Team

Mr. Chesonis founded the Rochester, NY, telecommunications company PAETEC in 1996 and headed the company as CEO until its acquisition in 2011 for $2.3 billion. He began his career at Rochester Telephone Corporation and went on to serve as president of ACC Corp. He led that public company until it was purchased by TCG/AT&T in 1998 for more than $1 billion. He has received the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award, the Herbert W. VandenBrul Entrepreneurial Award given by the College of Business at Rochester Institute of Technology, and was elected to the Rochester Business Hall of Fame. In 2011, the telecommunications site FierceTelecom ranked Mr. Chesonis in their elite list of the 15 Most Powerful People in Wireline.

Chesonis holds a B.S. in Civil Engineering from MIT, an M.B.A. from the Simon Graduate School of Business at the University of Rochester, and an Honorary Doctorate of Laws from the University of Rochester. He is co-director of the MIT Sustainable Energy Revolution Program (SERP) and serves as trustee at The Harley School and the University of Rochester.
 

JACK BARON
Jack Baron has more than 25 years' experience in executive, sales, marketing, and operations management. He co-founded PAETEC where he served as Chief Marketing and Training Officer and Executive Vice President of Business Development. Prior to joining PAETEC, he served as National Vice President of Sales, Marketing and Customer Service for ACC TeleCom's U.S. operations. Mr. Baron also served as President of ETI Technical College, a 4-year engineering college in Cleveland.

Mr. Baron also chaired the Rochester Angel Network, an investment organization focused on early-stage technology and energy companies in New York State. He belongs to the board of directors for Affle Mobile Media, which is owned primarily by Microsoft and based in Singapore.

Mr. Baron has an M.B.A. from Syracuse University with a concentration in marketing, graduating summa cum laude. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Neuroscience from the University of Rochester, where he graduated with high honors.
 

JERRY HORTON
Jerry Horton has 19 years of experience performing equipment modifications, process development for the production of new products, project management and maintenance management for General Mills and General Foods, which is now part of Kraft Foods. In 1988, Horton began a second career: 17 years in sales and sales management of electrical industrial equipment and plant automation equipment. Over the course of his career, he has been involved in the design, development and modification of several hundred industrial control, process control and machine automation systems. He also owns an active farm, raising registered Simmental cattle, and is on the board of directors of the New York Simmental Association. Horton served for six years as an aircraft electrician in the United States Air Force.