Management Team

Nicholas (Nik) Nesbitt, Founder

Nik Nesbitt is Managing Partner and founder of MarketRace LLC. Nik brings extensive general management experience to the firm, including a successful track record of developing and managing high-tech sales channels. He is an outspoken advocate on the value of partnering and the need to create mutually respectful business partner relationships.

Prior to founding MarketRace, Nik was Vice President of the Qwest Business Partner Program (QBPP). He led Qwest's indirect channels, consisting of telecom agents, value added resellers (VARs), distributors, and system integrators to $1 billion annual revenue of solutions using Qwest's voice, data, Internet, and management services to enterprises worldwide. This program's unique approach to integrating sales channels earned Qwest a 2nd-place rank in Smart Partner magazine's Top 100 companies, and a 13th-place spot in the VAR 500 in 2001.

Previously, Nik started and grew the indirect sales channel at Rhythms NetConnections, and led US WEST's indirect sales channel. Prior to his tenure at US WEST, Nik held numerous sales, product management, marketing, business development and strategic planning positions with Square D Company and The Boston Consulting Group.

Nik received his MBA from Stanford University and his Master's and undergraduate engineering degrees from Dartmouth College. Nik was born and raised in Kenya where he was ranked in the Top 1% of all graduating high school seniors and was captain of his school's soccer, rugby and track teams. Nik enjoys golf, mountain biking and leading safaris in Kenya. He speaks French and Swahili.

Michael H. Fair, Founder

Michael adds to MarketRace an extensive background of executive relationship management and strategic sales experience. Prior to founding MarketRace, Michael was Regional Vice President, Strategic Partners for Qwest Communication's Business Partner Program. There, he managed a team responsible for deal structuring and executive relationships with Qwest's Strategic Partners including Cisco, IBM, Perot Systems, Sun Microsystems, and EMC. Michael joined newly-public Qwest in 1997 as Director of Marketing and started the Qwest Business Partner Program later that same year.

Prior to his work with Qwest, Michael was Director of Pricing and Promotions for Sprint Business where he oversaw the worldwide pricing strategy for all of Sprint's voice and data products, across all sales channels.

In addition, Michael has 10 years of Business Development, M&A and Sales experience with EDS where he was involved in the Communications business unit supporting IXCs, PTTs, Cable, Cellular and other communications companies worldwide.

Michael received his Masters of International Business degree from the University of Texas, Dallas and a BBA in Finance from Southern Methodist University.

Ron J. Wood, Founder

Ron brings a unique perspective on distribution channels, having spent 20 years in Telecommunications in both Direct and Indirect Sales leadership roles. At US WEST, Ron was a Strategic Accounts Sales Manager, responsible for sales support and network design for accounts including the State of Colorado, University of Colorado, and CU Health Science Center. Ron's technical expertise spans IP, Switching, Frame Relay, ATM, and DSL. After demonstrating his technical leadership, Ron moved to Rhythms as Director of Business Development to grow sales and revenue by creating partnerships through their channel program. In this role, Ron created partnerships with VARs, Systems Integrators, and with Ingram Micro as a Distribution partner.

Ron moved to Qwest as Director of Strategic Partners and was responsible for managing the largest business partners of Qwest in the Rocky Mountain Region. This included managing relationships with SAIC, Accenture, Sun Microsystems, EMC, MOCA, and SupportNet.

Ron's educational experience includes M.S. Telecommunications from University of Colorado, MBA from Regis University, and B.S. Chemical Engineering from Colorado School of Mines. As a native of Colorado, Ron maximizes the benefits of living near the Rocky Mountains. In his free time, Ron can be found in the mountains hiking, biking, or snowboarding.