Our Team
Otava’s team has decades of experience managing, leading and supporting successful high-tech businesses, from startups to Fortune 500 global providers. Meet the x factors – the legendary people that set us apart—not just executive leadership, but also our dedicated team of engineers. Bonus? We’re all nice, too!
Brad Cheedle
Chief Executive Officer
Brad joins Otava as a grizzled veteran technology executive and entrepreneur with more than 20 years of experience. His professional expertise includes corporate finance, sales and business development, engineering, technical operations, marketing, product development and mergers and acquisitions. He has helped launch companies and organizations at WOW!Business, Zayo Group, Qwest Communications, Onfiber Communications, Level 3 Communications and MCI Communications.
Brad is an active alumnus at the University of Northern Colorado, Monfort College of Business. He currently sits on the Board of Directors there and supports the organization’s entrepreneurial programs. He’s a sucker for a good bourbon and enjoys jamming out on his guitar more than anything except possibly being with his family.
Tom Wilten
Chief Financial Officer
Tom is Chief Financial Officer of Otava, who has built his career around corporate finance and strategy. His previous experience includes Qwest Communications, where he was responsible for mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, and strategic business review. Tom capped his career at Qwest by leading the process for the $22 billion merger with CenturyLink–no small feat!
Tom holds an MBA in finance and accounting from the University of Chicago and a B.A. in economics from Cornell University. When he’s not guiding Otava financially, you can find him hanging out with his family of three children, serving on the Board of Trustees for the Colorado/Wyoming Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society and the Good Shepherd Foundation board, or kicking around a ball as a volunteer recreational soccer coach.
Laurel Burton
Vice President of Product and Marketing
Laurel has an uncanny gift for transforming previously unknown corporate brands into thriving powerhouses. Her award-winning career includes serving as the Vice President of Marketing for Faction Inc., a large cloud infrastructure provider, and ViaWest (now Flexential), a nationwide data center service provider. She has also served as a Fractional CMO for IQ Wired, Big Compass, HotQuant, Nuvalo, Aligned Energy and two confidential businesses (oooh, mysterious!).
Laurel holds both a Master’s in Telecommunications Engineering as well as a Master’s of Business Administration from the University of Colorado. When she is not working, you can find her enjoying mountain living with her four-legged friend Wilma by her side.
Tim Nielsen
VP, Sales & Solutioning
Tim comes to Otava with 20 years experience in IT managed services, colocation, application hosting design and security. He was a ground floor employee at SAVVIS in the early 2000’s, spent eight years at SunGard, five years at Zayo Group and most recently served as a regional director at Radware. Tim lives in Denver, Colo., and enjoys mountain biking, skiing, relaxing on the beach and rooting for his alma mater, the University of Virginia.
Fun fact: Tim grew up as an “oil brat” in Saudi Arabia and attended an American boarding school in London.
Cyndi Lyon
Vice President of Operations
Cyndi brings over 20 years’ experience focused on improvement process and overall customer experience to Otava. She is responsible for managing and scaling the client services, deployments, and data center operations teams to better serve our clients. An enthusiast for first impressions and the overall customer experience, Cyndi is focused on creating a seamless customer-centric experience which brings together diverse internal expertise to establish best practices and simplify process for our customers. Before coming to Otava, she was the Director of Professional Services with Foresee, managing a team of analysts, setting the overall onboarding strategy for customers, and building out the professional services consultant role and product offerings. Prior to that she was the Planning Director for the City of Romulus, where she established the city’s first Planning Department. Cyndi works out of our headquarters in Ann Arbor, Michigan, office and has an honors Bachelor degree from Eastern Michigan University.
When she is away from the office, she enjoys spending time with her family, traveling, and heading north to enjoy the Michigan seasons.