Advisory Board
The Advisory Board for the Fiberutilities Group is simply world-class.
Our range of experience and knowledge in management, operations,
finance, legal, technology and regulatory issues is unsurpassed.
Clark McLeod
Clark McLeod has been at the forefront of highly-competitive
communications companies for over 25 years. As an entrepreneur
and highly successful business leader, Mr. McLeod’s vision
and leadership provide the foundation for the Fiberutilities Group.
Mr. McLeod founded McLeod, Inc., now McLeodUSA Incorporated,
and served as Chairman of the Board from June 1991 to April 2002.
Mr. McLeod also served as chief executive officer from the company’s
formation until January 2001. At the time of his retirement, McLeodUSA
was the largest independent competitive local exchange carrier
in the nation, offering local service in 25 Midwest, Southwest,
Northwest and Rocky Mountain states, as well as long distance,
advanced data and Internet services in all 50 states. The Company
had a fiber optic network of 31,000 route miles, more than a half-million
customers and 10,000 employees.
His previous business venture, Teleconnect, an Iowa-based long
distance telecommunications company, was founded in January 1980.
Mr. McLeod served as chairman and chief executive officer of Teleconnect
from January 1980 to December 1988. From December 1988 to August
1990, he served as president and vice chairman of Telecom*USA,
the successor to Teleconnect following its merger with SouthernNet,
Inc. in December 1988. By 1990, Telecom*USA had become America’s
fourth largest long distance telecommunications company with nearly
6,000 employees. MCI purchased Telecom*USA in August 1990 for
$1.25 billion.
Mr. McLeod is a graduate of Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
Prior to his entry into the communications industry, he taught
mathematics and science in the Cedar Rapids public school system.
H. Brian Thompson
H. Brian Thompson is Executive Chairman of Global Telecom &
Technology (GTT), a Multi-Network Operator (MNO) while continuing
to head his own private equity investment and advisory firm, Universal
Telecommunications, Inc., in Vienna, Virginia. Three years ago,
Mr. Thompson started a new company, iTown Communications, dedicated
to bringing FTTH (fiber-to-the-home) communications technology
to rural markets.
As a veteran senior executive of the telecommunication
industry, Mr. Thompson has been instrumental in impacting the rise
of competitive telecommunications both in the U.S. and abroad. Mr.
Thompson’s industry experience includes roles as Chairman
of Comsat International (CI), one of the largest independent telecommunications
operators serving all of Latin America, and as Chairman and Chief
Executive Officer of Global TeleSystems Group, Inc.
Additionally, Mr. Thompson served as Chairman and
CEO of LCI International until it’s with Qwest Communications
International Inc. where he became Vice Chairman of the board for
Qwest until his resignation in December 1998. Prior, Mr. Thompson
served as Executive Vice President of MCI Communications Corporation.
Mr. Thompson currently serves as a member of the board
of directors of Axcelis Technologies, Inc., ICO Global Communications,
Sonus Networks, Inc., and Penske Automotive Group as well as serving
on the Executive Committee of the Global Information Infrastructure
Commission.
Mr. Thompson received his MBA from Harvard's Graduate
School of Business and holds an undergraduate degree in chemical
engineering from the University of Massachusetts.
Tom Hertz
Tom Hertz has a broad and varied background ranging
from nuclear engineer to being a practicing attorney. Mr. Hertz
was CEO of one of the fastest growing telecom startups in the upper
Midwest prior to its acquisition in 1999. Mr. Hertz has twenty-plus
years as a practicing attorney with emphasis on business and corporate
law in the technology industry, and has senior management experience
in civil service, private enterprise, and startup private / public
companies with 10,000+ employees. He is experienced and familiar
with intellectual property issues, business strategy and modeling,
compliance issues and legal/financial/data analysis; he is skilled
at complex contract preparation, review and negotiation.
Previous to his role as group vice president for Network
and Operations for McLeodUSA, he worked as a consultant for mergers
and acquisitions, and for operational, management, regulatory, compliance
and other legal issues including intellectual property and contracts
law. Mr. Hertz also has extensive experience with venture capital
firms, specializing in operational issues and investment opportunities.
Joining Dakota Telecommunications Cooperative as general
manager in 1995, Mr. Hertz transformed the company from a small
rural telephone cooperative with 35 employees and five million in
annual revenue, to a public company doing business in four states
with 400 employees and forty-million in annual revenues.
Mr. Hertz holds engineering and law degrees from South
Dakota institutions, attended the University of Minnesota and the
University of Washington and did post-graduate work at Iowa State.
Blake O. Fisher, Jr.
Since May of 2004 Mr. Fisher has been President of
Blake Fisher Associates providing financial consulting services
in the utility and telecommunications fields. His consulting work
has included providing services to the Department of Agriculture’s
Broadband Program. Mr. Fisher has served as a director of Headwaters
Incorporated, an energy company, since November of 2004 and as a
director of UCN, Inc, a telecommunications company since July of
2004.
From 1996 to 2002, he served in senior management
positions for McLeodUSA, a telecommunications company, providing
service in 25 states, initially as chief financial officer and latter
as president of the company’s Western Region. He was chief
financial officer of IES Industries, an electric and gas holding
company in Iowa, from 1991 to 1996 and president of IES’s
non-regulated businesses from 1991 to 1996. He worked for Consumers
Power Company, an electric and gas utility in Michigan from 1967
to 1990 in several management positions including vice president
of Finance and treasurer.
He graduated from the University of Michigan with
BSE and MSE degrees.
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