic plan focused on the usability of Comcast’s products and services by people with disabilities as well as pursuing opportunities to further enrich the customer experience for that community. Throughout his career, Tom has been a pioneer in the accessibility field. Blind himself, he has been a champion for people with disabilities, working to improve usability of mainstream Internet, mobile, broadcast and cable television technology. He began working in accessibility and tech in the early 1990s at public radio and TV station WGBH in Boston.

 

Ken Tolle, Legal Advisor

President and Senior Advisor, Launch Pad Media Advisors

 



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