Michael E Hicks Jr, Chief Technology Officer

Panther News

Mr. Hicks has been involved in the field of Technology for over twenty five years. He received his BS Degree in Computers and Information Systems, from Florida A&M University in 1988 through the Navy's BOOST program. After receiving his commission in the US Navy, Mr. Hicks was accepted into the Naval Flight Program and was designated a Naval Aviator in October 1989. He began his naval career in Pensacola Florida and retired from the Navy several years later in Pensacola .

During his career as a Naval Officer he flew Electronic Reconnaissance Missions in the EP-3E with VQ-1 in Guam , was a Flight Instructor with VT-2 at NAS Whiting Field, and served as a staff member for Commander Training Air Wing Five. At Air Wing 5 he was assigned the duties of creating an IT department for the Wing, which supported all of the squadrons at NAS Whiting Field. During his tenure he was involved in projects such as base-wide fiber network construction, data center design and construction, network design and support, help desk management, and contractor management. In June 1987, he established his first commercial business, Pensacola Internet. This company grew to become the second largest ISP in Pensacola FL , and was the first company to introduce new technologies such as 56K modem and wireless internet access in the Pensacola area.

In July 1998, he sold Pensacola Internet's residential customers to Mindspring and business customers to Network Telephone. In July 1999 he went to work for Network Telephone as their IT Director. Here he was responsible for managing the IT needs of a company as it grew from 55 employees to 600+ employees operating in 9 states. He oversaw projects such as data center design and construction and was a member of the team responsible for billing, OSS , trouble ticket, network monitoring system selection and integration.