Tampa tech company taps C.R. businessman as CEO

A Cedar Rapids businessman who led the investor group seeking a state license for a casino in Cedar Rapids has been named president and CEO of a Tampa, Fla., mobile services company.

Stephen Gray, founder of Gray Venture Partners in Cedar Rapids and chairman of the board at ImOn Communications, SecurityCoverage, Involta and HH Ventures, had been interim president and CEO of Syniverse Holdings since August 2014.

Syniverse is a transaction processor that provides mobile communications between differing types of networks, devices and applications. The company has more than 1,500 enterprise and mobile operator clients worldwide.

Gray will be paid a yearly base salary of $750,000, with potential for yearly bonuses up to 150 percent of that salary, according to a Feb. 25 U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

Gray also will receive a lump sum signing bonus of $1.3 million and reimbursement for traveling to the company's Tampa headquarters. He gets 700,000 restricted stock units that vest fully over three years.

Gray, who joined the Syniverse's board of directors in 2011, has been given an option to buy 1.5 million shares of common stock at $11.25 a share, vesting over four years.

James Atwood, chairman of Syniverse's board of directors, in a statement said candidates reviewed for six months before the panel decided to name Gray permanent president and CEO.

'As interim president and CEO, Steve brought energy and focus to the business, led significant improvements to Syniverse's operations, and reoriented the company around a strategy based on profitable growth,” Atwood said.

Gray will resign from the Carlyle Group, the Washington, D.C. private equity firm that owns Syniverse.

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