Expert Witness Casework

  1. AT&T Shareholders vs AT&T Corp & CEO [C. Michael Armstrong], CFO [Dan Somers], CTO [John Petrillo] (Sidley, Austin, Brown & Wood) $2.4B – I was paid $100K to research this case and write my opinion in 2004—not inflation-adjusted. You can read the opinion here.
  2. WorldCom Shareholders vs. WorldCom Corp & CEO, Bernie Ebbers (Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle) $6.1B. This was the largest telecom lawsuit in the history of the country.
  3. Global Crossing Shareholders vs Arthur Andersen (Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle) $1B
  4. C2 vs AT&T, Verizon, Level 3, Qwest, Global Crossing, BellSouth, and Sprint-Nextel, [US Patent No. 6,243,373, the seminal patent of VoIP] (Sussman Godfrey, Monts & Ware) $1B
  5. Genuity Bankruptcy Committee vs. Nortel (Lovells) $263M
  6. Qwest vs. Novo, AxisTel, and eVentures (Brownstein, Farber, & Hyatt) $250M
  7. Lucent vs Network Access Solutions (Lowenstein Sandler) $54M
  8. Lucent vs Telephony International (Orrick, Herrington, & Sutcliffe) $50 million
  9. MicroAge vs AT&T Global Network Services, GE Interlogix (Gleaves, Swearington, Potter)
  10. Cogent vs eBroadBandNow (Law office of Byron Fleck)
  11. TKTel vs Ericsson (Altman & Company)
  12. La Touraine vs Navisite
  13. Laci & Scott Peterson murder trial

Consulting Experience

  1. Advised Adobe Systems for their data center facilities and eCommerce platforms prior to executive committee decisions. You can read the opinion here.
  2. Advised United Airlines on their $100M global internet and telecommunications expansion.
  3. Advised Verizon and Arbinet, and paid for Arbinet’s initial four Cisco AS5300 gateways ($100K not inflation adjusted), to facilitate their first VoIP-orginated trials, and together we effectively globalized Voice over IP.
  4. Advised Microsoft on the integration of the first VoIP client internally embedded into a computer operating system.
  5. Advised Genuity of the patent requirement for the system of establishing the availability of an internet gateway port to receive a VoIP call [US Patent 6940849].
  6. Advised Lucent on a patent co-op with the University of Paris for a $5 million technology share of the g.729 codec.
  7. Expert Witness to Federal Courts, and State Superior Courts in over $7 billion of financial exposure related to telecommunications and internetworking; including being retained for the defense of the CEO, CTO, and CFO of AT&T in the largest telecom lawsuit in the USA since the divestiture of the Bell Companies.

Career Team Awards

  1. Digital Island was named the “Most Innovative Service Provider of the Year” in Network Computing for the year 2000 by CMP Media.
  2. Data Communications Magazine: “Data Communications’ Hot Products Award,” announced in the January 1998 issue, for our new Managed Bandwidth Service. The Hot Products Award acknowledges “The Brightest Ideas in Networking.”
  3. Computerworld magazine selected Digital Island as one of 100 Emerging Companies to Watch in 2000, awarding its e-Network Services’ innovative approach to enabling e-Business for Fortune 1,000 corporations.
  4. Internet World Industry Awards, Industry Access Services Category, 1998. “The Best Service Enabling Internet or Intranet Functions Beyond Basic Connectivity.” Examples of services measured included website hosting and transaction processing.
  5. Dialpad was awarded Internet Telephony Magazine’s “Product of the Year Award.” Internet Telephony’s Product of the Year Award is presented to companies whose products exemplify innovation, a commitment to quality, and have had a significant impact on moving the IP-based telecommunications industry forward.
  6. Dialpad was named the “Best Internet Telephony Site for 2001” by Yahoo! Internet Life.
  7. Dialpad was ranked “Number One in Internet Telephony Traffic” by Nielsen Net Ranking.
  8. Dialpad maintains “Number One Ranking Among VoIP Service Traffic,” according to Frost & Sullivan.
  9. Dialpad Communications was named the “Best of Show” winner at the 2001 Internet Telephony Conference & Expo.
  10. ITU ranks Dialpad Communications “Market Share Leader” among VoIP carriers.
  11. Dialpad was awarded Internet Telephony Magazine’s “Product of the Year” award for 2000.
  12. Awarded by Cisco Systems as their 2011 Global Service Provider Partner of the Year.

Federal, State, Telecommunications, and InterExchange Carrier (IXC) Licenses

  1. Cisco Certified Network Asssociate (CCNA)
  2. Feature Group D (FGD) Carrier Identification Code (CIC): 1225
  3. ACNA: YMN
  4. FCC 499 ID: 824344
  5. FCC 214
  6. HAM Radio Technicians license: KZ7MAX
  7. Real Estate Broker, State of California, 1990, which required 8 college courses.

Most notably, I have contributed in senior leadership roles with many others who together accomplished what became 15 prominent internet milestones:

  1. In 2001, we provisioned and managed the network operations for the fastest-growing web portal for 10 million subscribers in internet history, faster than Yahoo! and AOL combined.
  2. In 2001, we provided the telecom operations for the first 1 billion minutes originated using Voice over IP (VoIP) worldwide, two years prior to the founding of Vonage and Skype.
  4. In 1996, I co-founded Digital Island, an international telecommunications company, where I was responsible for acquiring the network infrastructure that connected 95% of the regionally significant ISPs and internet users together, worldwide, seamlessly over one autonomous network, for the effective globalization of the internet, web, and eCommerce.
  5. In 1997, I initiated communications with the Minister of Telecom for China (Professor Xing Li, Tsinghua University) and then traveled to Beijing to negotiate and contract for the first internet peering with the People’s Republic of China.
  6. In 1996, I negotiated and signed a service contract with Cisco Systems to host Cisco.com, when they were the 587th largest company in the USA. Three years later, in 1999, they became the most valuable company in the world just 15 years after their inception and while employing our network to scale and support their meteoric growth.
  7. In 1997, we enabled the globalization of eCommerce with VISA, MasterCard, eTrade, and Charles Schwab.
  8. In 1997, we enable the globalization of eLearning and ePublishing with Stanford University.
  9. In 1997, we developed the network platform that made possible the first global Content Delivery Network (CDN), also known as Local Content Manager, two years prior to the founding of Akamai.
  10. In 1998, we enabled the globalization of Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) with the industry’s first on-demand allocation of bandwidth over the internet, Resource Reservation Protocol (aka RSVP).
  11. In 1999, we built the largest media streaming network in the world, partnering together with Microsoft, Compaq, and Intel.
  12. In 1998, we provided the internet services platform that Google’s founders used for upstream ISP connections to build the first repository of Google search results while they were graduate school students at Stanford University in 1998 (google.stanford.edu).
  13. In 1998, Cisco Systems honored the global network I acquired with the award for building the world’s first “Cisco Powered Network.” This designation is now an industry benchmark.
  14. In 2001, we provided the platform integration infrastructure to Microsoft for the first unified communications (UC) telephony application embedded internally within a computer operating system (Windows XP SIP VoIP client).
  15. In 1995, I created one of the world’s first 7,000 websites (perfectwheels.com). At the time, with 7 billion people on the planet, that equates to being 1 website owner per 1 million people.

Customer Aquisitions (partial list)

Over 900 customers included the following enterprises: Cisco Systems, Stanford University, Microsoft, Adobe Systems, Visa, Intel, Compaq, Hewlett Packard, E*Trade, Charles Schwab, Novell, National Semiconductor, MasterCard, Sun Microsystems, Google, NetGravity, Canon, Universal Music Group, Digital River, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Fox Broadcasting, ZDnet, Reuters, Kenneth Cole, MSNBC, Major League Baseball, Time Warner-Road Runner, AOL, Chevron, AAA, US Steel, Bank of America, Coors Brewing, Target, McDonalds, McKesson, Discovery Channel, Royal Dutch Shell, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, ADP, Nordstrom, Nike Air Jordan, Jeep-Chrysler, Marriott Hotels, Ritz Carlton, Akamai, United Airlines, WorldCom, AT&T, Lucent, Global Crossing, Arthur Anderson, Qwest, Genuity, Level 3, AAA, and Costco.

Appendix: The Work Experiences That Led to the Start-up

This section details the university and professional experiences that uniquely qualified me to co-found Digital Island and contribute to the internet’s globalization through its infrastructure and service development.

The narratives and documents shared within my book focus on building the physical infrastructure of the Internet and the Web—not the software protocols. This was a deeply human experience and endeavor.

The included materials highlight key areas: network architecture, product development, financial modeling, customer acquisition, contract negotiation, facility procurement, venture capital raising, infrastructure provisioning, and recruiting highly specialized talent.

Before 1996, I never imagined traveling the world to introduce, propose, strategize, evangelize, contract, procure, and finance hundreds of millions for internet infrastructure development. It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to expand human communication and electronic media globally. Though the internet and web software protocol stacks were free, billions of dollars were needed to network this technology across all continents.

Four significant and independent factors uniquely qualified me for this role in a theoretical, nascent, technical, speculative, and opportunistic field. These are the four experiences I relied upon when choosing a career path to contribute to Digital Island’s development and our efforts to globalize the internet:

#1. My University Education In 1981, I chose a Bachelor of Science degree in Production, Operations, and Systems Management. This newly developed program, offered by only 11 out of 4,000 universities nationwide, was a rare opportunity to study an emergent curriculum designed to bridge business and engineering teams. This educational experience perfectly aligned with our vision to establish a business utilizing emerging technologies to connect the world.

#2. Commercial Real Estate Expertise From 1986–1993, I worked as a commercial real estate broker and business park developer, specializing in speculative industrial buildings—precisely the type used for data centers. This expertise proved invaluable in acquiring data centers and colocation infrastructure for our global network, as I negotiated contracts for these facilities worldwide on behalf of Digital Island.

These tasks demanded a deep understanding of construction costs (e.g., steel-reinforced concrete), specialized infrastructure (halon fire suppression, high-capacity amperage, air conditioning), interior office improvements, and legally binding contract terms. My first-hand knowledge in acquiring data centers and office space directly translated into significant value.

Building on this trust, Digital Island’s CEO, CFO, CTO, and CLO granted me “carte blanche” to negotiate all legal terms, conditions, and budgets for infrastructure contracts. Throughout my tenure, hundreds of millions of dollars in infrastructure contracts never required peer review of my legal terms, consents, financial oversight, spending limits, or budgets. As a licensed real estate broker and a subject matter expert on contract language and material costs, I navigated the unique financial and legal paradigms of every global market our network reached.

Below is a picture of a business park I started developing in 1990 after negotiating the purchase of the then-vacant 162-acre parcel from US Steel.

Below is a picture of the Harvest Business Park in Brentwood, CA. I started developing this park in 1987, when it was a 73-acre tomato field.

#3. Telecommunications Training After transitioning from commercial real estate in 1994, I received state-of-the-art telecommunications training from Sprint, PacBell, and SelectNet. This experience provided me with a clear understanding of emerging opportunities for connecting computer networks. From these telecom roles, I gained the ability to architect infrastructure, financially model investment opportunities, and negotiate the legal terms of our contracts, service agreements, and customer QoS metrics.

#4. Early eCommerce Entrepreneurship In 1995, I launched an online business, perfectwheels.com, from my home and garage. It quickly outgrew my residential space and transitioned into a brick-and-mortar distribution business, which I later sold to my largest customer, Universal Cycles, after Digital Island was funded. This early website, heavily reliant on images, exemplified the struggles of dial-up internet—as the industry colloquialism put it, “trying to suck a grapefruit through a straw.” Perfect Wheels even became a Smart Valley case study for launching an eCommerce business.

 

At the end of 1995, only 23,000 websites existed globally for 7 billion people, with just 7,000 of those being non-“adult-themed” content. This made me a 1-in-a-million website owner-operator at the start of 1996 (or 1 website per million people). While today, there’s roughly 1 website for every 8 people (a 43,500x increase in 28 years), my 1995 experience provided invaluable knowledge of electronic media and eCommerce’s future potential. However, it also revealed the internet’s severe limitations: it was often unusable due to connectivity drops and timeouts. Global adoption hinged entirely on provisioning adequate physical infrastructure, an undertaking that seemed to demand a miracle given the inadequate investment at the time.

From graduating college in 1984 to co-founding Digital Island in 1996, these four contributing factors instilled in me the confidence to acquire the infrastructure for building a global network. While thousands possessed individual elements—telecom networking expertise, identical education, commercial real estate experience, or eCommerce website ownership—it was highly unlikely in 1996 that anyone else on Earth combined all four factors to the same extent as I did. In hindsight, I don’t believe I could have achieved this entrepreneurial feat without any one of these unique experiences.

Leading the internet’s globalization required not only understanding technological and economic challenges and proposing solutions, but also articulating investment strategy, negotiating all legal terms for infrastructure contracts, and calculating accurate financials. As head of the company’s most expensive cost center, this high-visibility role demanded precise financial representations for the CFO, executive team, board, venture capitalists, the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC), and Wall Street. This rare blend of educational and professional knowledge uniquely prepared me to grasp the business case for globalizing internet services and communicate effectively with customers, carriers, analysts, and investors worldwide.

Crucially, I was the first to take the immense risk of resigning from my employment to co-found this startup, driven by an unparalleled desire to make the globalization of the internet a reality.