Anthony Cassara has over 30 years of management experience in the international telecommunications industry.
He is currently the President of Cassara Management Group, Inc. (CMGI), a privately held business counseling practice focused on the telecommunications industry. CMGI specializes in business evaluations, management recruitment & development, organizational change strategies and creating strategic business growth opportunities for telecommunications and other start-up companies.
Prior to founding CMGI, Mr. Cassara was an executive and officer of Frontier Corporation and later at Global Crossing, where he was responsible for a $2 billion global wholesale operating unit.
In the past twelve years he has served on the Boards of Mpower Communications (a publicly held CLEC), CIMCO Communications (a privately held CLEC) , Teleglobe International, InSciTek (a privately held start-up IP technology venture), FLAG (a publicly held global telecom carrier), Eschelon Telecom (a privately held CLEC), The School of the Holy Childhood (a private school for children with special needs) and Sixteen:Fifteen (a non-profit organization focused on world missions). In addition, he has served as Chairman of the Board for CompTel (a telecommunications industry trade organization) and has served on the Board of Directors for the Rochester, NY chapter of the American Red Cross.
He currently serves on the Board of Directors of ACN (a privately held Direct Marketing company operating in North America, Europe, Australia and Asia), deltathree, Inc. (DDDC.OB), and WorldGate Communications, Inc. (WGAT.OB), Xoom Energy (a privately held energy marketing company), and You Need My Guy (a privately held social network start-up).
Mr. Cassara earned a bachelor's degree in business administration from the State University of New York at Plattsburgh, and a master's degree in business administration with a concentration in finance from Boston College.
He lives in Rochester, NY with his wife Carol and family.
Maggie Cashman brings over 15 years of professional human resources experience as an HR business partner in multiple industries, including 12 years in telecommunications. Her expertise includes helping business leaders hire, develop, and grow their leadership teams, shaping organizational cultures, and designing HR practices in support of business plans. Maggie is certified in facilitative leadership, competency-based HR systems, behaviorally based selection, and project management. She is highly regarded for her operational focus and her ability to get results by effectively collaborating with her clients. Maggie has a Master’s Degree in Industrial Relations and published, “Evaluating the HR Function” in HR Magazine.
For the past four years Maggie has utilized her human resources expertise and ability to effectively partner with leaders and teams in a consulting role. Most recently, Maggie brought stability and focus to an organization while in an interim HR director role; redesigned the salary structure for a small organization; successfully recruited for and filled 15 key European leadership positions for a telecommunications company, including a CEO for the European business; and facilitated a teambuilding session which resulted in improved communications and trust for a leadership team.
Before 2001, Maggie spent eight years with Global Crossing (formerly Frontier Corporation), four years with The Pillsbury Company, and began her career working with non-profit organizations. She also spent over three years working in Europe and brings strong international focus to her work with clients.
Maggie serves on the Board of Director’s of the Women’s Foundation of Genesee Valley, an organization that manages an endowment fund to promote women’s economic self-sufficiency.
At Cassara Managment Group, Joe engineers ideas to grow businesses by creating and doing. A true communicator, Mr. Cassara adds value by driving progress across teams. Joe specializes in business development, startups, and bringing clarity and progress to his clients.
Before joining CMGI, Joe spent the last 6 years selling, growing, and managing large accounts for RR Donnelley. Achieving at least double-digit growth each year, Joe was responsible for managing millions of dollars of business in Upstate New York. He brought multiple accounts through successful contract negotiations and extensions, securing long-standing and profitable partnerships for the local team.
Mr. Cassara earned his BS from Syracuse University with a dual degree in Entrepreneurship and International Finance. In his time at Syracuse, Joe earned the Entrepreneur of the Year award for creating a profitable business and selling it back to the University. He was also named a Kauffman Scholar, leading teams to consult startup businesses in the city of Syracuse.
Joe lives in Penfield, NY with his wife and 2 children.
Aimee Eliason is the Business Manager for Cassara Management Group, and has been with the company from its start in 2000. She oversees the day-to-day operations of the company including payroll, accounting, human resources, information technology, customer service, and various office duties.
Aimee has over 15 years of experience in administrative roles, 13 of which were spent at Global Crossing (formerly Frontier). She worked as an Executive Assistant in areas such as customer service, human resources, finance, sales, business development, and carrier services.
Debra Tellstone has over 15 years of telecommunications experience and is currently a Vice President with Cassara Management Group, Inc. (CMGI). Ms. Tellstone joined CMGI in May 2003 and is leading a project team in the development of a business and operational plan for the addition of local telephone service to a client's product portfolio. Ms. Tellstone's areas of focus have included vendor selection, contract negotiation, product development (retail), regulatory support and process development.
Prior to joining CMGI, Ms. Tellstone was the President of Frontier Telephone of Rochester. In that capacity she had profit/loss accountability for her nine-county region, responsibility for all business and residential customer service functions, as well as oversight of all aspects of sales, engineering, construction and maintenance operations for the more than 575,000 access lines within Frontier Telephone's service area. Ms. Tellstone also had responsibility for an annual capital budget that exceeded $119 million and a workforce in excess of 1,600 local employees.
Prior to her promotion to President, she was the Director of Operations for Frontier Telephone. In that role, she was primarily responsible for exceeding New York State-mandated customer service levels as they related to day-to-day network operations for the company. This was accomplished by leading a diverse team to achieve premier performance levels for Hi-Cap and Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS) delivery to customers. Under Ms. Tellstone's leadership, Frontier exceeded objectives for key customer service metrics including service restoration within 24 hours; installation/repair commitments met and speed of answer in Customer Service and Directory Assistance. In addition, Ms. Tellstone played an integral role in building and sustaining a positive working relationship with the leadership and members of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) Local 1170.
Ms. Tellstone began her career with Frontier in 1989 as an operations analyst. After a year she moved to the POTS service bureau where she was staff analyst and then a dispatch foreman. Ms. Tellstone left operations at the end of 1993 to join the Carrier Alliances group where her primary responsibility was negotiation of interconnection agreements for competing carriers. She also helped develop internal processes to support this new aspect of Frontier's business.
In mid-1995 she was promoted to Manager of Carrier Alliances and was responsible for managing Frontier's relationships with CLEC's, IXC's and resellers. She then joined Operator Services in December 1996 as the Business Development Manager and was then promoted to director of Operator Services in July 1997. Her next promotion was to run the entire Operations organization. She assumed that responsibility in July 1998 and then took on the additional responsibility of outside construction for Frontier Telephone in December 1999. Ms.Tellstone continued in that capacity until Frontier was acquired by Citizens Communications in June 2001. She was subsequently promoted to President for her proven leadership abilities and exceptional operational performance.
Ms. Tellstone earned her BA degree in Economics from St. Lawrence University in 1986. Two years later, she earned her MBA degree in Finance and Accounting from the Simon School of Business Administration, at the University of Rochester in Rochester, NY. She lives in Victor, NY with her husband and three children.
