About Us
Today we present to you Racer Connect!
Kyle C Bacon
Chief Executive Officer
Mr. Kyle Bacon is one of the founders of Racer Connect and provides vision and technical expertise to the company.
Mr. Bacon has been a car enthusiast his entire life. He was responsible for data acquisition and analysis during the 2009 & 2010 seasons for the RRT Racing Grand Am team and is a driver himself, racing with NASA German Touring Series & Spec3 for the past 5 years.
In addition Mr. Bacon is a current member of the Advisory Board at Ion Partners LLC, a New York-based investment banking firm providing services to technology and telecom companies. The firm provides restructuring, valuation, capital raising, and mergers and acquisitions, and corporate finance advisory services.
Mr. Bacon is also the Chief Information Officer for Cogent Communications, a publicly traded, facilities-based Internet access provider. He has overseen acquisitions of seven companies in North America and Europe and is also responsible for new product introductions at Cogent. Currently based in Washington, D.C., he has spent his entire career in the Internet and telecom space.
Most notably, Mr. Bacon founded Fiber Network Solutions, one of the original Internet backbone companies, in 1996. He was the Chief Operating Officer of the company and managed its substantial growth before selling the company to Cogent Communications in 2003. During his tenure with Fiber Network Solutions the company was recognized by Inc Magazine as one of the 500 fastest growing privately held companies in the US (68th in 2001).
In 2000 Mr. Bacon was recognized by Ernst & Young as a Finalist in the “Entrepreneur of the Year.” In 1997 he was recognized as one of the Top 40 under 40 Entrepreneurs by Business First Magazine in the Ohio Valley Region. Mr. Bacon graduated from Ohio Northern University in 1995 with a BS in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.
Tony Kutlu
Chief Operating Officer
Mr. Tony Kutlu is one of the members of the Racer Connect team and utilizes his broad skill set to fill in many roles. During a race weekend one can find Mr. Kutlu either behind a camera, changing tires, working through new strategies and projects, or brain-storming new ideas.
Through 25 years of experience he has perfected his ability to align goals to resources and to develop high-profile projects and programs. Mr. Kutlu refers to himself as a “Change Agent” since through his passion in aligning people, processes, and technology into meeting team goals he endeavors to change the culture around him. He is a certified developer, a database analyst, a project manager, and holds an MBA and teaches as an adjunct professor at the graduate level specializing in Strategic Management of Information Technology. He is pursuing a doctorate at The Ohio State University.
Mr. Kutlu’s 35- year passion for photography has resulted in recognition through awards and publishing in online magazines. His passion for photography is challenged by a passion for high- performance automobiles. His first engine swap was at age 14 and he has been racing and building cars ever since.
Currently, Mr. Kutlu is a senior manager for The Ohio State University Office of Research. His career has ranged from Fortune 100 companies, State agencies, universities, venture capital-funded dot-coms, to consulting for a wide variety of small-to-medium sized businesses. He is also involved in consulting for a wide variety of small-to-medium sized businesses.
Brittany Berndt
Spokesmodel and Trackside Correspondent
Brittney Glaze
Spokesmodel and Brand Ambassador
Eric Donovan
Social Media Director