Senior Advisor Michael Carper, JD
Mike Carper formerly led the corporate development and international legal functions for Cogent Communications, a publicly traded multi-national Internet and data communications service provider. He joined Cogent in 2002 following its merger with Allied Riser Communications Corporation, a venture-backed fiber-optic-based Internet communications company, which Mike helped found and build. For Cogent, Mike negotiated a successful series of acquisitions more than doubling the size of its business in Europe and North America (Cogent was named the fastest growing business in the D.C. area for 2001-2003 by the Washington Business Journal). He worked with the Cogent team to establish the international legal and corporate functions as well as doing continuing mergers and acquisitions work to expand business.
Mike has extensive general corporate executive and legal experience involving complex groups of companies in multiple international jurisdictions including negotiation and documentation of mergers and acquisitions, licensing and management of intellectual property rights, negotiation and structuring of finance agreements (public and private), structuring of complex independent contractor and employee contracts and compensation plans, litigation management, documentation and management of vendor, financing and operating agreements for and between affiliate companies. He has also managed regulatory compliance including technology transfer, intellectual property registration, Digital Millennium Copyright Act, cross-border content transfer, international marketing, business registration and licensing as well as Sarbanes-Oxley requirements
His corporate experience includes senior executive roles with Nextel Communications (now Sprint/Nextel), OneComm Communications, Shared Technologies of Canada, Allied Riser Communications and numerous affiliates of these companies. He practiced law with the international law firm Jones Day. He holds a Doctor of Law degree from Emory University and a Master of Laws degree from The George Washington University.