Mike McQuary
Mike McQuary is an American entrepreneur. He is the CEO of Wheego Electric Cars and is a Partner in Ellis, McQuary & Stanley, a merchant bank, both based out of Atlanta, Georgia. He is the former President of EarthLink & MindSpring and the ex-CEO of Brash Music.
His career path has run the range of company experience as he followed nearly a decade of work at corporate giant Mobil Corporation with eight years as an entrepreneur at start up ISP MindSpring Enterprises.
Education and early career
McQuary was born in Washington DC on October 26, 1959 and as a child lived in Arlington, VA; Holliston, MA; and Rochester NY. He graduated from Midlothian High School in Richmond VA in 1977. McQuary received a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology from the University of Virginia in 1981 where he was on the varsity wrestling team. McQuary's first job was selling paper cups for Lily-Tulip Inc. in Southern California. While doing this, he attended Pepperdine University nights and weekends to get his Masters of Business Administration degree. In 1985 he went to work for Mobil as a sales rep in the Chemical Division, and was subsequently promoted through a progression of management jobs in sales, marketing, new product development, and operations.
MindSpring
McQuary helped develop the concept behind the Internet Service Provider MindSpring with his friend Charles Brewer, who launched the company. As one of thousands of ISPs launched in this time frame, they believed that a true competitive advantage could be created by managing the company based on a set of guiding principles that they referred to as the Core Values and Beliefs. The CVB's empowered employees to take action on customers' behalf and established a unique and exciting work environment that became a model for Internet start ups. McQuary joined the company as executive vice president of sales and marketing in 1995 when they had service only in Atlanta with 20 employees and 1000 customers. A few months later he was named President and COO of MindSpring and in that position everyone in the company (except Charles) reported to him. McQuary helped lead MindSpring through 4 public offerings and established MindSpring as the second largest ISP in the world, behind AOL, and ahead of noteworthy competitors such as Microsoft, Prodigy, AT&T, and all of the Regional Bell Operating Companies(RBOCs). MindSpring acquired and integrated over 50 ISPs during this period including Netcom, Sprynet and PSINet's consumer division. MindSpring also won every award given for quality of service including the J. D. Power and Associates Award for best ISP. MindSpring was the first (and one of the few) Internet Service Providers that was profitable. In 1999 MindSpring merged with EarthLink, and McQ became President and served on the Board of the combined company. After having triplets, McQuary left EarthLink to spend more time with his family and pursue his other goals. At the time of his resignation in May 2002, EarthLink (NASDAQ:ELNK) was a $1.5 billion revenue company with 5 million subscribers and 5000 employees offering services that included dial up, DSL, cable, and wireless access and web hosting.
Brash Music
In October 2002, McQuary formed a music services partnership called Brash Music (originally called Sixthman) that is dedicated to breaking the adversarial paradigm of the music business through the same value based culture management that was successful at MindSpring. Brash Music is an independent record label with distribution through ADA (Warner Music Group). Artists on Brash Music have included Jump Little Children, Aaron Shust, The Damnwells, and Anthony David.
Other activities
In 2003, McQuary formed Ellis, McQuary & Stanley (EMS), along with Bert Ellis and Bahnson Stanley. EMS is a private equity investment and consulting firm based in Atlanta. McQuary also was the CEO of UNS (Usenetserver) an Internet Usenet Service that EMS bought in 2004 and sold in 2006. He was also the owner of the Madison Grill restaurant in Midtown Atlanta from 2001 to 2008.
McQuary has served on the Board of Directors of the Atlanta Chapter of NARAS (Grammys), and Inner Strength (Atlanta at-risk teen support) and recently served on the Board of Managers of the University of Virginia Alumni Association.
RTEV
McQuary was the CEO of Rough and Tuff Electric Vehicles (RTEV) from April 2007 until June 2009. RTEV is a leading manufacturer of battery-powered recreational electric vehicles. In June 2009, RTEV announced the spin-off of Wheego Electric Cars.[1]
Wheego Electric Cars
Wheego Electric Cars Inc. was formed as a spin out from RTEV in June 2009 with McQuary as CEO. The company is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.
Its first automobile, the Wheego Whip, was a two-seat compact car that was launched in the United States in August 2009, in partnership with Shuanghuan Auto. [2] The car is based on the "Noble" planform manufactured by Shijiazhuang, with final assembly, including the motor, drive train, controller, electronic components and programming in the US. It is marketed exclusively by Wheego under the Wheego Whip name in North America, Japan and the Caribbean. It was launched as a low-speed vehicle (LSV), 25 mph (40 km/h) or Medium Speed Vehicle, 35 mph (56 km/h), depending on local state regulations. The low-speed version features dry cell sealed (AGM) lead-acid batteries with a range of 80 kilometers (50 mi) on a single charge.
The Wheego LiFe is a highway-capable version with a lithium iron phosphate battery pack. The Wheego LiFe began selling in April 2011. [3] The LiFe is a small sized car sourced from China, with electric drivetrain and batteries installed in California. Its 30-kilowatt-hour lithium battery pack is coupled to a 60-horsepower electric motor. Top speed is 65 mph. It’s a commuter car, priced at $32,995. [4] It became the third all-electric highway speed street legal car for sale in the U.S. after the Tesla Roadster and Nissan Leaf. The LiFe is fully NHTSA/DOT compliant and has passed all U.S. crash-testing. It can drive at speeds up to 65 mph, and goes approximately 100 miles on a single charge. The LiFe can be recharged using either a standard 120V connection or an industry-standard Level 2 Charging Station. A two-seater with plenty of cargo storage, the LiFe is popular as an urban commuter car. It is sold through a dealer network covering the U.S., Japan and the Caribbean.
References
- ↑ "RTEV Wheego spinoff | wheego | electric vehicles". wheego. 2009-06-01. Retrieved 2009-10-25.
- ↑ Wheego.net
- ↑ Autoblog Green, author Sebastian Blanco.
- ↑ Forbes.com, author Jim Motavalli.
Wrestling Coach
McQuary is an assistant wrestling coach at Marist School. Along with John McGrath and Fred Kemp he was one of the founders and coaches of the Pittsford NY Youth Wrestling Club in the late 1980s.