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Meet Our Executive Team
Charles Newman
Founder and Director
Chuck Newman is the Founder and Director of ReCellular, Inc.
Chuck has been an entrepreneur since starting his first company while an undergraduate at the University of Michigan in 1961. Among the companies he founded were Astrotype, the developers of the first computerized word processor, CompuMart, the first retail computer store in Michigan, and Rent-A-Byte, the first computer rental store in the United States. He also founded the Jewish Community Center of Ann Arbor and the Michigan Israel Business Bridge to promote economic development between Michigan and Israel.
Chuck is a past Chairman of the Board of Directors of Hillel, the Foundation for Jewish Campus Life and was President of the Michigan Jewish Conference. He was a founder and member of the Board of Directors of the Bank of Ann Arbor, a member of the Board of Directors of Gelman Science, the Wireless Foundation and the University of Michigan Alumni Association.
Chuck received his Bachelor of Science in 1963, and Masters of Science in 1964, both from the University of Michigan. Chuck ’s current volunteer positions include being a member of the Board of Directors of Hillel, Eastern Michigan University Hillel, the International Myeloma Foundation, the Graham Environmental Sustainability Institute at the University of Michigan and the NephCure Foundation.
Sharon and Chuck Newman have four children and four grandchildren. They reside in Ann Arbor.
Stephen Manning
Chairman, CEO and President
Steve Manning is the Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President of ReCellular, Inc.
Steve previously worked at Solectron as senior vice president of strategy, marketing and business development, gaining extensive finance, sales and executive management experience. He joined Solectron through the acquisition of Sequel Inc. A founder of the company, he began as vice president of Sales and Marketing in 1990 and then served as chief executive officer until 1999. In his role as vice president of Sales and Marketing, Steve was responsible for all marketing, account management, program management and customer service functions. As CEO, Steve’s responsibilities included management of the company’s operational and financial activities.
Prior to Sequel, Steve was vice president of Sales and Marketing at AT&T’s Data Communications Product group where he realigned sales forces, reduced product set, and grew non-AT&T products for the first time in three years. Prior to this position, Steve was president of IMPL, a UNIX parable systems product company.
In 1985, Steve founded Future International, a UK-based start-up, serving as its president and chief executive officer until 1989. Prior to this position, Steve worked with many of Sequel’s founders at Memorex/Burroughs where he last served as president of its communications group. He has also held various financial management positions at Rockwell International and Inland Steel Co.
Steve holds bachelors degrees in economics and finance from the University of Nebraska and is a certified public accountant.
Eric Forster
Vice President
Eric Forster has been with ReCellular since the founding in 1991. Eric has been responsible for all domestic and international sales and procurement of wireless handsets, including customer service and new business development, both domestic and international markets.
Upon joining the company, Eric established numerous strategic relationships for sales and product procurement. Such relationships include, but are not limited to, Cingular Wireless (formerly BellSouth Mobility and SBC Communications), Verizon Wireless (formerly Bell Atlantic, GTE Wireless), Nokia Mobile Phones, Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association (Wireless Foundation). Eric was instrumental in increasing revenues from inception of $700,000 to $14 million in the first 3 years.
Other related responsibilities included maintaining all sales and procurement policies and procedures, competitive analysis, departmental and organizational development. Eric has been instrumental in leading environmental efforts in the procurement and distribution channels. Other notable accomplishments include creating and developing the corporate identity, branding and positioning.
Eric is currently leading a team to develop new products and services that will extend the marketplace the company serves today. His new initiatives support the company’s leadership position in the secondary wireless industry, while creating new revenue and profit streams to strengthen future growth.
Eric holds a Bachelor in Business and Administration from Eastern Michigan University, and an MBA from the University of Michigan. He has maintained an active role with EMU serving as a member of the Board of Directors for The National Alumni Association of EMU.
Adele Fransko
Vice President
Adele Fransko joined ReCellular in 2006 as the Director of Global Human Resources and Administration. Adele is responsible for leading all aspects of human resources worldwide including talent acquisition and retention, workforce training and development, compensation, benefits, policy development, and various other corporate initiatives.
Prior to joining ReCellular, Adele held the position of Director of Human Resources with a global manufacturing organization. Within this position she supported multiple manufacturing facilities and corporate staff through strategic partnerships, human resource planning, executive coaching, job design and analysis, talent acquisition and retention strategies, training and development, and collaboration projects with site leadership.
Adele also served as the Director of Global Organizational Development, North American Human Resources and Administration for a global telecommunications firm where she had overall financial and operating responsibility for the Corporate Administrative Services Operating Unit for all North American locations. She successfully managed all aspects of human resources and administration, transforming the role of human resources from an administrative cost center to one of a true global strategic business partner.
Adele holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Michigan State University. She is also a graduate of the Disney Executive Leadership Institute and has previously served as the Vice-President on The Board of Directors of SOS Community Services, a non-profit charitable organization serving the needs of homeless families in Washtenaw County.
Eric Miller
Vice President
Eric joined ReCellular in March of 2011 as VP of Business Development and Marketing. He is responsible for our strategy and corporate development activities as well as traditional marketing functions. Previously, Eric worked as Business Unit Leader of Channel Services for Celestica where he had global P&L responsibility for Wireless Carriers, Pay TV Operators, Insurance Providers, Retail and eTail. He also led the strategy and corporate development activities for the After-Market Services segment of the company.
Prior to Celestica, over a 10 year period, Eric held executive positions in both business development and operations at Solectron, Teleplan and Magnetic Data Technology. At Solectron, he held the position of Vice President of Business Development in the $1.2B Global Services organization. He was responsible for relationships with key OEMs and managed the North America sales organization.
Prior to joining MDT, Eric spent 27 years in the data storage industry including Seagate, Maxtor and Imprimis where he held senior management positions in program management, supply chain and operations. During this time he participated in a number of global mergers leading integration activities. He spent over 6 years as an expatriate in Singapore and Puerto Rico.
Miller attended the University of California at Santa Barbara for undergraduate general education. He obtained a bachelors degree in marketing from Columbia Pacific University. He is a certified practitioner in leading Blue Ocean Strategy initiatives.
Joe Mckeown
Vice President
Joe McKeown currently serves as our Vice President of Marketing. Mr. McKeown has held senior leadership positions in companies ranging from the Fortune 100 to start-up entrepreneurial ventures.
His most recent experience was in a business turnaround and private equity firm where he was Managing Director, responsible for overall operations, sales, marketing and communications for the partnership and portfolio companies. He has served in the government public safety sector, serving as President/COO and Interim CEO for an underperforming software company. He was the Founder and Managing Partner of a marketing, performance improvement and wireless analytics firm that was acquired in 2006 by an international advertising consortium.
This followed an 18+ year senior level career at MCI Telecommunications where he led global sales, communications, public affairs, employee engagement, sponsorship and marketing campaigns and initiatives as Vice President of Marketing and Communications service. Prior to MCI he had various sales and sales management roles for AT&T where he was among the top producers of an 8,000 person sales force for two years running.
A graduate of Michigan State University, he currently holds SPHR and APR certifications and is finalizing his Masters in Political Communications from George Washington University.
Elyssa Edwards
Vice President
Elyssa Edwards is the Vice President of eCommerce for ReCellular, Inc.
Elyssa has nearly two decades of consumer marketing and demand generation experience for premier brands like TiVo, Apple, AOL, and Netscape, as well as several successful start-ups including SugarSync, Collabra Software, and Neon Software.
Prior to joining ReCellular, Elyssa was VP of Online Sales and Marketing at SugarSync. SugarSync is a leading provider of Personal Cloud services that enable users to access their data from anywhere, including mobile devices. Elyssa doubled the subscription base in one year and even more significantly increased revenues. Previously, she was Director of Ecommerce and Online Marketing for TiVo where she led the direct to consumer business and was instrumental in growing the subscriber base through online direct marketing initiatives such as search marketing, online advertising, direct email, affiliate marketing, and social media. Her online marketing career began at Netscape in 1995 and she spent 9 years at Netscape, AOL, and AOL-Time Warner in roles including brand marketing, customer acquisition, and subscription marketing of online personals and antivirus services.
Elyssa received her B.S. in Conservation of Natural Resources from the University of California, Berkeley and her M.B.A. from Saint Mary's College in Moraga, California where she graduated with honors in Marketing and Business Computing.
Bob Mullaney
Vice President
Bob previously worked as Vice President of Sales for North America for Syncreon Corporation. His role was to build a sales team, strategize ago to market plan and develop new accounts.
Prior to this Bob was Vice president of Remarketing for Solectron. He developed a new division inside the multi billion dollar company. His role was to build a team to market and distribute all excess and obsolete inventories inside the company as well as supporting Solectron major accounts with parts for their repair lines. This entitled building a sales and marketing plan while putting together a complete team to manage the division with its own P&L. He initial job at Solectron was a Director of Global Sales for HP. In 5 years he developed HP into Solectron's largest Global partner with programs in excess of 500 million.
Previous in the early 90's Bob founded TSLI Corporation. This was a Global Peripheral repair and resale organization which Bob served as the President/CEO. When he left the organization it had in excess of 200 people supporting sales of over 20 million dollars.
Bob attended Suffolk University in Boston Massachusetts.
John Wetherholt
General Manager - Dexter Operations
John joined ReCellular in 2009 and brings over 30 years of management experience acquired at IBM, Solectron, Signal Holdings, and Jabil. The last 12 years have been at the General Management level within the Electronics Service Industry.
John's Service Sector experience has been in a rapid growth / international environment supporting the repair, refurbishment, and fulfillment of circuit boards, hard drives, laptops, game boxes, as well as mobile phones. Clients supported include: IBM, Hewlett Packard, Compaq, Dell, Cisco Systems, Verizon, and Microsoft.
John holds a Bachelors Engineering Degree in Industrial Administration from San Jose State University.