management team

David Phelps, Chairman of the Board and CEO

Prior to founding CyberTap LLC and Merlin International®, David developed a deep understanding of the federal marketplace during his 25-year career that spanned work in the U.S. Navy, Ford Aerospace, Martin Marietta, Loral Aerospace, and The Aerospace Corp.

Monty Deel, President

For nearly 30 years Monty Deel has served in various positions in the government technology market, working for public and private companies, such as Oracle, ICF Engineers, 3Di, Global Protocols, and Mission Mobility. During the last 17 years he has serviced as CEO working for private equity and venture capital firms, managing portfolio companies, as the leader of successful software and professional services businesses focusing primarily on emerging technology products for the Federal Government market place.

John Trauth, Executive Vice President

John joins cybertap from Merlin International®. He has more than 25 years experience in the government sector, specializing in sales and business development. He held positions at BEA Systems, Enterworks, Oracle, Tektronix, and others. His government experience encompasses defense and civilian agencies, systems integrators, and commercial enterprises.

During John’s eight years with Merlin, he has served in multiple executive positions, President, responsible for the Technology Systems Division (TSD) and the Enterprise Solutions Division (ESD). When he was Vice President of the Technology Systems Division, John grew Merlin by over 1,100 percent, established Merlin’s corporate strategy as a reseller in the Federal marketplace, established internal compensation plans, and established over 35 vendor relationships, all within his first 12 months with the company. During 2010, under John’s watch as President, Merlin grew by 49 percent.

John graduated from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. He is a member of AFCEA (the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association).

Russell Couturier, PhD., Vice President of Cyber Initiatives

Dr. Couturier was the Founder and CTO for Dejavu Technologies and has over thirty years of experience developing technology for the networking and security arena.  He also founded three other companies; Synthetic Networks, Imperfect Networks, and ClearSpring Technologies that have deployed over a billion dollars of revenue in the industry.   He currently holds four patents regarding networking performance, vulnerability testing, and forensic analytics.

Dave Gruber, Vice President of Engineering

Dave came to cybertap LLC from Avaya where he was vice president of the Satellite Communications Division. He also held senior management positions at Nortel Government Solutions and Raytheon, which were focused on government cyber initiatives and satellite operations. Before Dave's corporate career, he dedicated more than 25 years to military service and served in key positions, including Director of the Network Operations Division, Headquarters Air Force, where he developed cyber policy.

Dave holds a Master of Science degree in Strategic Studies from Air War College, a Master of Science degree in Systems Management from University of Southern California, and a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering degree from the U.S. Air Force Director of Sales and Marketing Academy.

Gary Woods, Director of Sales, Business Devlopment and Marketing

Gary is leading sales and channels to federal, commercial and OEM's for cybertap products. He is also involved with marketing of cybertap products. Prior to joining cybertap, Gary held positions as Director of Federal Sales at Bivio Networks, Napatech and Endace. Gary was also VP of Federal Sales at Rsignia. Gary has over 25 years experience in sales and marketing. Gary also gained valuable knowledge while working for Cisco, Fore Systems, NetApp and Synoptics/Bay Networks.

Les Stovall, Director of Engineering

Les Stovall is responsible for bringing cybertap security solutions to market and assisting customers with integrations and deployments. Les has over 17 years experience in information technology and information security. He holds multiple technical and security certifications, including the CISSP, CISM, PMP, and CAP, has a Bachelors degree in Computer Science, a Masters in Information Systems, and is pursuing a PhD in Computer Security. He is also trained and certified in Computer Forensics.

Les comes to cybertap from Merlin International where he was the company’s Cyber Security Architect. Prior to Merlin, he served in various management roles within the security industry, including Director of IT Security for VMD Systems Integrators, Vice President and CTO of Security First Consulting, Director of Federal Security for Breakwater Security Associates, and worked at both private and non-profit firms such as Battelle, BlueStorm Consulting, and UUNet Technologies.