Tim McAteer, President and General Manager began working in the Accounting department with the Keefe Group companies, in 1992. Over the past 18 years, Tim has advanced within the Keefe Group companies and has served in many roles. This includes the VP/GM of Keefe Supply Company, Access Corrections, and Access Securepak, and the VP/COO of Keefe Commissary Network, which combine to make up the then, 4 operating companies of the Keefe Group. Tim also served as the VP of Operations for Keefe’s Correctional Operations and Services. He has spent a very large portion of his career working inside of correctional facilities and working directly with facility Administrators and Staff, ensuring our efficient operations, high quality services, and advanced technologies. His 18+ years of knowledge and experience working with correctional facilities provides a valuable asset to both Keefe and our customers. With the recent acquisition of ICSolutions, Tim was promoted to President/GM of the newly acquired inmate phone services company. Tim received his Bachelor’s of Science in Accounting from the University of Missouri, St. Louis in 1992.
Michael R. Smith, Business Development Consultant began his career in military electronics while in the Air Force, worked as a consultant to geophysical firms in the leasing of land, was the sole founder of a private pay telephone company, Cointel, (1986), was the sole founder of Operator Service Company (OSC), a telecommunication and teleservices firm (1987), and was the sole founder of Merchant Clearing House (MCH), a billing company clearinghouse founded in 2004.
In April 2000, Mr. Smith sold OSC to Billing Concepts, Inc. (a public company) and was made President of the merged firm. After Billing Concepts, Inc. was sold in November 2000 to Platinum Equity, Inc., an $8 billion private equity firm, he was promoted to the senior Platinum executive responsible for managing Billing Concepts, and three other telecommunication and billing firms which included OSC, and Matrix Business Technologies, a Long Distance Provider. The presidents of these four firms reported to Mr. Smith.
After the sale of Billing Concepts, Inc. in 2004 by Platinum Equity to another private firm, Mr. Smith left Platinum Equity and started his current firm Merchant Clearing House. In 2008, Mr. Smith successfully purchased Inmate Calling Solutions, LLC (ICS) from a bankruptcy court in California, a subsidiary of a California bankrupt company, The Billing Resource, LLC. (TBR). Mr. Smith is the founder of Texas ICS Holding, LLC, dba/Michael R. Smith and Group, LLC, the parent of ICS, which was sold to Centric Group in November 2010. His 30+ years of technical, managerial, and entrepreneurial experience make him extremely qualified to evaluate and determine value for telecommunication companies and operate them in a successful and profitable manner. Mr. Smith also provides consulting services to several companies.
Brendan Philbin, Vice President Business Development brings more than 16 years of experience in the telecommunications industry, delivering strategic vision, market and product strategy, telephony innovation, and program and project management to the ICSolutions team. Previous to ICSolutions, he served as Chief Operating Officer to Integretel Incorporated since 1996, overseeing all aspects of service delivery including: billing and collection, revenue assurance, customer service, quality control, and data processing functions.
Earlier in his career, Philbin served as Vice President of Operations for Value Added Communications (VAC) and was responsible for the design of fraud control processes that were successfully deployed in state-wide correctional systems and several county inmate facilities across the country.
Philbin graduated with honors from Ballinafad College in Southern Ireland.
Christopher R. Smith, CPA, Controller, joined ICSolutions in 2009 with over twelve years of experience in finance, accounting and audit including eight years of finance and accounting management experience in the telecommunications industry. Chris is currently responsible for the coordination and execution of the company’s corporate finance and accounting functions, including financial analysis and reporting, treasury and audit as well as establishing and maintaining the proper accounting principles, practices and procedures.
Prior to joining ICSolutions, Chris spent seven years with BSG Clearing Solutions, the leading provider of third-party billing and settlement clearinghouse services to the telecommunications industry serving most recently as Senior Vice President of Accounting and Finance and was responsible for all aspects of the company’s financial operations, including financial planning and analysis, debt management, budgeting, reporting, tax, treasury and audit. Chris was also responsible for the parent company’s global financial reporting including the consolidation and reporting of monthly, quarterly and year-end financial statements for banking, debt management, and AiM filings (Parent company publicly listed on the AiM market of the London Stock Exchange). Prior to joining BSG, Chris spent four years with Ernst & Young, most recently as Audit Manager.
Chris graduated from the University of Georgia with a BBA in Risk Management and Insurance (1991) and from Georgia College with a BBA in Accounting (1994).
John Goetsch, Vice President Technology brings more than 20 years of experience as a technology professional adept at planning, developing, and implementing applications to address complex business and telecommunications challenges. John has a proven track record of building and leading teams in the creation of cutting edge controls technology in telecommunications and industrial domains with numerous patents awarded.
From 1997 - 2000, John served as Chief Technologies to Opus Telecom where he was a lead architect of the system design that was successfully deployed in correctional systems across the country.
Goetsch graduated with Honors from Rhodes University with a B.S. in Computer Science.
Mike Kennedy, Director Field Operations joined ICSolutions in 2003 with over 15 years of relevant telecommunications experience in account management and business development. Mike’s experience includes both operator services and inmate telephone services offered nationwide. Mr. Kennedy obtained his Business Administration degree at the University of South Carolina.
Ken Dawson, Director Contracts & Regulatory has over 20 years of executive management experience in the telecommunications industry and currently oversees all facets of the company's contracting and compliance matters. Previous to ICSolutions, he co-founded several billing service companies establishing specialized, independent clearinghouses to address broad market segments including operator services, e-commerce and information and entertainment. Dawson applied that experience to address the significant fraud problems of the inmate correctional industry helping to pioneer technological solutions that significantly improve the revenue/cost relationship.
Dawson previously served as a senior management consultant to a $5 billion financial services, construction materials and development conglomerate, where he was responsible for designing and implementing business solutions to support a wide range of applications. He also ran his own successful consulting firm, based on his earlier experience as a software engineer, where customers included the nation's fifth largest telecommunications carrier.
J. Kirk Smith, Financial and Regulatory Consultant graduated from Texas Tech University with a BBA in Business (1973) and from the University of Denver (1981) with a MBA Finance.
Mr. Smith started his career as an Officer in the US Air Force, with his final assignment as the Quality Manger for the F100 Engine, F-15 System Program Office. Mr. Smith worked for several defense and government contractors after his Air Force career, such as Texas Instruments, Lockheed Martin, Gulf Oil and Raytheon (previously E-Systems). In his final position, he was the Vice President, Finance for the Garland division of Raytheon. In this position he had over 900 employees reporting to him in the fields of Legal, Contracts, Pricing, Finance, Accounting, Purchasing, MIS, and Facilities.
In 1991, Mr. Smith joined his brother, Mike Smith, as a part owner of Operator Service Company (OSC) in Lubbock, Texas employed as the President and CFO. OSC provided telecommunications and call center services to the cellular and telecom industries. OSC was purchased by Billing Concepts, Inc. (a public company) in April 2000 and Mr. Smith was made Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of OSC. Billing Concepts, Inc. (including OSC) was sold in November 2000 to Platinum Equity, Inc., an $8 billion private equity firm; Mr. Smith was promoted to President and CEO of OSC.
Mr. Smith left OSC in November of 2004, and became a consultant to several companies, providing CEO counsel and financial and strategic planning advice. Mr. Smith continues his consultant practice to date.
Mr. Smith became an employee of Texas ICS Holding, LLC in January 2009 and is the Vice President and Secretary for Texas ICS Holding, LLC. Mr. Smith is also an owner of Texas ICS Holding, LLC.