“Advice is one of those things it is far more blessed to give than to receive.”
 ~Carolyn Wells

CSG Advisory Board

Michael Atkinson
Over 25 years of experience in corporate development and corporate finance as entrepreneur, restaurateur and investment banker, beginning at Shearson Lehman Bros. in New York City in 1985. As an investment banker, Michael has participated in over 150 advisory assignments in a wide array of industries including technology, Internet, food, beverage, restaurants, retail, entertainment and communications. As an entrepreneur, he has started several companies in the consumer Internet, restaurant and digital media industries. As a manager, Michael has helped C-level positions at restaurant and consumer-facing Internet companies. Most recently, Michael has co-founded fohboh.com, the leading B2B social network for the global restaurant industry.

Eric Grubel
Eric has worked in a variety of general management, executive level sales and business development roles over the last 18 years in both service provider and enterprise focused organizations. Eric’s career includes leading the Alcatel North America Enterprise Sales organization as Vice President of Sales to a 148% increase in sales in less than two years and the largest win in the history of Alcatel Enterprise at $350M, growing market share for Sabeus Photonics (a venture backed startup) to 60% in a little over a year, leading Clarent’s Carrier Division as President, to the world first Class IV replacement win as well as 20% quarter over quarter growth. Other roles have included VP of Worldwide sales, Vice President of Business Development and President and CEO of three early stage technology companies.

Today, Eric focuses his efforts on helping both large organizations and early stage companies set and execute against winning sales and business development strategies. Eric is currently Senior Vice President of Global Sales at Living-e Corporation.

Eric received his B.Sc.H in Computing and Information Sciences at Queens University in Canada, and a Masters in Philosophy in International Business and Finance from New York University.

Kurt Benz
Kurt is an accomplished professional with over 20 years in Telecommunications. He has designed and implemented infrastructure all over the world. His experience includes networks for Hyundai in Korea to France Telecom to a worldwide deployment for Visa International. He has performed technical design and project management for Wall Street giants Merrill Lynch, Fidelity, Bear Sterns, and Morgan Stanley.

Kurt has worked for NET, Thomson, Ciber, and Nuera. Kurt is an expert in Voice and VoIP protocols and applications. He collaborated with CSG in 2003 with start up Gobeam that was acquired by Covad. Kurt brings technical capability to CSG and has been appointed to the CSG Technical Advisory board.