Women In Technology

Creative Leadership: Jim Geiger, Cbeyond
Speakers:	Jim Geiger Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Cbeyond, Inc. www.cbeyond.net
Date:	Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Time:	7:30am - 9:00am
Location:	Maggiano's Buckhead 3368 Peachtree Rd, Atlanta, GA Map
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What started as Jim Geiger's vision to be "The Last Communications Company a Small Business Would Ever Need," has evolved into one of the Atlanta technology community's most successful case studies. Atlanta-based Cbeyond, Inc. is a $214 Million organization with 29,000 small business customers that was ranked as the second fastest growing technology company in Georgia on Deloitte's 2006 Technology Fast 50.

WIT's Creative Leadership meeting features serial entrepreneur Jim Geiger, who will share with you how he fostered an environment of trust and vulnerability among his staff to build a dynamic organization that is centered on professionalism, hard work, and accountability.

Jim Geiger is a serial entrepreneur. He is also a family man, a devout Catholic, a Sunday school teacher, and the founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Cbeyond, a leading IP-based managed services provider for small businesses.

Cbeyond's mission is to deliver big business communications tools to small businesses at a price they can afford and that it can deliver profitably. When Jim shared his vision of building the first Voice over IP Telecom Company with some of the founding members of Cbeyond, many of them relocated their entire families to Atlanta to help Jim build Cbeyond. In the early years, Jim's team took pay cuts, and stood behind him in his efforts to raise money from the investment community to keep the company alive.

The company made it through the early days, and survived in the telecom industry during a time when many companies folded. Under Jim's leadership, Cbeyond successfully completed its IPO in November 2005, just six years after inception, and has also grown into a $214 million organization with more than 29,000 customers.

Jim Geiger
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Cbeyond, Inc.
www.cbeyond.net

As Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Jim Geiger's vision and leadership have positioned Cbeyond to become an industry leading managed services provider that delivers integrated packages of voice, mobile and broadband to small businesses.

Prior to founding Cbeyond, Mr. Geiger was Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of Intermedia Communications, an integrated communications provider. He joined Intermedia after it acquired FiberNet, a metropolitan area network provider that he co-founded in 1993. While at Intermedia, he was also in charge of Digex, the company's complex web-hosting business division, until just prior to its carve-out IPO.

Before its acquisition, Mr. Geiger was President and Chief Executive Officer of Fibernet. In 1989, Mr. Geiger was a Co-founder of a predecessor Fibernet which was purchased by MFS, of Omaha, Nebraska in 1992.

In the 1980's Mr. Geiger held various sales and marketing management positions at Frontier Communications, Inc. He began his career at Price Waterhouse and received his bachelor's degree in public accounting and pre-law from Clarkson University.

Mr. Geiger served as Chairman of the Association for Local Telecommunications Services (ALTS), the facilities based carrier's national trade association from 2003-2005 and until recently served on the Board of Directors of Comptel after ALTS merger with Comptel. He is a member of the Marist School Board of Trustees in Atlanta and also serves on the Board of Directors of the Hands on Network, a national organization, based in Atlanta, which mobilizes volunteers and promotes civic engagement in communities across the United States.

In 2005, Mr. Geiger was named "Telecom Professional of the Year" by the Atlanta Telecom Professional Association. He also was the recipient of the AeA's Technology Entrepreneur of the year in 2006, and named Ernst & Young 2007 Entrepreneur of the Year finalist for the SE region.