Leading the Way

Born and raised in Colorado, Alex Austin graduated from Metropolitan State University with a B.S. in Business Management. He has since worked in the Banking industry for 12 years, with a primary focus on Cash/Treasury Management. In his free time, Alex enjoys hiking, traveling internationally, and spending time with family and friends. He currently sits on the Board of Directors for Shaka Franklin Foundation for Youth, a non-profit focusing on suicide prevention for inner city youth and scholarships for students living with mental health issues.

Originally from British Columbia, James McDonald has over two decades of experience in tax, audit and consulting, and serves as CFO of Tryba Architects in Denver.  He has worked with numerous start-up entities, not-for-profit entities, high net worth families, and established operating businesses in a financial capacity, including capital/fundraising, financial management and compliance.  In his little free time, James is an avid golfer and enjoys family time and the Colorado outdoors.  In addition to his role with SungateKids, James serves as a Board member of Colorado Miners, Inc. and as Treasurer of the Detroit Fitness Foundation.

As Vice President and Head of Enterprise Product & Marketing of the DISH Wireless network business, Adam Saenger leads the enterprise, wholesale and developer community portfolios, including the end-to-end portfolio strategy where he directs the company’s product development, product management and solutions marketing organizations. His specific  areas of focus include building the world’s first 5G standalone, Open-RAN, cloud-native wireless network that enables leading applications such as private networking, enterprise mobility, MNO, OTT applications and developer environments, to foster innovation for tomorrow’s business.

Prior to DISH Wireless, Adam held senior executive roles with Lumen Technologies, where he led the company’s global networking solutions, a multi-billion dollar portfolio of advanced capabilities including product management for the company’s SD WAN, hybrid networking, VPN, Internet, ethernet, managed services, access, voice & unified communications  solutions; as well as CenturyLink, Level 3 Communications and tw telecom where he served in a variety of executive roles across global product development, product management, customer’s digital interaction strategies and strategic product alliances.

Mr. Willency joined the Board of SungateKids after many years as an ardent supporter. He first got to know the organization through his work with tw telecom, Inc., formerly Time Warner Telecom Inc., where he spent 18 years as Senior Vice President of Customer Operations leading network operations, customer care, field services, outside plant construction and had responsibility for the company’s customer experience strategy.

When tw telecom was acquired by Level 3 Communications, Mr. Willency served as GVP for Customer Solutions and Enablement. In 2015, Mr. Willency became the CEO and Director of Integra Telecom/ Electric Lightwave, the largest fiber-based network services provider in the western United States. In March of 2017, Mr. Willency successfully completed the sale of Integra/ Electric Lightwave to the Zayo Group for $1.24 Billion.
Mr. Willency currently serves as an advisor to several technology-enabled companies that operate within the telecom and cloud sectors. He also is an active coach and mentor in Colorado’s ice hockey community.

Gerard comes to SungateKids from NYC with over 25 years of sales and marketing experience leading teams in large enterprise, Fortune 500 and start-up ventures.  Early career accomplishments include building Cisco’s Public Sector practice that brought funding of over $1 Billion to New York City’s Department of Education to connect underserved students across 1200 inner city schools.  He has held executive roles managing teams in and outside the US for Cisco Systems, Motorola, Avaya and several startups in the technology sector.

In 2013 Gerard joined Visualize as a Partner leveraging his experience and knowledge in go-to-market execution – Since then, Gerard has trained over 9000 associates at companies around the world, including VMware, ServiceNow, Adobe, and others.  In his free time, Gerard is an avid golfer and skier, enjoys family time with (3) active kids and rescue dog, Jojo. Gerard works with Colorado University’s Leeds School of Business, providing guidance through a student mentoring program on Fundamentals of Professional Selling and an active volunteer with (btc) boys team charity, here in Denver.

Christine Moritz is Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for Empower Retirement. In her role, she is responsible for leading Empower’s financial teams and providing financial and strategic support for the organization. Christine joined the organization in 2003 and has held various roles within the finance department. She has also served as an Auditor for PricewaterhouseCoopers. Christine holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration with a focus on accounting and a master’s degree in professional accounting from the University of Texas at Austin. She is a Colorado-certified public accountant.

Sruta is a thought leader and established executive in Telecomm, Media and Entertainment industry, focused on Audio and Video categories, who is adept at taking businesses from concept to scale, creating and establishing sustainable growth.  She is a major influencer and creative thinker in growth, partnerships and distribution areas, is constantly sought out for counsel by digital and media companies, and has been awarded numerous leadership awards in the space and industry.

She started her career as an engineer, and worked her way to providing expertise in areas of strategy and operational execution to drive ecommerce and digitization of fortune 500 companies in CPG, Fintech, Media and Entertainment.  In the last decade, she worked at Dish, leading their Dish’s International Business line, Local and International content acquisitions, and their Fintech partnerships and operations.  She went on to help launch SlingTVand paved the way for innovative distribution and platform partnerships, technologies and operational practices across networks, customer experience, risk management functions, and drove strategic initiatives for the company. She currently is a senior executive at SiriusXM Holdings Inc, responsible for Growth of Streaming Distribution and Acquisitions across the house of brands, and has focused on establishing SXM as a formidable service outside the car in a short 24 months.

Sruta has an engineering degree from Case Western Reserve University, and an MBA from Carnegie Mellon University. Shecares deeply about women in tech and increasing opportunities to all women.  She is currently a Board Member for SocietyofWomencoders.org. In addition to her day job at SiriusXM, Sruta is also an executive advisor to SiriusXM Cares, Diversity, Inclusion, and Equality efforts, and in the past played a key role in DISH Women’s Network.   

Rick Corbett is a seasoned technology professional and strategic leader. As President and Chief Operating Officer at Advoda Technology Solutions, Rick works tirelessly to ensure the success of the company, its employees, clients, and partners. With over two decades of experience in the industry, Rick brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to his role at Advoda. Prior to joining the team, he held high-level positions at global organizations, helping businesses leverage the power of voice, internet, and data services. When he’s not driving the success of Advoda, Rick can be found cheering on his favorite sports teams, hitting the slopes for some skiing, traveling the world, or hitting the links for a round of golf. As a proud father of three children, Rick values family and work-life balance.

Nicholas R. Peppler is an associate in the Trial Group at Davis Graham & Stubbs LLP, where his practice has an emphasis on complex commercial litigation, white-collar defense, construction litigation, and commercial leasing disputes. Prior to joining DGS, he was an attorney in the Denver office of a large international firm, where he was responsible for handling all aspects of commercial litigation cases, including those concerning contract disputes, consumer class actions, false advertising, trade secret disputes, unfair competition, and other business torts. In addition, Mr. Peppler has experience providing regulatory compliance advice related to franchise disclosure requirements, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and food and beverage labeling requirements.

Mr. Peppler received his J.D. from the University of Oregon School of Law. During law school, he was an articles editor for the Oregon International Law Review and president of the Law & Entrepreneurship Student Association. He supplemented his program by gaining work experience as a law clerk at the U.S. Attorney’s Office and served as a judicial extern for the Honorable Ann Aiken of the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon.

Michelle Weinraub is the Director of Health Services for Cherry Creek Schools. She is a registered nurse, former social worker and loves working with kids and families.
A not-quite native of Colorado (20+ years), she and her kind and funny husband, Mitch, have two kind and funny daughters, Miriam and Hannah Meg.

Craig Wilson has 30 years of experience in the practice of law, with extensive experience in healthcare and corporate law.   He earned a B.S. in Business and Political Science from William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri and a J.D. from Northwestern Pritzker School of Law in Chicago, Illinois.

Mr. Wilson is currently the general counsel of Healthedge Software, Inc., a healthcare technology firm based in Boston, Massachusetts.