The Vazata Leadership Team

Executive Leadership Team

Lance Black, President and Chief Executive Officer. As President and Chief Executive Officer, Lance Black is focused on using over a decade of leadership experience with high growth IT companies to deliver reliability and peace of mind to clients that need state of the art infrastructure support and managed IT services. Before joining Vazata as Executive Vice President of Operations, Black spent nine years growing Mareechi, the company he founded, into one of the most successful hosting and managed application services firms in the Southwest. Mareechi was acquired by Vazata (formerly Horizon Data Center Solutions) in 2009, and Black was promoted to CEO in 2010. His unyielding curiosity for challenging the bounds of technology and his ability to attract and lead visionary IT professionals has fueled the continued growth of Vazata. As CEO he is responsible for investor relations, strategic relationships, and day to day operations. He received his BBA in accounting from Midwestern State University.

David MacGrandle, Chief Operating Officer. As Chief Operating Officer, David is responsible for development, execution and delivery of the company's strategic vision. David has over 20 years experience with technology service providers, and also serves as the company's Chief Financial Officer. He was most recently Chief Financial Officer at Fusepoint where he played a significant role in Fusepoint's exponential profitable growth eventually leading to its $124.5 million acquisition by Savvis (CenturyLink). Prior to Fusepoint, he was Chief Financial Officer of Masergy Communications. David held executive positions at EDS, CapRock Communications and Excel Communications where he was responsible in various roles for strategic planning, corporate development, business development and controllership. Mr. MacGrandle is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) licensed in Texas, and a Certified Management Accountant (CMA). He holds an MBA and MSMAS from the University of Texas at Dallas, and a BS degree in Applied Mathematical Sciences from Texas A&M University.

Sales Leadership Team

James MacDougall, Vice President - Federal Sales. As VP of Federal Sales, James MacDougall leads Vazata's federal sales and marketing teams and is additionally responsible for partner and channel alliances. He brings over 20 years of direct experience within the federal government sector and 15 years of various sales, business development and senior leadership roles delivering cloud, data center, network and cyber security solutions. During much of the last decade, James led Qwest Communications sales teams positioning managed and colocation hosting and initiated their evolution into the Cloud. Prior to Vazata, James held an executive sales role with LTI DataComm focusing on optimizing networks and enabling mission-critical IT services to the federal government. He is a hosting subject-matter author and is recognized as a data center industry thought leader. James holds a Master's degree in Business Administration from Boston University and a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from the University of Maryland. He also continues to serve as a pilot in the Air National Guard, currently carrying the rank of Lt Col.

Pete Benoit, Vice President Technical Solutions. As Vice President of Technical Solutions, Pete Benoit has responsibility and oversight for all aspects of Sales Engineering and Support and Technical Product Marketing. Benoit joined Vazata as the company's first Sales Engineer and has over 17 years of experience in the datacenter and network services industry. Mr. Benoit brings to the office everyday a strong work ethic and a thirst for knowledge. Prior to joining Vazata, Mr. Benoit held positions with Internap Network Services and Nortel Networks as well as being a veteran of the United States Air Force. He received his BA from the University of Louisiana Lafayette.