Mike Erhart
With over 40 years of experience in engineering and management, Mike Erhart has established a distinguished career marked by significant achievements and leadership roles. As a former Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and officer of a publicly traded company, Erhart has demonstrated exceptional expertise in telecommunications, network security, and international operations.One of Erhart’s most notable accomplishments was serving as the CTO of Oklahoma’s telecommunications network, OneNet. Instrumental in its creation, Erhart collaborated with the public, state agencies, and the state legislature to design and implement a network that saves the state over $80 million annually, according to a study by Oklahoma State University.In the realm of international operations, Erhart has provided critical support for a financial services company, managing routers, firewalls, and VPN tunnels for NYSE Euronext operations in Paris and Amsterdam.
Erhart also supported outsourced data centers and disaster recovery sites at several SunGard facilities, worked with a software development team in Hong Kong, and managed the migration of a data center to Dubai to better serve Middle Eastern clients.As the former CTO of a telephone company, Erhart has a deep understanding of carrier operations and telecommunications technology. Erhart successfully grew an ISP operation from fewer than 3,000 customers to over 11,000 and designed and built the core data center for a broadband wireless ISP, providing 24/7 network operations center (NOC) support.Erhart has extensive experience negotiating and collaborating with industry leaders such as Cisco, Sun Microsystems, and Unisys. Notably, Cisco CEO John Chambers credited Erhart for developing Oklahoma’s statewide network infrastructure, contributing to the creation of the Internet.