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Henry C. (Harry) Hirsch
Managing Director
After serving on active duty for 6 years as a regular officer
in the U.S. Navy, some 35 years ago H. Hirsch entered the business
world as a trust investment officer for the Riggs National Bank
in Washington, D.C. He then proceeded to join Duff, Anderson
& Clark, an investment advisory and financial consulting affiliate
of Duff & Phelps, the nationally known credit rating organization.
In 1973, H. Hirsch joined The Williams Companies, a NYSE-listed
energy firm headquartered in Tulsa, Oklahoma. His
first role was to manage Williams’ substantial $300 million investment
portfolio. Subsequently he rose to Assistant Treasurer,
Treasurer, senior vice president and CFO of Agrico Chemical Company,
which at the time was by far the largest component of Williams.
Hirsch was the only senior Agrico executive to remain with Williams
upon the sale of Agrico to Freeport-McMoran in 1987. He
next became senior vice president and CFO of Williams Communication
Group, known by the acronym Wiltel. Wiltel was formed by
Williams to build a fiber optic network using decommissioned gas
pipelines as a conduit to protect the cable. Wiltel was
almost an instant success and by the early 1990’s was the fourth
largest fiber optic network in the country. In the interim,
H. Hirsch advanced to executive vice president and CFO, in which
position he had responsibility for sales, marketing and strategic
planning in addition to finance and administration.
In 1992, he became the president and COO of Wiltel Communications
Systems, a telecommunications equipment sales and distribution
company. This company was the largest distributor of Northern
Telecom telecommunications equipment in North America. In 1996,
H. Hirsch assumed the position of vice chairman and chief executive
officer of Williams Communications Group, the total communications
venture of Williams.
In his tenure with Williams, H. Hirsch was involved as a leading
participant in the great majority of the company’s major financings
and acquisitions. Via these transactions, which ranged in
size from $50 million to a billion dollars, he dealt with virtually
all of the major commercial and investment banks in the country.
He also authored the earn-out formula for the sale of Agrico,
which resulted in Williams receiving an additional $250 million
in proceeds. While the president and COO of Williams
Communications Systems, under his leadership the company went
from incurring substantial losses to progressively greater operating
profitability. He also orchestrated a multi-billion transaction
with Nortel Networks, whereby the company was positioned to become
highly profitable as the leading independent data transmission
services company in the nation with a revenue base of $1.2 billion.
After a very gratifying and enjoyable 24-year career, H. Hirsch
retired from Williams in May 1997. He is indebted to John
and Joe Williams and the rest of the Williams’ family for the
opportunity they afforded him as well as thousands of other people
under their capable leadership and never failing integrity.
No young, aspiring individual could have had a better example
by which to learn the ways of the business world.
H. Hirsch quickly “failed” retirement. In November, 1997,
he accepted the position of chairman, president and COO of Advanced
Radio Telecom (“ART”), a highly distressed, new concept, fixed
wireless broadband communications company listed on the NASDAQ
and headquartered in Seattle, Washington.
ART’s major asset was a national 38Ghz spectrum footprint and
spectrum at the 26Ghz and 38Ghz frequencies in the United Kingdom
and several Scandinavian countries.
H. Hirsch accepted a mandate from the ART Board of Directors
to turn the company around, i.e., build a professional management
team, formulate a successful strategy focused on the company’s
nationwide 38Ghz spectrum license footprint and raise the capital
required to implement the plan. All of the above was accomplished,
culminating with the raising of $251 million of equity capital
in the fall of 1999, which according to Morgan Stanley was the
largest private equity investment ever made in an early stage
communications company. The largest single investor in this
financing was Quest Communications, a leading international inter-exchange
carrier.
Having fulfilled his two year commitment and accomplished what
he set out to do, H. Hirsch retired from ART in late 1999, at
which time the company was extremely well financed with networks
operating in Seattle, WA, Portland, OR, Phoenix, AZ and San Jose,
CA.
Since H. Hirsch’s formal retirement in late 1999, in addition
to investing for his own account in public and private companies,
he also serves as Chairman of HLMB Ventures, LLC. HLMB is
a company comprised of principals who have been highly successful
executives in the communications and energy industries.
HLMB pursues investments in companies where their industry and
functional experience can be of assistance in helping such companies
succeed.
Hirsch has served on a number of boards of directors and advisory
boards throughout his career, having been non-executive chairman
of two of the companies. He has spoken before trade associations
and other professional groups and has addressed Wall Street analysts
and investors on numerous occasions.
A 1963 graduate of the United States Naval Academy, H. Hirsch
also attended the George Washington University School of Government
and Business Administration MBA Program from 1969 to 1971.
He and his wife of 37 years, Barbara, reside in Annapolis, Maryland.
They have two married children.
Todd M. Hirsch
Director
Todd co-founded Waypoint Ventures, LLC in April of 2001 and OPVEST
Partners in 2003 as a partner operating out of Houston, Texas.
With OPVEST Partners, he is responsible for market research, deal
origination and selection, project leadership, and the day to
day operation of the firm. Prior to joining Waypoint, Todd
held the role of Vice President and General Manager, Southern
Region, for Advanced Radio Telecom (ART) where he was responsible
for profit and loss and all operational and sales activities for
a nine state area. From 1998 to 2000, Todd was Executive
Director of Marketing for ART where he built and launched the
first high speed wireless portfolio of Internet services and played
an integral in raising $250 million in private equity to fund
the rollout of these services.
Prior to joining ART, Todd spent time at US West where he was
the Director of the Data Transport Group. During his tenure
at US West he built and managed a team of product management and
product development professionals who were responsible for some
of the nation’s largest networks and were responsible the first
national data service offerings from a Regional Bell Operating
Company.
In addition, Todd has held roles at MCI managing multiple data
network services with revenues in excess of $50 million.
Todd received both his Masters of Business Administration and
Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University
of Tulsa. Todd also holds certifications in Business Valuation
and Mergers and Acquisitions from the Rice University Jones Graduate
School of Management.
He and his wife Lisa currently reside in Annapolis, Maryland.
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