Stratosphere Networks

Jesse Miller is the CISO at Stratosphere Networks. He has been with the company for over 10 years, for a total of over 20 years in the IT services industry. In his career, he has pursued and flourished in multiple domains, including risk/compliance, IT infrastructure, VoIP telephony, service delivery, product management/development, and, of course, information security. This provides a unique advantage in his current duties, because the depth and breadth of knowledge he holds for so many different systems and disciplines serves to give him a holistic view of the security risks each system or business process poses, in addition to how it relates to the overall security posture of an organization. As Stratosphere's CISO, he focuses on IT security, risk and compliance for our ever-growing customer base. He holds a plethora of certifications with many different accredited registrars, and is an active member in the cybersecurity community, including SANS (SysAdmin, Audit, Network, Security), International Information System Security Certification Consortium ((ISC) 2 ), and Information Systems Security Association (ISSA). Additionally, he has been instrumental in developing new products that have helped add stability, intelligence and security to our customers’ environments – including Stratosphere's Office Anywhere Zero-Trust SASE framework, proactive monitoring/analytics, SOC-as-a-Service (SOCaaS), monitoring as a service (MaaS), next generation security services and products, and countless solutions for custom integrations. Jesse also oversees our internal information security and SOC teams, who are largely responsible for ensuring that Stratosphere keeps our "first to market" pledge to our customers, deploying security technologies successfully and giving our clients a consistent and reliable advantage over their competition, while simultaneously ensuring that our clients' supply chains remain intact by protecting and securing our internal information systems. Commitment to Leadership Global Leadership Summit 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 Lake Forest Graduate School of Management Workshops: Self-Awareness & Managing Self 2017 Elevate Performance Solutions Workshops: Communication and Coaching; Delegating with Accountability 2018 ISSA Member 2018 ICS2 2016, 2017, 2018

Experienced Senior Technology Advisor with a demonstrated history of working in the telecommunications/unified communications industries. Skilled in Managed IT Services, Cloud Consulting/Computing, Contact Centers, Carrier Services, and Cybersecurity, I help businesses of all sizes and verticals navigate through the disruption in our industry when evaluating new/existing solutions.

Kevin Rubin is the president and Chief Information Officer of Stratosphere Networks and Converged Communication Systems. He holds a bachelor of business administration, marketing and finance from Loyola University in Chicago. Additionally, he has earned various technical engineering certifications from companies such as Avaya, Cisco and Microsoft. Through his earlier work in the telecom industry, Kevin met Steve Melchiorre, the current CEO of Stratosphere and CCS. In 2003, they co-founded CCS, which produced $116,000 in revenue during its first year. Since then, the company has seen its revenue grow every year, increasing by an average of 40 percent on an annual basis and exceeding $8 million by 2015. The company has received a number of accolades - such as the Channel Partners 360° award, Inc. 5000, and CRN MSP Elite 150 - for its performance as a provider of IP telephony and unified communications solutions and services. Seven years after founding CCS, Kevin and Steve launched Stratosphere Networks, a multifaceted provider of IT managed services and solutions. Stratosphere's state-of-the-art Network Operations Center (NOC) in Evanston leverages the latest diagnostic tools, monitoring solutions and other technologies to deliver the highest quality proactive support for its clients. Stratosphere earned recognition as one of Crain's Best Places to Work for Millennials in 2015, Best Places to Work for Women Under 35 in 2016 and Best Places to Work for Minorities in 2017. Kevin has also received recognition for his work in the realm of IT managed services. He has been named as one of the Top People in Managed Services by MSPmentor with the MSPmentor 250 award. Additionally, he is an executive council member of the CompTIA Managed Services Community, a group of industry leaders that provide guidance and leadership on programs, education, and research offered by CompTIA, the non-profit trade association for the IT industry. He also serves on the Selection Committee for the CompTIA ChannelChanger Award, which honors future IT industry leaders. Commitment to Leadership Global Leadership Summit 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 Crain's Leadership Academy 2018 Lake Forest Graduate School of Management Workshops: Self-Awareness & Managing Self 2017 Elevate Performance Solutions Workshops: Communication and Coaching; Delegating with Accountability 2018 CompTIA Executive Board ASCII Council 2017

Steve Melchiorre is the CEO of Stratosphere Networks. A serial entrepreneur, Steve founded his first company while he was in high school, and his second company, which he established in college, grew to have more than 200 repeat clients. He earned a bachelor's degree in economics and business from Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California. In 2002, he started working for a company that sold Avaya telecommunications solutions. As a top performer, Steve became part of the company's president's club and won a trip to Las Vegas. Through his telecom work, he met Kevin Rubin (the current president and CIO of Stratosphere Networks), and they founded their first business together in 2003. In their first year in business, Steve and Kevin turned zero revenue into $116,000. Since then, they've taken off and achieved significant levels of growth: In 2019, revenue exceeded $8.5 million. Their rapidly expanding company received recognition from Inc. Magazine with rankings on the annual Inc. 5000 list in the following years: 2012 (Rank No. 2,088; 125 percent growth rate) 2013 (Rank No. 2,125; 175 percent growth rate) 2014 (Rank No. 2,548; 148 percent growth rate) 2015 (Rank No. 3,893; 77 percent growth rate) In 2010, Steve and Kevin decided to increase infrastructure investments. They built a state-of-the-art Network Operations Center (NOC) and Security Operations Center (SOC) in Evanston that uses the latest technologies, diagnostic tools, and monitoring solutions to provide proactive support and cutting-edge cybersecurity services and solutions. To better serve clients in the healthcare industry, the company also became HIPAA compliant in 2018. Stratosphere is the only IT provider in Chicago to be named one of Crain's Best Places to Work for five years in a row (2015-2019). The company is also dedicated to giving back to the community. Steve serves as a member of the Board of Trustees for Lawrence Hall, a social services organization that provides high-quality care for abused and neglected young people and their families in the Chicago metropolitan area. Additionally, Stratosphere Networks supports the International Justice Mission and St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital with monthly donations. Stratosphere also has a corporate policy that encourages staff members to give back by providing them with two additional paid days off for the purpose of participating in volunteer work. The company also runs a Choose Your Charity program, under which team members can pick a charity they would like Stratosphere to donate to on their behalf. Commitment to Leadership Global Leadership Summit 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 Lake Forest Graduate School of Management Workshops: Self-Awareness & Managing Self 2017 Elevate Performance Solutions Workshops: Communication and Coaching; Delegating with Accountability 2018 Cloud Advisory Board 2017, 2018, 2019

Erin Stelter is the director of technical services at Stratosphere Networks and Converged Communication Systems. She holds various technical certifications including Project Manager Professional from PMI, Avaya Professional Sales Specialist, and Avaya Implementation Professional Specialist. Before she joined the team at Stratosphere Networks and CCS, Erin worked in various retail sectors (such as furniture, housewares, cigars, clothing, chocolate, and tea). She gained experience in a range of roles - including customer service/sales associate, store buyer, operations manager, and general manager - and built a reputation as a successful team builder who transformed stores from profit loss centers to profit generators. Eventually, she decided to seek out a career path that would allow her to capitalize on the management and leadership abilities she had gained from her work in retail, as well as the communication skills she developed while earning her bachelor's degree in history from Eastern Washington University in Cheney, Washington. That search led her to project management in the technical sector, since she had always been fascinated by the ever-changing world of technology. Erin is now responsible for innovation concerning policy and procedures to help Stratosphere and CCS optimize their performance and maintain their status as leaders in their industries. During her time with CCS and Stratosphere Networks, she has developed training programs for new employees, continuing education programs to further employees' technical skills, and a change management/innovation team to improve processes and enhance the employee and client experiences. Commitment to Leadership Lake Forest Graduate School of Management Workshops: Self-Awareness & Managing Self 2017 PMI Chicago Chapter Workshop: From a Good Project Manager to a Great Leader PMP certification, current and in good standing in Leadership with PMI during 2016-2019 cycle Chicago Women's Leadership Summit 2020-2021

Mark Johnson is the service desk manager for Stratosphere Networks. Before obtaining his current position managing our Network Operations Center (NOC), he spent three years as a Technical Account Lead in our infrastructure team, guiding and maintaining 10 key client environments. An experienced IT professional, Mark works with the front line of our team to enable, educate, and challenge them in providing the highest level of IT service to our clients. A graduate of North Park University in Chicago, Mark began his IT career in the early ‘90s consulting specifically with Apple-centric environments. He developed a reputation for clear communication of complex technology and successful implementation of business-driven solutions, working primarily with Bell & Howell and Apple Computer. By the end of the ‘90s Mark found himself invited to take over guiding the extensive Apple support team at iconic Chicago advertising giant Leo Burnett. The culmination of this early career stage was several years as an Apple education account executive for the state of Illinois. Eager to take on challenges and emerging technology, Mark next jumped into the developing Citrix/Terminal Services boom. Switching gears to add Microsoft experience to his existing Apple expertise, he became just the second Certified Citrix Enterprise Administrator CCEA in the region. These skills allowed Mark to build and run the global IT infrastructure for Preferred Hotels and Resorts for nearly 10 years. In 2008, Mark was offered the opportunity to collaborate with a small MSP in taking over the IT environment for their primary client, a defense contractor with uniquely critical requirements for their infrastructure stability and security. Diving deep into VMWare and HyperV as yet another enabling technology, Mark added more clients and skills to his area of responsibility. Additional Microsoft certifications (Exchange server, Dynamics, Great Plains) along with multiple security project engagements assisting local and federal law enforcement kept him occupied through 2017, when he joined the team at Stratosphere Networks. Commitment to Leadership Global Leadership Summit 2020 VTSP Foundation 2018 SCE Sophos Certified Engineer CSNSA Certified SonicWALL Network Security Administrator Datto Tech Specialist II MCP Microsoft Certified Business Management Solutions Specialist (Dynamics, Great Plains)

Max Hester is an associate director of client transformation at Stratosphere Networks. He holds an associate's degree from Oakton Community College as well as various technical certifications from Apple, VMWare, Microsoft, ITIL and Cisco Meraki. Max started his career at Crate and Barrel working in their MIS operations department before transitioning to their help desk part time. He went on to work for Valcom, as a contractor for Grainger working in their Tier 1 desktop support group. In that role, he spearheaded an effort to update documentation for the entire help desk group. Following his time with Valcom, Max obtained a position in the administration center for Elmhurst Community Unit School District 205. He supported 8 EC-21 buildings as their lead technical resource, in addition to working closely with the student services team and supporting the complex needs of the district's assistive technology. Additionally, he served as part of a team that implemented overhead LCD projectors in all district classrooms and increased customer satisfaction for the district IT department as a whole. With his help, his team was able to obtain the highest level of customer satisfaction in the district's history of providing in-house IT support. Max got his start at Stratosphere Networks as a hybrid service desk technician, quickly establishing himself as the lead on-site resource for the company's entire managed services base. Before obtaining his current position, he also served as a senior systems engineer and technical account manager. His accomplishments over the years include graduating from Crain's Leadership Academy and membership in the Apple Consultants Network, in addition to numerous corporate and support awards. Commitment to Leadership Crain's Leadership Academy 2017 ITIL v3 Foundations Certified Microsoft 365 Certified: Teams Administrator Associate Microsoft Certified Professional Certified Meraki Networking Associate Apple Certified Support Professional VMWare Sales Professional

Noel Catrambone is the director of consulting at Stratosphere Networks. His career has focused primarily on IT infrastructure roles of increasing levels of complexity and responsibility. He has worked for some of the leading financial services firms in Chicago, including Nuveen Investments, Kemper Securities and Prudential. Over the years, he has held roles as a help desk manager, IT manager, network engineer, and owner of an IT consulting company, in addition to serving in director/VP level roles during the last 5+ years. In his recent past, he focused primarily on managing the IT function for small to mid-size financial services firms, both public and private. As the director of IT infrastructure for a publicly traded company, he had oversight over all IT functions within the holding company and several subsidiaries. Over a three-year period, he took the holding company and three separate divisions from operating on disparate platforms to one cohesive operating environment leveraging a cloud-first approach. The firm and its subsidiaries for which he was responsible now operate on a single hosted voice platform, a private cloud infrastructure, and a shared support model. Most recently, Noel served as the VP of information technology for a Chicago-based private equity firm. There he was responsible for the firm’s internal infrastructure as well as vendor management and IT compliance. He also provided due-diligence guidance on target acquisitions and other strategic consulting services for several of the firm’s portfolio companies. He has extensive experience working with firms on regulatory compliance issues as it pertains to information technology, including the following: Responding to and remediating the findings of SEC cyber audits SOX audit responses Working with the departments of insurance regulation in several different states Leading PCI compliance initiatives for entities processing +$100MIL in annual transactions Commitment to Leadership ITIL Foundation Level v4

RJ Metzger is the director of infrastructure services at Stratosphere Networks. His interest in technology goes back to childhood: He grew up tinkering with electronics and got his first computer in the 3rd grade. He officially began his career in the pre-dot-com era. Although he started out as a help desk tech, he became a supervisor within 8 months and was promoted again to an internal system administrator position soon after that. Before joining the Stratosphere team, he worked for Priceline WebHouse Club and Affinion Group. During the dot-com bust, he started working for a managed service provider and has been with MSPs ever since. As the director of infrastructure services, RJ serves as the "backstop" for most of the issues that the network operations center (NOC) and the technical account leads can't resolve. He has Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert (MCSE) and VMware Certified Professional (VCP) certifications, in addition to an associate's degree in criminal justice from Norwalk (Connecticut) Community College. Commitment to Leadership Global Leadership Summit 2017, 2018 Lake Forest Graduate School of Management Workshops: Self-Awareness & Managing Self 2017 Elevate Performance Solutions Workshops: Communication and Coaching; Delegating with Accountability 2018 Crain's Leadership Academy 2019

Sean O'Sullivan is an associate director of client transformation at Stratosphere Networks. He holds a bachelor's degree from DeVry University in network communication and management, as well as a Microsoft MCSA in Office 365 Identity Management. After starting out at the help desk at Stratosphere Networks, Sean became a technical account lead (TAL) and then the team lead of the TAL department before obtaining his current position. During his time with the company, he has been instrumental in establishing technical processes and spearheading the documentation strategy for client environments. He was also among the first to take on Microsoft Azure as a business solution and implemented Stratosphere's first successful single sign-on (SSO) solution. Today he continues to be on the forefront of new and emerging technologies in the realm of Office 365 and Azure. As an associate director for client transformation, the company relies on his technical experience, accrued through his decade of infrastructure support experience, to provide clients with a clear and attainable transformation path. Sean is an avid gamer and tech enthusiast who loves to tinker with anything that has moving parts, from cars to computers to drones. He has a specific interest in automation and lives by the saying "Work smarter, not harder." Commitment to Leadership Crain's Leadership Academy 2019 Global Leadership Summit 2019, 2020 Microsoft MCSA in Office 365 Identity Management

Lori Leonardo is the marketing director at Stratosphere Networks and Converged Communication Systems. She started as the marketing and public relations executive for CCS in 2011 and became the marketing director in 2012. Under her leadership, the marketing team has grown from one person to a team of SEO specialists, content writers, graphic designers, Web developers, and more. Her responsibilities also include planning client events in partnership with vendors for CCS (e.g., Avaya, Microsoft, inContact, and Cbeyond) and Stratosphere Networks (e.g., Citrix, Cisco Meraki, Microsoft, and SingleHop). She also oversees various marketing programs such as SEO, email marketing, press, and branding. Lori holds various certifications such as Google AdWords, Google Analytics and more. She earned a bachelor's degree in journalism with a minor in marketing and psychology from Loyola University in Chicago and a master's degree in journalism from Northwestern University. Commitment to Leadership Global Leadership Summit 2016, 2017, 2018 Lake Forest Graduate School of Management Workshops: Self-Awareness & Managing Self 2017 Elevate Performance Solutions Workshops: Communication and Coaching; Delegating with Accountability 2018