Browning, Kaleczyc, Berry, Hoven

BROWNING, KALECZYC, BERRY & HOVEN, P.C.
Great Falls, Montana
Resident Attorney Great Falls Office - 2009 - Present
Areas of Practice for BKBH: Commercial Law, Health Care Law, Government Contracts, Administrative Law, Telecommunications Law, Intellectual Property Law and Government Affairs.

STRAND & ASSOCIATES, PLLC
Helena, Montana
Owner/Attorney/Mediator/Government Relations Consultant (2007 to 2009)
Owner and operator of small law practice devoted primarily to telecommunications and information technology matters but with significant exposure to energy, transportation and financial services issues. Clients primarily private technology businesses. Also successfully completed two significant government contracts pertaining to efforts by the State of Montana to establish supercomputing, grid computing and data storage facilities. Obtained mediator certification following intensive training course in 2007 and subsequently mediated several dozen contested matters, more than 90% of which resulted in settlement agreements.

MT INDEPENDENT TELECOM SYSTEMS (MITS)
Helena, Montana
Chief Executive Officer & General Counsel/Chief Lobbyist (1994 to 2007)
Founding chief executive of a statewide industry association of rural telephone cooperatives and their various wireless, broadband, fiber optic and Internet service subsidiaries and affiliates. Also served as its chief legal counsel and chief lobbyist. Represented the membership in scores of proceedings before a wide variety of state and federal administrative agencies. Served on numerous occasions as an expert witness on telecommunications and broadband policy before Congressional and Legislative committees as well as before the Federal Communications Commission and the Montana Public Service Commission. Represented the members’ interests with respect to literally hundreds of pieces of legislation during every regular and special legislative session from 1995 through 2007. Served on a variety of boards, committees and task forces devoted to telecom and IT policy in Montana and across the United States. Frequent public speaker, panelist and consultant. Managed a staff of four (economist, engineer, marketing professional and administrative assistant/bookkeeper). Revenues grew from $150,000 the first year to $1.2 million in year 12.

iCONNECT MONTANA
Offices in Billings, Helena, Great Falls, Missoula (2) and Bozeman
Chief Executive Officer & General Counsel (1994-2007)
Managed the start-up and construction of a string of carrier-neutral collocation centers (also known as “data centers” or “fiber hotels”) in Montana’s larger communities. My staff and I had observed that technology and Internet-based companies were spending small fortunes paying for broadband access to b delivered to their specific business locations. We realized that we could save them thousands, or even tens of thousands, of dollars each month by locating their equipment in a secure, environmentally-controlled facility with access to multiple broadband providers gathered in one location to compete for their business. The initial site in Billings had to be doubled in size three months after construction due to heavy demand – and then doubled again six months later. Led to the construction of five other sites, the most popular of which were in Missoula. Served in this capacity while at the same time performing duties in the position immediately above (CEO of MITS).

SKYLAND TECHNOLOGIES
Williston, North Dakota
Chief Executive Officer (1994-2007)
Passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 was intended to open the previously monopolistic provision of local telephone service to competition. The members of the telecom industry association had little or no experience in a competitive marketplace, so they asked me to put together a business plan for how a competitive telephone company might operate in competition with, for example, one of the large Bell companies (U S WEST, now known as Qwest). They liked the product and asked me to take on the project of building a prototype in Williston, North Dakota (picked because it was one of the most neglected rural communities of any significant size within our membership’s geographic area of interest. I visited a number of rural telephone and electric cooperative board meetings and raised $3 million in seed cash. We didn’t have so much as a broom and a dust pan when we started, and I was managing from roughly 400 miles away in Helena (lots of driving and lots of flights in very small planes). But we contracted with a good group of engineers and an excellent construction firm. Oversaw the design and construction of a state-of-the art fiber optic backbone in and around Williston and embarked on a number of personal sales calls to get the most significant business, educational and governmental entities excited and “on board.” Within six months of opening our doors, we had taken 1,000 of the incumbent’s 10,000 customers (including the vast majority of the most lucrative business customers). The incumbent, seeing the writing on the wall, invited us into negotiations and wound up selling all of their remaining assets in the Williston area for just over half of the price they themselves had paid for those assets just three years earlier. So Williston was “re-monopolized,” but the quality of its infrastructure and the services provided there improved exponentially.

MATTEUCCI, FALCON, SQUIRES & LESTER, P.C.
Great Falls, Montana
Attorney (1991 to 1994)
Associate attorney in private practice. Spent the first 1½ years doing almost exclusively family law practice: dissolutions of marriage, child support actions, child custody actions, property divisions, etc. Also handled a few debtor bankruptcies before spending the last half of my tenure working on a $150 million purchase of telecom assets from U S WEST. Negotiated the purchase price, performed due diligence, obtained all state and federal regulatory approvals, prepared all property and easement transfer documents.