Executive Team

Thomas J. Gill
Chairman and CEO

Thomas J. Gill brings over twenty eight years of experience in operations, finance, and executive leadership to the CipherOptics team. Gill formerly served as Chief Executive Officer and President of FORE Systems, Inc., a pioneering company in ATM switching, after having served as Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer within the company. During his tenure, FORE Systems grew from a small start-up with 40 employees and revenues of $5 million to a company with more than 2,000 employees and annual sales of $632 million. Gill was instrumental in taking FORE systems public, and eventually sold the company to a British conglomerate for $4.5 billion.

Gill has been involved with over 15 M&A transactions and was a Managing Partner of G4 Partners, LLC, an early stage private equity fund. Mr. Gill also serves on a number of public and private boards in the Software as a Service (SaaS), storage and data networking industries. Gill holds a B.Sc. in Business Administration from the University of Pittsburgh.

Gary Brunner
CFO and Sr. Vice President of Operations

Gary Brunner brings over 20 years of finance, operations and management experience to the team at CipherOptics. Prior to joining CipherOptics, Brunner served as the Sr. Vice President of Finance and Operations at Netronome Systems, a developer and supplier of network flow processors and acceleration cards in network and communication devices. Previously, he served as the Vice President of Finance at Precise Technology Inc (acquired by Rexam Inc. in 2005) that was a consumer and medical packaging supplier.

Brunner also served as Partner and CFO at G4 Partners, an early stage private equity fund, from 2000 to 2002. Brunner held the positions of Vice President, Treasurer and Corporate Controller during his tenure at FORE Systems Inc., a developer and manufacture of high-speed networking equipment that grew from a small start-up to a company with annual sales of $632 million. Brunner held various finance positions at technology companies in both the Pittsburgh and Washington DC areas previous to joining FORE Systems.

Brunner holds a B.S. in Business Administration from Robert Morris University.

Jim Doherty
CMO and Sr. Vice President of Marketing

Jim Doherty brings to CipherOptics 17 years of engineering and marketing experience across a broad range of networking and communication technologies. Focusing on message simplification and marketing execution, Doherty leads the CipherOptics marketing strategy, direction and personnel.

Prior to joining CipherOptics, Doherty held leadership positions with Symbol Technologies, Cisco Systems and Ericsson Mobile Phones. His marketing experience includes leading vertical marketing and technology solution teams. He has lead marketing campaigns on several technologies including Security, IP Telephony, Routing and Switching.

Doherty is the co-author of the "Networking Simplified" series of books from Cisco Press, which includes the titles Cisco Networking Simplified, Home Networking Simplified, and several other titles. Doherty is a former Marine Corps Sergeant. He holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from N.C. State University and an MBA from Duke University.

Kevin Nigh
Sr. Vice President of Engineering

Kevin Nigh brings many years of management experience in Engineering, Support and Manufacturing to CipherOptics. Prior to joining CipherOptics, Nigh co-founded Wexford Capital Partners, a real estate development and investment company. Nigh also served as Vice-President of Operations for Spinnaker Networks, a NAS start-up that was subsequently acquired by Network Appliance. Before this, he was a partner at G4 Partners where he provided strategic, tactical and operational advice to early-stage technology companies. In addition, Mr. Nigh was CIO of Marconi, PLC where he was responsible for their worldwide IT infrastructure.

Mr. Nigh also held significant positions at FORE Systems, prior to it's acquisition by Marconi in 1999. As Senior Vice-President for Research and Development there, he was responsible for all engineering work, spanning 6 engineering sites in 4 different countries and a budget in excess of $100M. Mr. Nigh also grew FORE's Customer Support Operations from it's inception to well over 300 employees and was responsible worldwide for all technical support, training, professional services and systems engineering.

At CipherOptics, Nigh is responsible for all engineering and development activities.

Joe Barron
Sr. Vice President of Corporate Development

Joe Barron brings to CipherOptics over 25 years of experience in turning new technologies into profitable business ventures. With experience ranging from Engineering Management to Corporate Development, Barron specializes in strategic planning and growth through partnerships, alliances, mergers and acquisition. His industry experience ranges from telecommunications and data communications to factory automation and control.

Prior to joining CipherOptics, Barron was a founding member of Teleprobe Systems and a member of Socius Partners, a management consulting firm. Throughout his career, Barron has served in various management roles with US Steel, Harris Corporation, FORE Systems, and Marconi PLC, where he served as VP of Corporate Development, and is currently an advisor to Pittsburgh-based Blue Tree Capital.

Barron holds an Electrical Engineering Degree from the University of Pittsburgh and several patents in the area of communications technology.