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ExecutiveBiz: What is your background?
Mike Keenan:
I've been building, managing and investing in businesses for more than thirty years. Upon graduating from college with a business degree from the University of Colorado, I returned to my home in Northern Virginia to build a heating and air conditioning company. I started with a truck and one technician, myself. Over the years I grew it into the leading HVAC service company in the suburban metropolitan Washington, D.C. area. In 1996, I got a deal I couldn't refuse and I sold the business into a Wall Street roll-up of the HVAC industry. In 1998, I identified my next venture. I joined with a talented team to create a non-facilities based broadband communications start-up with a unique business model, which we named Global Internetworking.
ExecutiveBiz: What does your company do?
Mike Keenan:
Global Internetworking is a knowledge-based network solutions provider that locates, procures, manages and integrates broadband networks for our customers. Our mission is to find solutions that are more cost efficient, flexible, and more rapidly and dependably implemented than competitors. We use our proprietary databases and network design software to build solutions around customer requirements, not around a legacy network infrastructure.
Historically, our customers have been sophisticated wholesale buyers: RBOCs, foreign carriers, CLECs, and other service providers. Recently, we have begun to leverage our wholesale expertise, intellectual property and regulatory status to serve enterprise customers. For example, Airbus North America recently selected us to design and manage their high-capacity, Ethernet over SONET WAN.
ExecutiveBiz: What sets your company apart?
Mike Keenan:
We are a knowledge-based, not a facilities-based, telecom provider.
We do not have the typical bias of a traditional carrier that tries to force customer solutions onto its existing network. We maintain a database of tens of thousands of network points of presence, representing the cumulative network assets of hundreds of U.S. and international carriers. We have integrated this data into software that can identify multiple solutions for each customer requirement. Because we do not ourselves own the broadband fiber, we have the freedom to build our solutions the best way using the most logical fiber configurations end-to-end.
We have a customer service based culture. We treat every customer like they were our only customer and we make it easy for customers to do business with us. A customer gets one bill, one contract, one entity to hold responsible for making sure their services, which inevitably involve multiple carrier networks, work 24/7/365
ExecutiveBiz: What are the trends you are following?
Mike Keenan:
We are paying particular attention to the changing landscape in the telecom industry and what that means for enterprise customers. We believe that enterprise customers are going to be increasingly diligent in finding flexible solutions to lower their costs and embrace companies that can implement them.
ExecutiveBiz: Who are some of your customers?
Mike Keenan:
A representative, but abbreviated, list would include:
- Airbus North America
- Comsat International
- Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA)
- Equant
- Honeywell
- Intelsat
- Orbital Sciences
- Primus
- and the U.S. Navy
ExecutiveBiz: What is something most people don't know about you?
Mike Keenan:
I love skiing and travel. Growing up a military brat I spent my youth living in England, Germany, Italy and North Africa.
For more information about
Global Internetworking, visit
www.globalinternetworking.com.
Interview with Mike Keenan conducted by JD Kathuria.
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