Christopher R. McCleary
President & Chief Executive Officer
Christopher R. McCleary serves as the chief executive officer for XOS Digital, Inc., a highly influential new media company with a client base that is representative of an 80 percent market share among BCS schools, the NFL, the NBA and the NHL, to name a few.
As CEO, McCleary is responsible for driving the performance of the company's three core product lines - XOS Digital Media Services, XOS Digital Coaching Technologies and XOS Integrated Solutions Group. He also leads the continued expansion of the SEC Digital Network, which launched in August 2009, as well as other initiatives coming out of the company's dual headquarters in Boston and Orlando.
McCleary's background includes experience within the areas of technology, software, online media and broadcast. More specifically, he has held several senior executive positions including partner at Blue Chip Venture Company, chairman of Radware, Ltd., founder and CEO of Evergreen Assurance, Inc. and USinternetworking, Inc., CEO of Digex, Inc., president of Radiation Systems, Inc., vice president of American Mobile Satellite Corporation, and vice president and CFO of United Cable Television Corporation's Broadcast Division.
McCleary also has held board of director positions in various capacities for 15 public and private corporations with both a domestic and global reach. In addition, he was awarded with the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year title for technology services in the Mid-Atlantic, as well as the Washington Post/Newsweek Corporate Citizen of the Year Award.
He earned his bachelor's degree in general studies from the University of Kentucky in Lexington and currently resides in Annapolis, Md. with his wife and four children.
Randy Eccker
Founder & Executive Chairman
Randy Eccker serves as the co-founder and executive chairman of the board for XOS Digital, Inc., a highly influential new media company with a client base that is representative of an 80 percent market share among BCS schools, the NFL, the NBA and the NHL, to name a few.
He initially helped establish XOS in 1999, bringing with him nine years of experience as a Division I basketball coach and more than 14 years of sports-technology knowledge, where he helped coaches and athletic programs leverage new technologies.
Since then, his unique combination of sports and high-tech acumen has helped bring XOS to the forefront as an industry leader through a series of strategic new-media acquisitions including L3 Digital in 2003 and New Media Networks the following year.
As a result of these key acquisitions, Eccker positioned the company to develop video exchange and streaming services for its expansive customer base. In addition, the company established the XOS Network business unit, providing the collegiate market with additional revenue generating opportunities via the Network's interactive multimedia Web portals. The success of the XOS Network eventually led to a $60 million sale in 2007, largely orchestrated by Eccker.
Since then, Eccker played a pivotal role in restructuring XOS, leveraging its industry leading market share, and new media and technology expertise to become the leading digital asset management business for college athletics.
As part of the company's infrastructure overhaul, Eccker turned a strategic alliance with Collegiate Images up a notch, culminating in the 2008 acquisition of the centralized licensing and rights clearance agency. As a result, XOS could manage the distribution of archived moving and still images for colleges, universities, conferences, bowl games and broadcast rights holders.
Today, as executive chairman, Eccker continues to play a critical role in driving the strategic vision of the company, in maintaining key customer and partner relationships, and in providing strategic counsel, conceptualization and implementation leadership for many of the business' most groundbreaking initiatives.
Recent initiatives include the XOS Vault digital asset management system and the high-profile SEC Digital Network (inclusive of SEC Sports Mobile). These revolutionary technologies and platforms have changed the way teams and conferences manage their valuable assets, and enables them to extend their reach to more fans than ever before through the XOS Digital Syndication Platform. These initiatives, among many others, wouldn’t be possible without the team of 150 people that Eccker leads daily.
In addition to XOS, Eccker has helped establish several other companies in the sports-technology industry including Sports Tech in the late '80s and Avid Sports in 1994. He also has experience managing the Omaha Racers of the Continental Basketball Association in the early '90s and as a managing director of EBCO Capital from 1991 to 2000.
Additionally, Eccker has served as an NBA scout and a sports broadcaster on both TV and radio having worked as an analyst and as a co-host on a sports-talk radio show for 10 years in the Omaha market.
Eccker transitioned from coaching to the media business with a stint at Sports Video Productions, a sports production company that managed the production of several regional sporting events including Nebraska football and basketball, Creighton basketball and all of the schools’ coaches' shows.
Today, Eccker is constantly introduced to the latest technology offerings and, along with his XOS team, continues to successfully adapt them for the sports market.
As an alumnus of Creighton University in Omaha, Neb., Eccker is a member of the Creighton Athletic Hall of Fame, and currently resides in Omaha with his wife Theresa and four daughters - Mallory, Allison, Kelsey and Kiley.
Dan Aton
Founder & Chief Innovation Officer
Dan Aton is an audio/visual and digital technology professional with more than 20 years of experience within the sports technology industry. In 1997, the Orlando Magic called upon him to design and integrate a customized solution for the team's new facility including a video room, interoffice connectivity and Smart Board technology.
After working closely with the Magic, Aton identified a need across the sports market for integrated digital and video editing solutions. As a result he founded XOS Digital, Inc. in 1999 (known at that time as XOS Technologies, Inc.) along with partner Randy Eccker.
In addition to his role as co-founder, Aton also served as president of XOS for seven years. During that time, he was charged with planning, designing and integrating XOS products. Now as the company's CIO, his main responsibility is to conceptualize future technologies and new solution-based applications that will meet the needs of the market.
Prior to co-founding XOS, Aton served as the director of sales engineering at Southwestern Communications, a Fla.-based audio/visual systems integrator.
Presently, he is a member of TEC International, an international organization of nearly 8,000 CEOs and company presidents who are committed to growing their companies and helping each other achieve success.
Gregg G. Brandon
Vice President & General Counsel
Gregg G. Brandon serves as the vice president and general counsel for XOS Digital, Inc. In his role, he oversees all legal matters and is responsible for drafting all license and partner agreements. He also provides counsel to the company's partners in regard to protecting and enforcing their IP rights, as well as advising the company's board and senior management team on all legal issues.
Brandon joined XOS after the company's 2008 acquisition of Collegiate Images (CI), where he had served in a similar capacity since 2007. Before his time at CI, Brandon's practice focused on intellectual property counseling and litigation with experience in copyright, trademark, trade dress, trade secret, patent, counterfeiting, cybersquatting, unfair competition and misuse of intellectual property on the Internet.
In addition, he accrued more than seven years of media intellectual property (IP) experience with the law firms of Akerman Senterfitt and Howrey LLP. During that time, Brandon served as the primary contact for several firm clients and regularly counseled them on intellectual property enforcement and transactional matters, commercial transactions and litigation strategies.
Brandon has extensive knowledge in drafting and revising license agreements, drafting cease and desist letters, implementing filing and licensing strategies to clear and police IP rights, and enforcing those IP rights in various proceedings including the representation of clients both in federal and state courts, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, as well as prosecuting domain name disputes before ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers). In addition to his intellectual property experience, Brandon has handled a variety of commercial, employment, contract, tort, antitrust and corporate matters.
Brandon is currently admitted to practice law in Florida and Texas and is also in good standing to appear before several Federal Courts. He received his law degree from Syracuse University College of Law where he was a recipient of the Corporate Council Certificate. In addition, he received his bachelor's degree from the University of Miami in Florida where he majored in marketing and sports administration.
Steve Quinn
Senior Vice President & Chief Technology Officer
As the CTO for XOS Digital, Inc., Steve Quinn provides technical guidance for senior management and all of the XOS engineering teams. His deep and wide knowledge of data storage, distributed systems, networking, video editing, streaming media and video formats serves the digital media company well.
Before joining XOS, Quinn held several key technical positions at Avid Technology. His background includes such roles as the chief architect, and director of architecture and design for Avid's Video Division where he lead a team of architects responsible for the design of Avid's shared storage systems (ISIS/Unity), content management solution (Interplay) and video editing product suite (Media Composer/News Cutter).
During that time he helped enable Avid's leading position in broadcast content management and networked video solutions by designing and championing their first IP based video networks built on the Unity shared storage system.
He even helped form Avid Sports in the late '90s, and designed its initial IP-based video solutions for networking both video and meta-data to coaches' offices.
Quinn is an alumnus of Purdue University where he received his bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering in 1985. He currently resides in Portsmouth, N.H. with his wife Donna and his son Joshua.
Bob Simmons
President - Digital Coaching Technologies
As president, Bob Simmons oversees operations for the company's Digital Coaching Technologies products. He also introduces new concepts and products to the marketplace, and has played a valuable role in building strategic partnerships for XOS Digital.
Prior to joining XOS, he served as executive vice president and co-founder of Avid Sports, Inc. a division of Avid Technology, which specializes in supplying sports information systems to the professional and collegiate marketplace. While at Avid Sports, Simmons was responsible for worldwide sales, service and marketing and successfully grew the company from 14 employees to 100 employees.
Before founding Avid Sports, Simmons was the director of sales for Avid Technology where he was responsible for worldwide revenue of the Desktop Division and successfully established the European channel.
He is an alumnus of Springfield College in Springfield, Mass., where he earned his bachelor of science degree.
Mark Hudgins
President - Integrated Solutions Group
Mark Hudgins serves as the president of XOS Digital's founding product line - the Integrated Solutions Group. He joined XOS Digital, Inc. during the first year of its establishment (as XOS Technologies, Inc.) in November of 1999, and oversaw all operations for (what was then) the small start-up company.
However, as XOS grew, so did Hudgins' role within the company. He soon became the company's controller in 2000. Two years later he was promoted to director of operations, where he managed the audiovisual installations division (former Facilities Design & Integration division), video analysis installation team, manufacturing, purchasing, warehouse operations and customer support team.
In 2004, Hudgins was again promoted - this time to vice president of operations, where he managed all operational aspects for the entire company. During his operational oversight, XOS acquired five companies which provided Hudgins with the responsibility of integrating new employees, processes and technology.
In 2005, XOS senior management decided to capitalize on the rapid construction pace of sports facilities, arenas and practice facilities. Therefore, the company placed a greater focus on its Facilities Design & Integration (FDI) division. Additionally, Hudgins was named as the vice president and general manager of FDI and was tasked with growing it.
Under his management, FDI grew substantially during the last 5 years and made the transition from an A/V systems integrator to a provider of integration, professional design services, experiential design & integration and customized product development (including the Instant Replay system used by the PAC 10, Big 12 and many other conferences).
As XOS Digital enters its 11
th year in 2010, its FDI division has transformed once again, and no longer remains as a division but rather as a product line known as Integrated Solutions Group - of which Hudgins serves as president.
Hudgins earned his bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of Central Florida, and currently resides in Orlando, Fla.
Jack Lengyel
Vice President of Business Development
Jack Lengyel has had a long and distinguished career in collegiate athletics. He began his career as the freshman football coach at his alma mater, Akron University, and has been involved with intercollegiate athletics since 1957. Lengyel's diverse career has taken him from the gridiron to the administrative ranks to the private sector.
Lengyel served as assistant football coach at Akron (1959), Heidelberg College (1961-62) and Cornell (1963-65). He was named head football and lacrosse coach at the College of Wooster in 1966 and remained there for four years. However, his greatest task and achievement as a coach occurred between 1971 and 1974, the time he served as head football coach at Marshall University. While coaching at Marshall, he rebuilt the football program and community after a tragic airline crash involving the entire team. A few years ago, Warner Brothers released the movie "We Are Marshall" starring Mathew McConaughey in the role of Coach Jack Lengyel.
After three years in the private sector at Gamble Brothers, Lengyel moved into the intercollegiate athletics administrative ranks as the associate director of athletics at Louisville (1980) and the University of Missouri (1981-84). Following his stint at Mizzou, he was named the director of athletics at Fresno State, which won the men's basketball NIT Championship in 1984. Lengyel returned to Columbia, MO as the University of Missouri's director of athletics in 1986.
Following his three-year stay at Missouri, he was named as the director of athletics at the United States Naval Academy. Lengyel remained at Navy for 14 years from 1988 - 2001, oversaw a 30-sport athletics department and was responsible for new construction and renovations of major sports facilities. During his tenure at Navy, Lengyel received a Lifetime Service Award from the Annapolis Touchdown Club (2001), was appointed to the U.S. Naval Academy Foundation Board of Trustees (2001) and had the athletic training facility named in his honor.
Following his retirement from Navy, Lengyel has been active as a consultant and serving in leadership positions in various community and professional organizations. He has served as the interim athletics director at Temple University, Eastern Kentucky University and the University of Colorado providing leadership and stability through the administrative transition. Lengyel has used his vast experience to provide strategic operational reviews and analysis for Towson State, Northern Arizona University and Texas State University at San Marcos.
Active professionally and within the community, Lengyel has served in leaderships positions in the National Association of College Directors of America (NACDA), the Division I-A Director of Athletics Association, the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame, the United States Sports Academy, the College Football Association and the NCAA Committee Membership to just name a few.
Among the honors and awards presented to Lengyel during his illustrious career include the John L. Toner Award (2005) presented by the National Football Foundation; The Homer Rice Award (2005) presented by the Division I-A Athletic Director's, and NACDA's James J. Corbett Award (2001) to just name a few of Mr. Lengyel's honors.
Lengyel holds a master of education degree from Kent State University, and earned a bachelor of science degree from Akron University in 1957.
Ray Thompson
Senior Vice President of Business Development
As the senior vice president of business development for XOS Digital, Inc., Ray Thompson focuses on cultivating new product and partner initiatives. One of his largest projects dates back to his addition to XOS in 2005, when he oversaw the XOS Thunder digital video editing product line for all sports. Along with XOS Thunder, Thompson plays an integral role with the development of the company's XOS VaultTM technology - which powers the high-profile SEC Digital Network.
As a veteran of the Non-Linear and sports editing space, Thompson has worked in the industry for 15 years. He initially started his career at Avid Technology and later became a co-founder of AvidSports. During his time there, he was a big contributor to the brand and helped build awareness for it as the leading sports video editing company. Ultimately, his efforts resulted in its sale in June 2000.
Thompson soon became the product marketing manager for ATI, and managed the development of the R400 graphics chip which currently handles all the graphics processing in the XBOX360. He then moved on to EMC where he helped bring asset management into the production world along with Gorilla Technologies creating an enterprise-wide solution for the ingest/management/preservation/
monetization of current and historical archives at leading broadcast companies.
Thompson earned his master's degree with a High Tech MBA from Clark University in 2006. He earned his bachelor of science degree from Emerson College in 1992.
Pete Balkus
Senior Vice President of Engineering & Operations
As the senior vice president of engineering and operations for XOS Digital, Inc., Pete Balkus is responsible for the production of the company's nearly 50 existing product offerings and the development of emerging technology applications.
A broadcast industry veteran, Balkus has expertise in developing and deploying mission critical network-based video solutions. He has a track record for forming and leading organizations that have successfully taken multiple innovative products from concept through development and onward to market success. In addition to his technical skills, he also has strong business acumen that enables him to contribute to the overall success of a business beyond that of an engineering role.
Prior to joining XOS, Balkus served as the vice president of product development for WSI's Media division, developing weather-driven business solutions with innovative products, services and software to satisfy the professional weather needs of broadcast and aviation customers worldwide.
Before his time at WSI, he also served as the vice president of product development and as business unit manager for Pinnacle Systems' Broadcast News team, developing high availability video workgroup solutions for customers such as CNN and Time Warner, in addition to other broadcasters globally. Upon Avid's acquisition of Pinnacle Systems, Balkus became a "worldwide workgroup solution" architect working alongside the company's CTO.
Before joining Pinnacle Systems, Balkus served as the vice president of product development at Avid Technology, developing network based workgroup and storage products for Avid's broadcast, Internet streaming and video-on-demand markets. He also has held key engineering management positions in PictureTel's Network Systems division, Digital Equipment Corporation and GenRad.
Balkus holds a bachelor of science degree in computer science from Boston University.
John Christie
Executive Vice President & General Manager, SEC Digital Network
As the EVP for content partnership at XOS Digital, Inc., John Christie oversees the national partner relations team to ensure that all of its college rights holders needs are met efficiently. Additionally, he manages XOS Digital's growth by cultivating relationships with content rights holders and existing partners.
Recently he took on an additional title as the general manager for the SEC Digital Network, and managed its promotional initiatives, its launch in conjunction with the new www.SECSports.com and mobile applications, and program production. He also serves as liaison between SEC management, XOS executives and production, programming, technology and sales teams.
In addition, Christie manages the Digital Network's content relationships between the Conference and its 12-member school athletics programs - the University of Alabama, the University of Arkansas, Auburn University, the University of Florida, the University of Georgia, the University of Kentucky, Louisiana State University, Mississippi State University, the University of Mississippi, the University of South Carolina, the University of Tennessee and Vanderbilt University.
He also provides strategic oversight for all of the SEC Digital Network's "mission critical" functions, which include a Conference-wide internship program, Web portal development (www.SECSports.com), digitization, production, programming and distribution of exclusive SEC content.
Prior to joining XOS Digital, Christie served as the executive vice president of business operations and partner relations for Collegiate Images (CI), which was acquired by XOS Digital in 2008. During his time at CI, he developed key relationships with conference commissioners, bowl executives and hundreds of athletic administrators. He also played a large role in recruiting key members of CI's executive staff.
Before his time at CI, Christie served as the vice president of university services for Collegiate Licensing Company (CLC), starting in 1997 as its northeast territory account representative and working his way up. In his role with CLC, he was responsible for overseeing the management of all university and conference member licensing programs, including marketing, trademark enforcement, account management and local/restricted licensing.
He joined CLC after working for the University of Arizona's Athletic Department for more than seven years. At Arizona, he was involved in external relations activities, including fund development, marketing, priority seating and sponsorship sales.
Throughout his career, and particularly for CLC, CI and now XOS, he has served as a sports media spokesperson on a wide variety of issues and has made innumerable industry presentations on several licensing (content and trademark) topics at key industry conferences and events.
As a graduate of the University of Arizona, he holds a master's degree in athletic administration and a bachelor's degree in history. He has been involved in the Big Brothers/Big Sisters program since 1992, and is involved in a variety of additional community outreach programs. He and his wife, Julie, and his two children, Madison and Jackson, reside in Marietta, Ga. Christie, however, divides his time working in Birmingham alongside the SEC and visiting other XOS content partners around the country.
Rich Routman
Senior Vice President - Digital Media Services
As the senior vice president of Digital Media Services for XOS Digital, Inc., Rich Routman oversees all of the company's online ad sales, strategic business partnerships and distribution of media assets across multiple platforms. Most recently he spearheaded the launch of the company's sports syndication platform, an innovative new marketing platform for online advertisers looking to connect with the digital sports audience through branded video content.
XOS Digital's sports syndication platform has hundreds of participating portals and multimedia partners, boasting more than 40 million unique page views on a monthly basis. Prior to his time at XOS, Routman worked for Collegiate Images (CI), dating back to 2003. While there, Routman played a significant role in the company's success, realizing approximately 300 percent revenue growth during his tenure.
The company was acquired by XOS in 2008, bringing Routman and his digital advertising experience along with it. Prior to joining CI more than five years ago, he worked at the National Football League Corporate Office where his primary responsibilities included: (i) contract negotiation and approval for NFL New Media, Pro-Bowl, Super Bowl talent and team executive employees, (ii) the launch of NFL Network Services LLC, parent company to the NFL Network and (iii) the League's minority hiring practices.
Routman also has an extensive legal background after spending more than two years in mergers and acquisition at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP in New York City, the first law firm to exceed $1 billion in annual revenue. Routman's volunteer endeavors include mentoring with Future Possibilities, a non-profit organization that delivers life skills coaching and personal development programs to children ages 7-12.
He also has more than 12 years of experience with the Special Olympics in South Florida. Born in New York City, Routman relocated to Gainesville, Fla. to attend the University of Florida, where he earned a bachelor's degree in business. He currently resides with his wife, Jennifer, and sons, Matthew and James, in Boca Raton, Fla.
Albert Tsai
Vice President of Advanced Research & Development
As the vice president of advanced research and development, Albert Tsai conducts extensive market analysis to determine and predict future trends in sports digital media. His main role at XOS involves conceptualizing sports products based on emerging technologies and laying the foundation for the development of upcoming product lines.
Tsai has worked in the sports technology industry since 2000 when he joined Knowledge, Inc., the first company to develop interactive digital playbooks for football. Since that time, Tsai has served in a variety of significant roles, varying from engineering and sales to support and product marketing, for many of the products still being sold and used today.
While in college, Tsai conducted advanced graduate work and earned a bachelor of science degree in computer science from the University of Illinois in Urbana. He currently resides in Chicago, Ill. with his wife and children.
Matt Bairos
Vice President of Products & Services
Matthew Bairos serves as vice president of products and services for the Digital Coaching Technologies solution group at XOS Digital, Inc.His main responsibilities include overseeing the daily operations of partner support, manufacturing and product management. His team is responsible for defining, building, deploying and supporting an enhanced extension of the company's Digital Coaching Technologies product line.
Bairos originally joined XOS in 2005 as the company's director of product marketing, where he managed product promotion through strategic planning and tactical execution. He specified market requirements for all coaching products by conducting market research supported by on-going visits to XOS sports partners. In addition, he developed and implemented a company-wide market plan, and evaluated potential partner relationships for products.
Prior to his time at XOS, he worked as a client services manager for Pinnacle Systems, a $340 million global provider of digital video editing software and network solutions. While there, Bairos managed client service specialists in the Enterprise Division. His team had a broad scope of responsibilities, which he lead and oversaw daily, including product training, sales engineering, product installation and customer support.
Bairos earned his bachelor of science degree in education from Salem State College in Salem, Mass. and currently resides in Boston.
Dave Almstead
Executive Vice President of Digital Operations
Dave Almstead serves as the executive vice president of digital operations at XOS Digital, Inc. As such, he is responsible for the daily operations associated with the company's Digital Media Services product line including original programming, licensing fulfillment, ingest services and game-day operations.
Prior to his time at XOS, Almstead served as a senior vice president of rights acquisition on the management team that developed Fox Sports Network. While there he managed the acquisition and contracting of collegiate sports telecast rights for distribution on Fox Sports national and regional networks. In addition, he developed and maintained lasting relationships with senior collegiate athletic administrators and decision-makers. He also represented Fox partnership interest in Canadian sports networks and oversaw a variety of complex projects.
Almstead also worked as a vice president and general manager for Comcast. While there, he was responsible for the start up, development and management of a regional sports, events and the entertainment cable network "
Comcast Local." Under his leadership, the network was launched within 90 days to 900,000 Comcast subscribers and reached 2.1 million in less than a year.
Overall, Almstead's expertise includes rights negotiation and acquisition, new business development, creation of strategic alliances, contract negotiations and oversight, and profit and loss management.
In his personal realm, he is a Governor's appointee to the Florida Sports Foundation and has been on the Board of Directors since 1992.
Almstead earned his bachelor of science degree from Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, Ohio. He and his wife Wendy have three children – Keri Kae, Cashen and Drew – and currently reside in Orlando, Fla.