Harold Furchtgott-Roth
Managing Director
hfr@utilicomadvisors.com
Harold Furchtgott-Roth is a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and founder and director of the Center for the Economics of the Internet. He is the President of Furchtgott-Roth Economic Enterprises. He is the author or coauthor of four books and frequently comments on issues related to the communications sector of the economy. He is a columnist for Forbes. He is an adjunct professor of law at Brooklyn Law School.
From 1997 through 2001, Mr. Furchtgott-Roth served as a commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission. Before his appointment to the FCC, he was chief economist for the House Committee on Commerce and a principal staff member on the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Earlier in his career, he was a senior economist with Economists Incorporated and a research analyst with the Center for Naval Analyses.
Mr. Furchtgott-Roth is one of the few economists to have served as a federal regulatory commissioner, and the only one to have served on the FCC. He is also an investor, primarily with regard to wireless concerns.
Mr. Furchtgott-Roth received a Ph.D. in economics from Stanford and an S.B. in economics from MIT.
Dana Frix
Managing Director
dfrix@utilicomadvisors.com
Mr. Frix is a lawyer, business advisor and technology investor.
Until stepping down in April 2016 Mr. Frix was the Managing Partner of the Washington, D.C. office of the international law firm of Chadbourne & Parke, LLP. From 2002 until 2016 Dana was a partner in Chadbourne's corporate practice and Chair of its Telecommunications, Media and Technology practice. In that capacity, Dana led a business advisory practice that provided corporate, finance, regulatory, IP, and litigation advice to clients primarily in the TMT and IoT (internet-of-things) sectors, or to financial firms investing in these sectors. Prior to Chadbourne Dana was an equity partner with the international law firm of O'Melveny and Meyers LLP, where he co-headed that firm's telecommunications practice.
Mr. Frix spent his first few years in legal practice examining the prudence of investments in the electric utility sector, notably the escalating investments made in the Seabrook nuclear power plants.
Dana is on the board of the Whitaker Peace and Development Initiative, founded by actor and activist Forest Whitaker; the Board of Savi Technology, an IoT predictive analytics company and defense logistics company serving the U.S. Military and commercial sectors; the board of RideTV, the premier cable channel in the U.S. devoted to showcasing equestrian and horse lifestyle and cultural issues; and the board of Common Energy, the leading U.S. community solar technology company. Mr. Frix received a law degree and M.A. in English Literature from Georgetown University. He received his B.A. from the George Washington University.
Mark Burke
Managing Director
mburke@utilicomadvisors.com
Mr. Burke is considered a national thought leader with regard to Utility Telecommunications and Industrial Internet of Things (IoT). Mr. served as Vice President of Energy & Utilities for the leading telecommunications vendor, Ericsson. At Ericsson he led market entry and growth, as well as product development for the utilites sector. Previously for fourteen years he was Vice President of the global energy consultancy, DNV KEMA, leading the global business unit that developed business cases, network architecture, design, procurement and operational support plans for utility companies across the globe. At DNV Kema Mr. Burke also provided technical, advisory, and market entry advice to manufacturers and vendors supplying the energy industries. More recently, from 2014 to 2017 he was Vice President, Energy and Utilities for the Ericsson, the global leader in hardware and software technology and services to the communications industries. Mr. Burke has substantial business experience. In the 1990s he was a co-founder of an international consulting company as well the telecom carrier, Pocket Communications. Pocket was a U.S. mobile carrier licensee. Between 1994 and 1997 Pocket raised $360 million at a valuation of $1.4 Billion. Mr. Burke received his B.S. in Engineering from the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, and holds certificate degrees in business administration from the Institute for Management Development in Lausanne, Switzerland, and from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.
Paul Afonso
Advisor
pafonso@utilicomadvisors.com
Mr. Afonso is a nationally recognized energy utility and telecommunications expert. He is an Executive- in-Residence with Braemar Energy Ventures and he was for many years a Co-Practice Leader of the Brown Rudnick’s Energy, Utilities and Environmental Group, where he also led the Boston Government Law and Strategies Group. Mr. Afonso has more than 20 years of energy, legislative and regulatory experience related to electricity, gas, water, cable television, telecommunications, pipeline engineering and safety, railway and transportation services.
Paul served as Chairman of the Massachusetts Department of Telecommunications and Energy (DTE) from 2003 to 2005. While at the DTE, Paul also served as Chairman of the Energy Facilities Siting Board, the agency charged with reviewing major generation, electric transmission, gas storage facilities and certain gas pipelines. This agency also represents the Commonwealth before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on projects within Massachusetts that are subject to that agency's jurisdiction. As Chairman, he oversaw the review of a key petition for the Cape Wind project, the nation's first major off-shore wind project. He also led the review of a major infrastructure project with a 345 kV electric transmission line into the greater Boston area.
Paul is also the former General Counsel for the Massachusetts DTE, where he helped oversee state regulatory policies, governing rates and quality of service for electric generation, gas supply, telecommunications, cable television and transportation.
Mr. Afonso is also an expert on federal energy and telecom regulatory issues. By way of example, he served as legislative liaison to federal regulatory agencies, including the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).
Mr. Afonso is a graduate of Boston College and the Georgetown University Law Center.
Sean McGuinness
Advisor
smcguinness@utilicomadvisors.com
Sean McGuinness has been a private investor for over twenty years and is currently Chairman of the Board of Savi Technology, a groundbreaking IoT predictive analytics business serving the logistics sector. For more than twenty-five years Mr. McGuinness has also had a distinguished legal career representing electric utility and telecommunications interests, primarily on corporate transactions and securities matters.
Representative experience includes serving as counsel to Southern Union Company in connection with its acquisition, in a joint venture with an affiliate of General Electric Company, of controlling interests in the Transwestern and Florida Gas Transmission pipelines from Enron Corp.; representing Southern Union Company in connection with regard to $2 Billion worth of public offerings; representing Panhandle Eastern Pipe Line Company, L.P. in a multi-hundred million dollar registered note exchange offer; represented Lockheed Martin Corporation in its divestiture of a controlling interest in the Latin American and Turkish properties of its COMSAT subsidiary; Representing TDK Mediactive, Inc. in its sale to Take-Two Interactive, Inc.; representing Covista Communications, Inc. in its acquisition of Capsule Communications, Inc.; and representing the Stanley Medical Research Institute in investments in pharmaceutical companies engaged in developing compounds for the treatment of psychiatric disorders.
Mr. McGuinness received a B.S., magna cum laude, from Tufts University and a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center where he was an Executive Editor of The Georgetown Law Journal.
Deborah Ann Lathen
Advisor
Deborah Lathen is a graduate of Harvard Law School. She received her B.A. in Government from Cornell University, Magma Cum Laude.
At the onset of her career Lathen practiced law with Foley and Lardner LLP, and of Keck, Mahin & Cate. In 1982, she became a litigation attorney at The Quaker Oats Company where in 1988 she was honored with the Quaker Oats Chairman’s Award. That same year, Lathen was hired as the Senior Counsel for TRW, Inc.
In 1991, Lathen served as managing counsel for the Nissan Motor Corporation and specialized in the provision of legal services in the areas of general corporate law, logistics, finance, environmental compliance and other general business matters.
In 1998, Lathen was appointed Bureau Chief of the FCC’s Cable Services Bureau by then-FCC Chairman William Kennard. There she advised the chairman and commissioners on issues related to internet industries, broadband and media/cable. As Bureau Chief, Lathen oversaw some significant changes in the communications industry such as the America Online and Time Warner merger, the implementation of the Satellite Home Viewer Improvement Act (SHIVA) and the federal regulation of instant messaging.
In 2001, Lathen began an independent consulting practice focused on advising companies with complex business concerns complicated by federal or state government or regulatory considerations.
Lathen’s expertise extends to telecommunications and media companies. In 2007, Lathen was appointed to the Board of Directors of British Telecommunications.
In 2011, she was appointed by Washington, D.C.’s Mayor and City Council to the DC Board of Government Ethics and Accountability.
Francois Marti
Advisor (Switzerland)
fmarti@utilicomadvisors.com
Francois Marti serves as an investment advisor and and business broker in the energy and telecom sectors. He serves as a board member of emerging technology companies in automation and smart energy infrastructure.
Francois Marti has had a distinguished career leading Globsl companies, including SGS, the world’s leading inspection, verification, testing and certification company, with over 90,000 employees around the world, and FCA (Fiat Chrysler Automobiles) Services S.P.A.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/francois-marti-5a46285b/