Executive Biographies

Neal M. Axelrad
Chief Executive Officer

Neal Axelrad is the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of GCS. Mr. Axelrad brings over twenty years of solid executive experience to Global Convergence Solutions in a variety of positions and over fifteen years of communications expertise.

Prior to joining Global Convergence Solutions, Mr. Axelrad was Vice President of Global Sales at InfiniRoute Networks, the premier VoIP Peering service provider to tier one and tier two carriers globally. Mr. Axelrad was a key contributor in building ITXC into one of the world's largest VoIP carriers. His accomplishments include delivering and managing annual sales volume in excess of $180 million, pioneering new operating paradigms in the wholesale telephony marketplace for buying and selling, and leading the development of new market products in the telephony industry that leveraged VoIP. In addition, Mr. Axelrad previously held the Senior Sales Leadership position at Qwest Communications and MCI Worldcom.

Prior to his telecommunication carrier career, Mr. Axelrad was founder and Chief Executive Officer of American Marketing Experts, a leader in direct marketing services.

Jay Meranchik
Chief Technology Officer and President

Jay Meranchik is the co-founder, Chief Technology Officer, and President of GCS. Mr. Meranchik is responsible for providing the vision and leadership for GCS's technical implementations, engineering, architecture, and deployments. He brings over fifteen years of telecommunications experience in network operations and engineering to Global Convergence Solutions.

Prior to joining Global Convergence Solutions, Mr. Meranchik was co-founder and Vice President of InfiniRoute Networks, the premier VoIP Peering service provider to tier one and tier two carriers globally. As Vice President of Global Network Operations and Engineering at ITXC Corporation, he was instrumental in establishing ITXC's industry leadership in VoIP telecommunications through the creation and direction of ITXC's operations, network management, engineering, and customer support. Mr. Meranchik also previously held the Senior Network Engineering positions with Electronic Storage Corporation, Rexroth Corporation, and Atos Systems.

Chris Birdsall
Executive Vice President of Worldwide Sales

Chris brings over fifteen years of superior sales results. He has successfully driven organizations as a Business Development strategist with proven success developing and executing market initiatives to drive both top and bottom-line goals in start-ups as well as growth situations.  Chris has a proven track record as a strong motivational leader adept in managing and motivating cross-functional teams.

Prior to joining Global Convergence Solutions, Chris was Vice President of North American Sales at NexTone, the leader in Session Management and IP enablement technologies. There, Chris was a key contributor in building NexTone into one of the world's largest session management companies in the world.  Additionally, Chris previously held Senior Sales Leadership positions at Viatel Communications and REACH.

Chris's career accomplishments include delivering and managing annual sales volume in excess of $50 million. Throughout his career, Chris has specialized in structuring and completing complex deals, bridging diverse groups to achieve implementation of advanced Next Generation Networks. Chris holds degrees in Organizational Communications and Finance from Creighton University.