Governance at a Glance

Chair
Member
Board Members

David Gandini

Ford Fay

Steve Beabout

Sandy Shoemaker

Noreen Butler

David Gandini

Dave is a serial entrepreneur and has spent his career identifying and seizing opportunities in telecommunications, technology, software and automated packaging. In his role at SOBR Safe, he is responsible for capital creation, new business acquisition, business strategy & development and partnership revenue generation.

Dave most recently served as President of IPS Denver, a bank card personalization and packaging entity, where he transformed the company into the leader in the US secured gift market space – growing the company from concept to $46 million in revenue. IPS was acquired by a public company in 2014. Prior to his engagement at IPS, Dave was the COO at First World Communications, a major US internet and Data Center provider, and participated in its successful IPO in 2000, raising over $250 million. Previously, Dave founded Pace Network Services, providing carrier SS7 signaling to US long distance providers and facilitated a successful exit to ICG Communications. He also co-founded Detroit-based Digital Signal in the fiber optic long haul market sector, where he executed a successful exit to SP Telecom.

Dave is a father of three boys, and resides with his wife in Denver, Colorado. He graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in Telecommunications. He was a scholarship NCAA Division I Hockey player, and was a member of the US Junior National Team and a US Junior All-American.

Ford Fay

Ford is an experienced Operations & Engineering executive focusing in business transformation & efficiency improvements across People, Process & Systems. He is currently an executive at Crown Castle International, and learned his craft at Rochester Telephone, building teams, processes and systems across many departments in the Telecommunication space.

Ford went on to executive roles in Engineering, Planning and Network Access at US West, Qwest, tw telecom and Zayo.  While continuing to hone his expertise in People, Process & Systems, he led the technical  aspects of a large $1 B startup within US West, helped Qwest to stave off bankruptcy by saving $100 MM year and led improvements at tw telecom that made it an envied leader in the CLEC sector. He has been engaged in over 40 acquisitions and successful integrations over his career. His career has included significant business dealings internationally, mostly focused in the Americas and Europe.

Ford earned a degree in Operations Research & Information Engineering from Cornell University and an MBA from the Simon School of Business, University of Rochester. His interests include skiing, travel, cycling, golf and hockey. 

Steve Beabout

For nearly 20 years Steve served as General Counsel and a Senior Officer of the cable and satellite network Starz, over which time he was promoted from Vice President to Executive Vice President and Secretary. He was part of the strategic senior management team that grew the business from a relative startup to a multibillion-dollar Nasdaq company. He was responsible for the negotiation of multimillion to billion-dollar contracts with the likes of Universal, Disney, Sony, Comcast, Time-Warner, Netflix and more. He was responsible for all legal aspects of the business, including sales, marketing, studio acquisitions, programing, human resources and general corporate operations.  As General Counsel and Secretary he was heavily involved in public company governance. Steve is also an accomplished technology investor, with a focus on potentially disruptive, emerging growth solutions.

Sandy Shoemaker

Sandy has served as a member of our Board of Directors since December 2021 and serves as Chairperson of the audit committee of our Board of Directors. She retired from public accounting in June 2021 to focus on consulting with small-medium sized companies. Sandy was a partner in the audit service area of EKS&H/Plante Moran and was involved in public accounting since 1990, serving publicly traded and privately held companies. She led the EKS&H SEC practice for several years. Her experience includes initial and secondary public offerings, reverse mergers, annual and quarterly audits of public companies, responses to SEC comment letters, assisting with implementation of new accounting pronouncements, business acquisitions, stock-based compensation, and internal controls. Sandy has provided services to companies in the various industries such as bio-tech, franchising, distribution, manufacturing, medical-device, restaurants and real estate industries. She also has extensive experience in working with employee-owned companies. 

Sandy has numerous professional affiliations including, but limited to, American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), the Colorado Society of Certified Public Accountants (CSCPA), and the National Center for Employee Ownership (NCEO). She received her B.S. in Accounting, graduating cum laude, from Southwest Missouri State University.

Noreen Butler

Ms. Butler, age 49, combines over 12 years of experience in senior management and recruitment, following a 7-year career in business development. She is currently the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of RubiCorp Technologies, Inc., a private ridesharing company focused on safely transporting children ages 7+ for busy families and those in need of a safe, trusted ride. Previously, Ms. Butler had been involved in several companies in real estate, biotechnology and the technology industry, holding positions including Senior Advisor, Director of Business Development and Chief Executive Officer. From 2015 through June 2016, Ms. Butler was the Director of Business Development for Frozen Egg Bank Network, a division of global fertility company Donor Egg Bank. From 2016 to 2018, she was a Senior Advisor for Cresa, an international commercial real estate company. Ms. Butler has an undergraduate degree in Communications from Pine Manor College.