About Primus − Management Team
Andrew Day, Chief Operating Officer
A.J. Byers, Executive Vice President, Operations
Jeff Lorenz, Vice President, Sales and Marketing, Business Services
Rob Warden, Vice President, Sales and Marketing, Residential Services
Maureen Merkler, Vice President, Human Resources
Andrew Day, Chief Operating Officer
Andrew Day joined Primus in July, 1999 as Vice President, Marketing and Sales (Residential) and in July, 2000 his responsibilities broadened to include overall management of the Residential Services Division.
Before joining Primus, Mr. Day was General Manager of Business Development for AT&T Canada, where he helped develop many new products and services. He was also a member of the original competitive long distance provider launch team at AT&T's predecessor company, Unitel.
Mr. Day has an Honours Bachelor of Commerce degree from McMaster University and is a Certified Management Accountant.
A.J. Byers, Executive Vice President, Operations
A.J. Byers leads the technology and customer operations groups at Primus with a core focus of being innovative, designing business processes that can scale with the company’s growth, and solving strategic business problems. His years of building organizations that have put the customer at the core of the organization assist in driving benefit to both Primus and our customers.
Joining Primus in 2004 as the Sr. Vice President of Business Services, AJ focused the organization on becoming a full service data and telecom services provider, expanded the Primus datacenter business to have an expansive national footprint, developed a wide array of managed services offerings, and launched one of Canada’s most sophisticated hosted VoIP offerings for business.
Before joining Primus, Mr. Byers was the Chief Operating Officer for Magma Communications, which was one of Canada's leading full service Internet Solutions Company. Through acquisition, Magma's service offerings are now a key component of the growth strategy for Primus Business Services.
A.J. holds a Bachelor of Applied Science and a Masters of Engineering specializing in the Management of Technology from the University of Waterloo.
Rob Warden, Vice President, Sales and Marketing, Residential Services
Rob is the Revenue Leader for the Residential Services business unit, and brings over 19 years of Consumer Marketing experience to the role. Rob’s focus is to generate profitable revenue growth through a wide variety of customer acquisition and retention programs, and a continued evolution of Primus’ consumer product offerings. Rob joined Primus Canada in June, 1999 as Director of Products, and his responsibilities were increased in August, 2001 to lead the Residential Marketing group as VP Marketing. Rob has helped re-position Primus from primarily a Long Distance provider to a full services Telecommunications provider, adding High Speed Internet, VoIP, Local Home Phone and Wireless services to the suite of Primus products throughout his tenure.
Before joining Primus, Rob spent over 4 years at AT&T Canada. His first role there was Advertising Manager in the Residential Group, developing several National Advertising campaigns, including all communications surrounding the re-branding of the company from Unitel to AT&T Canada. From there, Rob moved into progressive Product Management roles with focus on Domestic and International Long Distance services.
Prior to joining Unitel, Rob spent over 4 years on the Agency side at DDB Needham Worldwide in Media Planning and Account Services, developing National and Regional Advertising campaigns across all key media, primarily for Consumer Packaged Goods clients.
Rob has an Honours Bachelor of Business Administration (Administrative & Policy Studies) from Trent University.
Jeff Lorenz, Vice President, Sales and Marketing, Business Services
Jeff is the Revenue Leader for Business Services, and is responsible to constantly improve and evolve the Sales and Marketing organization in a pursuit of growth in both revenue and earnings for Primus Canada. Jeff is a thought leader in telecom solutions and offers products and services that deliver enterprise level benefits to the small, medium, and enterprise markets in Canada.
Jeff Lorenz joined Primus in 2005 as Sales Director, Central Ontario and in 2007 took on the role of Vice President, Direct Sales. Throughout his time at Primus, he has worked on expanding and evolving the Primus Sales Organization, and ultimately driving value to the organization and customers by solving a wide range of business needs.
Prior to joining Primus Jeff has held leadership roles in Sales & Marketing in Technology, Telecommunications and Office Automation.
Maureen Merkler, Vice President, Human Resources
Maureen Merkler is responsible for the development and execution of human resources strategies that align, support and contribute to Primus Canada's vision and corporate objectives.
Through the enhancement of internal systems and programs, Ms. Merkler and her team continue to foster work environments conducive to maximizing Employee engagement.
Maureen Merkler was instrumental in the delivery of Primus' Strategic Leadership, Effective Management and Vision Development initiatives and continues to promote the core values of Primus Canada.
Before joining Primus in 1999, Ms. Merkler was the Vice President of Human Resources for London Telecom Network and WinTel Communications.
Maureen is a certified Human Resources professional and a member of the Human Resource Professionals Association of Ontario.
Carl Scase, Vice President, Information Services
Carl Scase joined Primus in December 2000 and has responsibility for Information Services.
Mr. Scase has been instrumental in re-engineering business processes, formalizing development practices and standardizing technologies resulting in improved quality, decreased costs and faster systems development and deployment.
Over the last 25 years Carl has held senior management positions in the Telecommunications and Software Industries.
Most recently he was COO at Inlogic Software and CIO at Rogers Communications.
Mr. Scase has an Honours BSc Degree from the University of Western Ontario.
Jill C. Schatz, General Counsel & VP Law
Jill Schatz joined Primus in 2008 as General Counsel and VP Law and has overall responsibility for the legal needs of the Company.
Ms. Schatz has extensive in-house experience in various public and private corporations and has held senior legal, corporate secretarial and executive roles in the IT and Telecommunications industries since 2000 with Momentum Advanced Solutions Inc. (formerly OnX Enterprise Solutions Inc.) and Cybersurf Corp. Prior to 2000 she held in-house positions with ICI Canada Inc. (formerly C-I-L Inc.) and TransCanada PipeLines Limited.
Ms. Schatz is active in the corporate counsel community and is a past-President of the Canadian Corporate Counsel Association (“CCCA”). She currently serves on the Executives of the IT and E-Commerce Section of the Ontario Bar Association and the Toronto Chapter of the CCCA.
Ms. Schatz holds a Juris Doctorate and MBA both from the University of Toronto as well as a Masters in Law (International Trade & Competition Law) from Osgoode Hall Law School.
TopPrimus Canada offers a wide variety of long distance, Internet, data and hosting services. To inquire about making Primus' services work for you, e-mail: info@primustel.ca.
Primus Canada is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Primus Telecommunications Group Incorporated (NASDAQ: PRTL) www.primustel.com.
