Rory J. Cutaia
Founder, President & Chief Executive Officer, Chairman of the Board
Rory J. Cutaia began his career as an attorney at a major NYC law firm, representing world renowned entrepreneurs. With that background, Mr. Cutaia left the practice of law and set out to change the landscape of the telecom industry through a tech company start-up he founded called Telx. Telx went on to become the internationally recognized leader in the data center sector and still the de facto standard by which the world’s telecom carriers interconnect with one another. Mr. Cutaia assembled a top management team and over the course of only 6 years, took the business from a start-up to a successful sale and liquidity event priced at more than $215 million in cash, returning 18x invested capital to early investors.
As Founder, President, CEO and Chairman of Telx, Mr. Cutaia provided the vision for the Company’s strategic goals and objectives. Operating the business like a public reporting company, he created the processes by which he and his management team crafted the Company’s business plan, and then led the Company through its virtually flawless execution. He personally identified, negotiated and oversaw the successful integration of acquisitions, while at the same time engineered and implemented the policies, procedures, and processes that drove double digit organic growth, year over year. A truly hands-on CEO, Mr. Cutaia built a sales team, a marketing team, as well as technical support, customer satisfaction, HR, and finance departments. By employing new and innovative marketing strategies, Mr. Cutaia drove revenue, beat EBITDA targets and created an international reputation for Telx as the “best of the best”. Telx was sold again in 2015 for approximately $1.9 Billion.
After the sale of Telx, Mr. Cutaia became a partner and entrepreneur-in-residence in a NYC-based private equity fund, where he went on to create several other ventures, including a new technology to clean up toxic coal waste sites, and then launched a next-generation, fiber-optic network constructed along railroad rights of way, a ground-breaking, innovative deal he personally negotiated. Now as Founder & CEO of VERB, Mr. Cutaia has created what has been called the best new platform for consumer brand activation, CRM, and sales lead generation. Mr. Cutaia conceived the VERB concept, created the Company’s business plans and marketing strategies, and with more $2.8M of his own capital invested, personally financed R&D and all start-up costs. As CEO, Mr. Cutaia provides the vision and leadership for the management team, establishes the goals and objectives for the Company and the policies and procedures by which they are executed, remaining keenly focused on building stockholder value.
James P. Geiskopf
Lead Director
James P. Geiskopf became a director of VERB in May 2014 and serves as its lead director as well as Chair of the Compensation Committee. Mr. Geiskopf has over three decades of experience leading major organizations. He was former President and Chief Executive Officer of Budget Rent-a-Car of Fairfield California until 2007, when Mr. Geiskopf sold the franchise. He also served on the Board of Directors of Suisun Valley Bank and on the Board of Directors of Napa Valley Bancorp. Since 2014, Mr. Geiskopf has served the Board of Directors of MetaWorks Platforms, Inc., a publicly traded company quoted on the OTC Markets Group Inc.’s OTCQB tier, where he is lead director.
Kenneth S. Cragun
Director
Ken Cragun joined our Board of Directors on September 10, 2018. He was appointed Chairman of the Audit Committee, as well as a member of the Compensation, Governance, and Nominating Committees. Mr. Cragun has more than 30 years of finance experience, leading major financing transactions, including IPOs, acquisitions, executing integration strategies, and building teams in more than 20 countries. His area of focus has been in the technology and digital marketing sectors, including SaaS model software companies, with CFO experience in multi-national businesses of up to $600 million in annual revenue.
Mr. Cragun served as Chief Financial Officer of several NASDAQ-listed companies: Local Corporation, from April 2009 to September 2016, which operated Local.com, a top 100 website; Modtech Holdings, Inc., from June 2006 to March 2009, a supplier of modular buildings; and CorVel Corporation, from January 2018 to September 2018, a $1.1B market cap company and a nationwide leader in technology driven risk management programs. Since October 2018, Mr. Cragun has served as the Chief Accounting Officer of DPW Holdings, Inc., a diversified holding company. Since January 2019, Mr. Cragun has served as the Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer for Alzamend Neuro, Inc., a biopharma company. Mr. Cragun also serves as a partner of Hardesty, LLC, a national executive services firm and has been a partner of its Southern California Practice since October 2016.
Mr. Cragun has broad business knowledge combined with strong technical skills related to GAAP accounting and SEC reporting. Mr. Cragun is two-time finalist for the Orange County Business Journal’s “CFO of the Year – Public Companies.” Mr. Cragun is also a CPA and began his professional career at Deloitte. Mr. Cragun earned his BS in Accounting from Colorado State University-Pueblo and his AAS in Business Management from Brigham Young University-Idaho.
Ed Moy
Director
From 2001 - 2006, Mr. Moy served as special assistant to the President of the United States at The White House, after which he was appointed as director of the United States Mint at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, a position he held until 2011. Mr. Moy began his career as a sales and marketing executive with Blue Cross Blue Shield United of Wisconsin, then appointed head of the federal regulatory agency Office of Prepaid Health Care and then selected to head the Office of Managed Care at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Thereafter, and before his most recent public service, he became an exclusive advisor to private equity firm Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe. Mr. Moy currently serves as a director and member of the audit committee of MetaWorks Platforms Inc. (MWRK:OTCQB, MWRK:CSE), a director and chair of the audit committee of Parsec Capital Acquisitions Corp. (PCXCU:NASDAQ), and an advisory board member of Draganfly Inc. (DPRO:NASDAQ). He also advises and consults with several privately held companies, is an exclusive provider of autographs to Numismatic Guaranty Corp., and serves on the Board of Regents for Trinity International University. His prior board service includes privately held Emerald Health Network and L&L Energy, Inc. (LLEN:NASDAQ). He earned his B.A. in Economics, International Relations, and Political Science in 1979 from the University of Wisconsin - Madison.