Management Team
Industry leaders with more than a century of experience.
Industry leaders with more than a century of experience.
Jim Morozzi is President and CEO of DQE Communications, where he has overall responsibility for customer fulfillment, business growth and day-to-day operations.
Prior to joining DQE Communications, Jim was President/ CEO with D&E Communications, Inc. in Lancaster County, Pa., a publicly-traded provider of local, long distance, Internet, data, video and system integration services. While at D&E, Jim focused on product development and expanded the company’s enterprise-wide data services. Under Jim’s guidance, D&E improved its profitability, grew its broadband offerings and increased its broadband market share. He also transitioned the leased networks to a facilities-based model.
Prior to his time with D&E, Jim led Exelon Communications, an operating division of Exelon Enterprises, which provided wireless and competitive local exchange carrier telecom services in the Greater Philadelphia area. In this role, Jim launched a wireless PCS business in partnership with AT&T Wireless. Additionally, he was responsible for a facilities-based fiber-optic business partnership with Telcove.
Jim’s career has encompassed the electric utility industry as well as telecommunications. During his early career, Jim worked in electric operations, corporate planning and development, and general management with PECO Energy Company, now part of Exelon Corporation.
Jim holds a BS in Electrical Engineering as well as an MBA from Drexel University. He also completed the Columbia University Senior Executive Program. In addition to various community activities, Jim serves on the board of directors for Murray Securus in Lancaster County, Pa.
Patty Giovannelli is Managing Director of Financial Planning & Analysis. In this role, she has the overall responsibility for the annual budget, long-term forecasts, strategic planning, pricing, developing and monitoring key performance indicators (KPIs), monthly reporting of financials and other statistics.
Prior to joining DQE Communications, Patty was the Director of Finance for FirstEnergy, Inc. and supported three electric utility companies in Maryland, New Jersey and West Virginia. At FirstEnergy, she led a team of 20 financial professionals in the areas of financial management, compliance, management reporting and business planning.
Prior to her time with FirstEnergy, Patty held various positions with Allegheny Energy, Inc. in Greensburg, Pa. She was the Director of Finance for the Generation business segment for eight years, and a Strategic Planning Director for two years. She also held several other positions in marketing, rates and engineering. Allegheny Energy and FirstEnergy merged in February 2011.
Patty holds an MBA from Carnegie Mellon University and a BS in Industrial Engineering from Penn State University.
Tom Faust joined DQE Communications as Controller in August 2011. He is responsible for the company’s accounting and business matters, including monthly financial statement reporting, managing customer billing and credit, and establishing and maintaining policies and procedures around various business cycles.
Prior to joining DQE Communications, Tom worked as an Accounting Supervisor at Duquesne Light Company, the Pittsburgh-area utility company and an affiliate of DQE Communications.
Tom is a graduate of Penn State University with a BS in Accounting, and is a certified public accountant.
As Director of Operations, Shawn Blanner is responsible for operating and maintaining DQE Communications’ metropolitan area dark fiber network, including outside plant engineering, permitting, material purchasing, cable plant construction and maintenance, network planning, facilities construction, real estate management, sales support, and customer activation. His expertise in the telecommunications industry extends for over 20 years.
Shawn has overseen in the operations of design and engineering of new network infrastructure to complete customer contracts, as well as network rebuilds to include laterals and backbone infrastructure. Shawn has managed over 2000+ fiber miles of network and delivery of lit services of ATM, SONET, Ethernet Transport, DWDM and GPON Platforms prior to joining DQE Communications. He has been an asset to companies such as Penn Access, TCG, AT&T, Second Century, Comcast and Fibertech Networks (Lightower).
Shawn has fostered and mentored many relationships in the process of permitting and licensing, and has provided network routes and capital expenditure budgets to sales groups. He also has experience working with engineering departments and network operations centers to facilitate maintenance issues and restoration of outages. He has overseen the construction and development of cable head ends and colocation data centers for the deployment of added value services.
Shawn is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Information Sciences.
Ross Henzel is the Director of Business Development at DQE Communications, where he is responsible for spearheading innovative and practical revenue generation strategies. This includes identifying business and merger and acquisition opportunities, potential partnerships and joint ventures, coupled with developing and managing new products and services. He also defines expansion direction into new territories and markets.
As a 20-year veteran in the telecommunications industry, Ross has developed and implemented strategies to promote business growth and success for dark fiber, SONET, Ethernet, waves, colocation, cloud, voice, wireless, and Internet products and services. He began his telecommunications career at Cincinnati Bell Information Systems (CBIS) as a product manager. After CBIS, Ross joined Eastern TeleLogic Corporation, which later became TCG, and AT&T as a Channel Sales Manager and Manager of Joint Alliances and Joint Ventures, selling fiber based voice, data and Internet services. He later worked for Comcast, as a Director of Business Development within their CLEC operations, and for IDT as the Director of Business Development for their microwave wireless business. Prior to DQE Communications, Ross managed business development for FPL FiberNet, the third largest US utility company.
Ross is a graduate of the College of New Jersey, where he earned a BS in Business, and Johns Hopkins University, where he earned a MS in Business.
Lisa Williams is Sr. Manager of Carrier Sales and Marketing at DQE Communications. In this role, Lisa is responsible for customer acquisition and growth, setting the strategy and overall direction of the marketing initiatives. In addition, Lisa leads the carrier/wholesale and wireless sales efforts including day to day management, contract negotiations and direct sales. Lisa enjoys getting to know our customers and providing helpful solutions as well as working for a company where she has a direct impact on its success with a great team of coworkers. With 30 years of experience in the telecommunications industry, Lisa joined DQE Communications in 2005.
Prior to joining DQE, Lisa held various management positions in sales, marketing, and business development with several regional and national telecom companies such as MFS/Worldcom and Dominion Telecom.
Lisa is a graduate of Penn State University, where she earned a BS in Quantitative Business Analysis.
Joe McGuinness is Director, Enterprise Sales at DQE Communications. In this role, Joe is responsible for day to day oversight of the outside sales team. His expertise includes 20 years as a telecommunications veteran, bringing industry knowledge and direct sales practice with various services including Fiber Optics, Colocation, Cloud and Security Services.
Prior to joining DQE Communications in 2014, Joe held various Sales roles at Level 3 and MCI Communications.
Joe holds a BS in Business from Cambridge State University and an RN degree from Carlow College.
Rachel Cunningham is Manager, Sales Engineering & Support at DQE Communications. In this role, Rachel is responsible for the sales solutions designs, customer account management, order processing, and overall client satisfaction. Her expertise includes managing organizational and customer expectations for order implementation, improving quality control for several systems & processes, and strategic account management – concentrating on customer specific solutions for technical design.
Prior to joining DQE Communications, Rachel was a Major Account Manager at Windstream Communications, where she was the single point of contact for over 300 customer locations on overall account needs. Prior to Windstream, Rachel had responsibility as a Customer Support Specialist at Verizon Communications concentrating on wholesale & carrier account support.
Rachel holds a BS in Communications & Business from Eastern Michigan University and a MS in Leadership & Professional Advancement from Duquesne University.