Board of Directors

Edward “Eddie” Hilliary is currently the president of Medicine Park Telephone, having accepted this position in 2005. Previously he held numerous executive roles in the company, dating back to 1993. Under Eddie’s guidance, Medicine Park Telephone has rolled out more than $10 million in RUS-funded broadband projects to deploy fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) throughout the Medicine Park area. He also holds various executive roles in Hilliary, Oklahoma Western Telephone Company, Texhoma Fiber, Hilliary Construction and Southern Plains Cable, among others. Eddie is deeply involved in the Elgin Community. He is a member of the city library board, planning commission and serves on the board of directors for the Armed Services YMCA of Lawton Fort Sill.

Ron is chief revenue officer of Uniti Group Inc., where he isresponsible for Uniti’s holistic growth opportunities across its fiber and wireless infrastructure segments from edge to enterprise. He previously served as president of Sales and Business Development at Uniti Fiber.

Mudry has more than 30 years of experience in the telecommunications industry and was the founder of two start-up fiber operating companies that grew to become leaders in their industry segment. He leads Uniti Fiber’s sales and business development initiatives which include providing fiber based services to wireless carriers, wireline carriers, government, education and enterprise customers. He joined Uniti Fiber in 2016 following the acquisition of Tower Cloud, a company he founded in 2006, that was a leader in fiber, small cell and cell site backhaul services in the Southeast, U.S. Earlier in his career, he founded Progress Telecom (formed in 1998) and before that spent 15 years with GTE Corporation (now Verizon) where he held key management positions in finance, sales and marketing, international operations, treasury, strategic planning, and mergers and acquisitions.

Ron earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance from the University of Michigan and an MBA from the University of Tampa.

Sean Sullivan is vice president of Product Management and Regulatory Affairs at MetTel, a leading global provider of integrated digital communications solutions for enterprise customers. Prior to joining MetTel, Sean spent more than 20 years in executive positions at Verizon in product marketing, sales, operations and channel strategy. At Verizon, he helped drive strong business results while managing product development for the company’s $4 billion wholesale data services portfolio. He previously served as director of Systems & Infrastructure at Bell Atlantic and director of Resale Services with NYNEX. Sean earned a Bachelor’s degree in Business Management from Providence College and a Master of Science degree from Lesley University. Sean and his family live in the greater New York City area.

Gary Watts is the founder and CEO of Fuse.Cloud, a Jackson, Miss.-based business passionate about helping other businesses regain their focus. Over the last three decades, Watts has led a number of organizations through periods of significant growth. He founded Fuse.Cloud under the name Broadband Voice in 2006. The company soon gained recognition as one of the fastest growing Voice over IP (VoIP) technology companies in the Southeast. Today, Fuse.Cloud serves over 2,000 business customers in 40 states throughout the country.

For the first decade of his career, Watts established a dedication to hard work and honed his business skills by owning and operating a popular restaurant franchise. Then, in 1995, he started a concert promotion business. This business grew to national recognition and, within its first few years, Watts promoted over 100 performances nationally while still running the restaurant. In 1997, Watts began in the sales division for startup technology company Unity Communications, based in Jackson. He was rapidly promoted to VP, Sales in 2000. After nearly a decade here, Watts recognized that the next generation of telephony would be rooted in hosted VoIP solutions. This vision for advanced business technology solutions was catalyst for him starting Broadband Voice in 2006.

In addition to his business endeavors, Watts serves on the INCOMPAS Board of Directors and the 2020 Entrepreneurship Center Advisory Council at Mississippi State University. Watts also founded Jackson-based concert series, Covered, a non­profit that benefits various causes throughout the world. These concerts have helped raise money for local adoption, prevention of human trafficking in Cambodia, local arts organizations, Young Life and medical bills to support a local family.

Watts is a graduate of McCluer Academy (now Hillcrest Christian School), and he obtained his Bachelor of Science degree from Mississippi College. He currently lives in the Jackson area with Gay, his wife of 31 years. They have one daughter, Olivia.

Greg Rogers is head of Global Policy and Regulatory Affairs for Bandwidth Inc., where he leads Bandwidth’s regulatory and public policy matters. Bandwidth’s software-enabled communications platform (CPaaS) powers a wide-range of innovative VoIP and Messaging services. Bandwidth is also a leading industry provider of VoIP 9-1-1 routing services across the country. Bandwidth’s nationwide Internet Protocol-based network incorporates its wholly owned facilities-based CLEC with an interconnection footprint that spans the 48 continental states. Greg has been leading Bandwidth’s regulatory and public policy efforts since 2010. Prior to joining Bandwidth, he managed state and federal regulatory matters at Level 3 Communications. Greg is an alumnus of The Colorado College and the University of Colorado School of Law.

Jeff Garte serves as the President of NY/NJ for Boldyn Networks’ U.S. business and is responsible for leading a customer-focused strategy, collaborating with carriers and enterprise customers on fiber networks and neutral host infrastructure to enable their growth plans.

Joining Boldyn Networks’ U.S. organization as the CFO of former company Transit Wireless, Jeff brings years of experience in successfully expanding customer bases, geographic landscapes and bringing new product offerings to market. He brings a focus on connecting operational actions with financial results to drive strategic outcomes.

Prior to Boldyn Networks and Transit Wireless, Jeff was CFO of Globecomm. He also held various senior financial roles at Hibernia Networks, AboveNet Communications and CSC ServiceWorks. He began his career in the investment banking divisions at Evercore and UBS.

Jeff earned an undergraduate degree from Hamilton College and an MBA from Columbia University.

Chris Champion, a native of Greenwood, Miss., serves as vice president of Government Relations for C Spire, a diversified telecommunications company headquartered in Ridgeland, Miss. In that role, Chris has oversight of both federal and multi-state policy issues for the company. In addition, he manages the company’s political engagement activities.

Prior to joining C Spire, Chris was vice president in the Cornerstone Government Affairs, Jackson, Miss., office where he represented a variety of clients in the agriculture, energy, corrections, and non-profit sector. Chris’s public service includes serving as special assistant to United State Sen. Roger Wicker in Washington, D.C., until he returned to his home state where he held the position of policy director for Gov. Phil Bryant. Chris was the Governor’s designee to the Tennessee Valley Authority Regional Energy Resource Council, Delta Regional Authority, Appalachian Regional Commission and the Southern States Energy Board.

A proud graduate of Ole Miss, he has been recognized as a Top 50 Under 40 businessperson by the Mississippi Business Journal and is a previous member of the Mississippi Economic Council’s Leadership Mississippi Class. He was recently appointed to the Connect Mississippi Committee by the Mississippi Public Service Commission.

Chris is a past president of the Washington, D.C. Ole Miss Alumni Association, member of Century Club Charities, and attends Northminster Baptist Church in Jackson, Miss., where he resides with his kids Amelia and Worth.

Christopher Levendos is Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for Crown Castle. Crown Castle’s comprehensive portfolio of towers, small cells, and fiber gives people and communities access to essential data, technology and wireless service and opens the door to countless opportunities and possibilities. Chris recently was executive vice president of Field Operations for Frontier Communications, where he was responsible for service delivery across 29 states. Prior to joining Frontier, Chris was an executive of Google Fiber (Alphabet), where he led network deployment and operations and helped expand Google Fiber’s network operations from three cities to ten cities. Chris also served as region president of New York City for Verizon, where he worked for 26 years. Prior to that he served as vice president of National Operations and supported Verizon’s annual capital program investments and operational process improvements. He joined New York Telephone as a field technician in Harlem in 1989, and served in positions of increasing responsibility in operations and engineering. While at Verizon, his teams led the planning, design and early build of Verizon’s fiber-to-the-home network across New York City. Chris helped lead a number of key operational innovations in fiber-optic deployment and holds two patents. After superstorm Sandy, Chris led the recovery effort of Verizon’s wireline infrastructure in Lower Manhattan, converting the entire local distribution system to fiber-optic based infrastructure within six months. Chris serves on the boards for Junior Achievement of New York, the Regional Planning Association and INCOMPAS. He also is a member of the President’s Leadership Council at Stevens Institute of Technology. Chris earned a Bachelor’s degree in History from the State University of New York at Plattsburgh, where he was a member of the Phi Alpha Theta Historical Honor Society. Chris also received a Master’s degree in Urban Planning from New York University and a Master’s degree in Telecommunications Management from Stevens Institute of Technology.

Jeff leads DC BLOX, where he is responsible for setting and leading the company’s strategy, vision and execution in designing, building and operating a fabric of interconnected, highly secure, Tier III rated data centers across the Southeast. DC BLOX currently owns and operates data centers in five Southeast markets of which all have become the defacto Connectivity Exchanges within their respective market for agile, efficient, resilient cloud connectivity and best-in-class infrastructure for digital services.

Jeff, a 30-year veteran in the information technology industry, is a tireless tech-savvy executive and business strategist having held C-suite leadership roles for Liquid Web, Cbeyond, Bandwidth, ACSI Network Technologies, MCI and WilTel.

Jeff serves as an active board member in several technology firms. He is a graduate of the Harvard Business School, Rice University’s Jones School of Business Executive Education program in Finance and Accounting and completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Texas at Arlington. Jeff lives in Alpharetta, Ga., with Aimee, his wife of 22 years. They have two daughters. When not working, he can be typically found road cycling, playing golf or on a lacrosse field with his youngest daughter.

Jeff Blum serves as EchoStar’s Executive Vice President, External & Government Affairs, overseeing public policy, regulatory and government affairs in Washington, D.C. He has been with EchoStar (formerly DISH Network) since 2005. Before coming to EchoStar, Jeff was a partner at the Los Angeles firm of Davis Wright Tremaine, where his practice focused on copyright, First Amendment and anti-piracy litigation. At Davis Wright Tremaine, Jeff co-represented a class of songwriters and music publishers in the Grokster P2P file sharing case, which was decided by the United States Supreme Court in favor of Jeff’s clients. The Grokster decision established a new basis for secondary copyright liability called “inducement liability.” From 2003 to 2005, Jeff was a part-time lecturer at the University of Southern California, Annenberg School of Journalism where he taught media law. After graduating from law school, he clerked for Chief Judge Joseph Tauro of the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts.

He currently serves as Chairman of the Satellite Broadcasting and Communications Association (SBCA). Jeff also serves on the board of INCOMPAS, the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA), the Open RAN Policy Coalition (ORPC) and the Broadband Internet Technical Advisory Group (BITAG).

Jeff graduated summa cum laude and first in his class at Boston University School of Law, where he was a Note Editor of the Boston University Law Review. He received his undergraduate degree from McGill University with a Bachelor of Arts in History and Classics. He makes his home in Sandy Spring, Maryland with his partner, Rachel, and daughter, Amelia.

Garner Duncan’s career in telecommunications has spanned over 20 years. Currently, he is the Vice President of Gov./Ed. & Wholesale for Ezee Fiber, managing all aspects of the Wholesale & Gov./Ed. Team including creating and developing strategic partnerships within the Education & Municipal market segments and collaboration with fellow wholesale carriers. As one of the founding members of the Ezee Fiber leadership team, he is involved in the overall strategy and execution of Ezee Fiber, including new market selection for our strategic expansion plans. His previous experience includes a Regional Director position with Windstream running the Enterprise team for South Texas. Prior to Windstream, Garner was the VP/GM at Alpheus Communications managing all day-to-day operations of the South Texas enterprise sales team. Garner earned a BS in Political Science at Texas A&M University.

Gregory “Al” Aymar is the CEO of FiberComm and has served in this capacity since 2015. FiberComm is a full-service, competitive telecommunications firm and the premier provider of metro Ethernet for businesses and enterprises in the greater Sioux City, Iowa; South Sioux City, Neb., and North Sioux City, S.D., markets.

Prior to FiberComm, Al was the general manager and chief officer of Element Mobile, a rural cellular carrier serving an eight-county market in central Wisconsin. Initially recruited to manage Element Mobile’s brand offerings and product development, his role expanded and in 2012 the Element Board of Directors asked Al to lead the company. Eventually, his leadership was key to the successful merger of Element Mobile and AT&T Mobility in 2015.

Al began his telecommunications career in 1999 in Mitchell, S.D., at Martin & Associates (later Martin Group, now CHR) specializing in revenue assurance for rural cellular operators. During eight years at Martin Group, he was promoted into a quality assurance position and often served as a sales engineer. In 2007, Al was recruited by United Wireless, a rural wireless carrier in Dodge City, Kan., to preform revenue assurance, maintain roaming agreements, and manage vendors. During his years with United, there were several notable accomplishments that led to his recruitment by Element Mobile in 2010.

Al earned a Bachelor’s Degree from South Dakota State University and an M.B.A. from Ashford University in Clinton, Iowa. In addition to telecommunications, he has served in two branches of the military, has experience in advertisement, production,and banking, and has been a performing musician for over 25 years. Al avidly supports children’s programs, contributes to and participates in charitable functions, sits on several non-profit boards, and has enjoyed coaching youth soccer and basketball throughout the years.

Al lives in Sergeant Bluff, Iowa, with his wife Elizabeth and their children Katherine and Gannon. In spare time, he loves participating in outdoor sports, helping his neighbors, and can usually be found with his family or making himself busy with something in his garage.

Jill Sandford joined FirstLight Fiber in June of 2015 and currently serves as its Chief Legal Officer. She manages all aspects of legal, regulatory, compliance, safety and human resources. Jill has more than 25 years’ experience in the telecommunications sector. From 1995-2001, she served as a Section Chief in the New York State Attorney General’s Office Bureau of Telecommunications and Energy. From 2001-2014, Jill held legal roles at Metromedia Fiber Network, AboveNet and Zayo, each with increasing and broad responsibilities. Jill earned a Bachelor of Science from Cornell University and a Juris Doctor from Albany Law School.

Daniel P. Friesen formed IdeaTek Systems Inc. in 1999 with only $250. He initially built the company by working as its sole employee while earning an A.A. in Computer Systems Support and a B.A. in Business Administration with a major in Management Information Systems from Wichita State University. By 2014, Friesen had grown the company to over 65 employees in rural Buhler, Kansas, with a population of only 1,250 residents (Buhler), at which time it focused on rural fiber optic transport services consisting of over 2,200 miles of fiber optic routes and mobile wireless small cells. He led the company as its CEO and President for nearly 15 years and personally managed most of the fiber optic deployments. He also managed the sales and engineering relationships for IdeaTek’s biggest customer, Verizon Wireless. Through IdeaTek’s ever-changing technology business, Friesen has gained unique experiences in rural markets, emerging technology, government policy, telecommunications law, business strategy, and business acquisitions. Friesen was instrumental in the negotiation of some of the first agreements in the nation with municipalities and electric utilities to utilize public right of way for the installation of small cell towers and poles for a Fortune 100 wireless carrier. Friesen also led the engineering and design processes associated with the small cell deployments. Simultaneous to these projects, Friesen garnered significant experience in telecommunications M&A by leading one of his companies through a complex stock purchase agreement with Zayo Group, LLC. Friesen currently holds the position of Chief Innovation Officer at IdeaTek Telcom and IdeaTek Equity Group, IdeaTek’s private investment arm. Friesen continues to be actively involved in his local and regional community: mayor of the City of Buhler, Kansas, serving a third four-year term; he serves on the boards of the Hutchinson/ Reno County Community Foundation, Buhler Community Foundation, Trustees of Buhler MB Church, Quest Center For Entrepreneurs, and FISPA, a national internet service provider consortium (board chair). Friesen also was a recipient of the Hutchinson 20 under 40 award in 2012. He also serves on the FCC’s Broadband Deployment Advisory Commission (BDAC) Competitive Infrastructure Working Group and the Kansas Broadband Expansion Taskforce recently formed by the Kansas legislature.

Dan Ball is a Public Policy Director for Meta, where he focuses on global over-the-top (OTT) video policy and North American connectivity policy. Prior to joining Meta Dan was a deputy policy director for the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, where he led the Committee’s Communications, Technology, Innovation and the Internet team. Dan previously worked at the Federal Communications Commission, and in private practice doing both telecommunications law and litigation. Dan has a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Pomona College, and a Juris Doctor from Boston College Law School.

Paula H. Boyd is currently senior director of Government and Regulatory Affairs for Microsoft Corporation, where she partners with colleagues to develop Microsoft’s communications policy positions and advocates those positions before the FCC, Congress and the Administration. On behalf of Microsoft, Paula champions a variety of voice, video and text communications issues such as those related to spectrum, accessibility, broadband, universal service, next generation 911 and Internet governance.

Prior to joining Microsoft in 2002, Paula was senior counsel to the Senate Subcommittee on Communications. She joined the Subcommittee in April of 1997 and while there, she drafted legislation, developed legislative strategy, organized hearings and briefings, managed consideration of bills on the Senate Floor, and advocated the Senate position in House and Senate Conferences. She handled issues such as broadband deployment, spectrum management, digital television transition, and competition in the local telecommunications marketplace.

Paula joined the Office of the General Counsel of the FCC in February 1994, where she reviewed draft orders involving broadcast issues and worked on issues involving tax certificates and preferences for designated entities in PCS. In September 1994, Paula began working with the International Bureau on satellite policy issues. Paula began her legal career at Verner, Liipfert, McPherson and Hand in 1997, where she worked on a variety of litigation, transportation and other issues.

Diana Oo serves as head of U.S. Federal Affairs at Netflix, where she guides the company’s federal advocacy before Congress and the executive branch with a focus on media and technology policy. Previously, she served as vice president of Government Relations and Policy at TelevisaUnivision, leading the company’s Washington office through the company’s merger.

Prior to that, she was senior director of Global Public Policy at Comcast NBCUniversal’s Washington, D.C. office, where she oversaw the company’s advocacy on issues related to intellectual property, artificial intelligence, and Internet governance. Earlier, she served as director of Government Affairs at Cablevision. In that role, she advised key executives on congressional issues affecting Cablevision and spearheaded the company’s federal advocacy, including on retransmission consent, privacy, cybersecurity, and intellectual property.

Before joining Cablevision, Diana served as counsel on the House Judiciary Committee, advising the Chairman on a variety of copyright and communications issues, including net neutrality, digital music royalties, online gaming, the constitutionality of the Copyright Royalty Board, and reauthorization of the statutory satellite and cable carriage licenses. Prior to joining the House Judiciary Committee, she worked as an associate at McGraw-Hill, focusing on copyright issues affecting the publishing industry, including orphan works legislation.

Diana began her career as a legislative aide to former Rep. Harold Ford Jr. (D-Tenn.). During law school, she served as an intern at the Federal Communications Commission, the Recording Industry Association of America, and the Electronic Privacy Information Center. Diana received her J.D. degree from the Catholic University of America and a B.S. in Psychology and Economics from the University of Tennessee.

Jon joined Sinch (formerly Inteliquent) in 2004 and serves as vice president of Network Cost, Planning and Carrier. Relations. Prior to 2004, Jon held similar management positions with both Allegiance Telecom and MFS Telecom. He has been instrumental in growing one of the most reliable networks in the industry. Jon has more than 20 years of telecommunications experience and holds a B.S. in Accounting and Finance from the University of Illinois. Jon also has his C.P.A.

Owen R. Mayfield serves as a Vice President with Tristar Technologies, LLC, where he focuses on capital fund raising efforts as well as financial and investment strategies, market analysis, and auction coordination for the various spectrum owned companies and other private investment company opportunities. In October 2020, Owen joined Tristar Technologies, LLC in this role to support in the planning and participation in the C-Band Auction. Owen is also a managing member of Spectre Capital, LLC, a private investment entity focused on public markets, private equity, and wireless investments. Prior these roles, Owen was an investment banking Associate with Matheson Financial Advisors, Inc, where he focused on engagements involving mergers and acquisitions, business valuations, and internal management and ESOP buy-outs for companies in the engineering, construction, environmental, and architecture sectors. He was located in Washington, D.C. and San Francisco. Owen began his career as an Audit Associate at Argy, Wiltse, & Robinson, P.A. (now BDO) in Mclean, VA. He graduated from the University of Mississippi with Bachelor of Accountancy and a Master’s in Taxation and is obtain the Chartered Financial Analyst designation. He was Certified Public Accountant from 2011-2022.

Francisco Maella is CEO of Dobson Fiber, where he is responsible for the execution of Dobson’s growth strategy across its fiber 4,500+ mile fiber network in Oklahoma, North Texas and Western Arkansas serving wholesale, enterprise, business and residential customers. He previously served as CTO at Dobson Fiber.

Francisco has 25+ years of experience in the telecommunications industry. Prior to Dobson Fiber, Francisco was the COO of Alpheus Communications, a Texas-based metro and regional fiber operator, from 2005 to 2017. From 2001 to 2005, he was Senior Vice President of Engineering and Operations for El Paso Global Networks, the predecessor to Alpheus Communications. Francisco began his career in engineering at Wiltel, which eventually rolled up into what is today Verizon Business, holding positions of increased responsibilities. Over the past 20 years Francisco has gained extensive experience with private equity and M&A, where he has been a member of the executive management team that has successfully raised growth capital, bought assets and executed multiple exits generating significant returns for private equity sponsors. Francisco has significant regulatory experience, and has been asked to provide expert testimony at the FCC, Texas PUC and Texas State Legislature.

Francisco earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Louisiana and an MBA from the University of Houston.