Fiber-to-the-Home Council Elects Board of Directors for 2010

ATLANTA, GA - The Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) Council, a non-profit organization of 200 companies and other organizations dedicated to expanding the deployment of all-fiber, next-generation networks, has elected five candidates to seats on its board of directors.

In balloting conducted at the organization's December members' meeting in Atlanta, the Council re-elected two sitting board members, John George of OFS and Steve Holt of KGP Logistics, to new terms on the board. Also elected were Kyle Hollifield of Bristol Virginia Utilities, Dave Kiel of Corning Cable Systems, and George O'Neal of GVTC. At its first meeting following the election, the board appointed Max Kipfer of Connexion Technologies, the 2009 chairman whose term had expired, to fill a vacancy created by the resignation of Leonard Ray of Cisco Systems-Scientific Atlanta. Kipfer will serve the one year remaining in Ray's term.

Serving as board chairman in 2010 will be David Russell, Solutions Marketing Director for Calix, a leading provider of communications access systems and related software, who was elected to the board last year. With more than 20 years experience developing and marketing fiber access systems for wireline, wireless and cable operators, Russell is responsible for marketing Calix' Fiber-to-the-Premises systems.

Rounding out the nine-member 2010 board are Mike Hill of On Trac, Inc., and Patrick Sims, ADC Telecommunications, Inc., both of whom were elected to two-year terms in 2009.

Departing the board after the expiration of their terms are Jeff Mnick of GVTC and Josh Wilken of Corning Cable Systems.

The board selected Mike Hill as chair-elect for 2010. The chair-elect oversees preparations for the annual FTTH Conference & Expo prior to being elevated to board chairman the following year. Holt was re-elected as board secretary and O'Neal will serve as treasurer.

Information on the board members elected and appointed this week is detailed below:

John George, Director, Systems and Applications Engineering, OFS
John George has served with AT&T, Lucent Technologies and OFS in systems engineering, applications engineering, marketing, and manufacturing for 26 years. He is currently director of the systems and applications engineering team at OFS focusing on FTTH, Long Haul, Metro, and Enterprise applications. John has been an active member of the Council from its founding in 2001, serving on a number of committees and presenting at every annual conference and at over 10 quarterly meetings. George holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Georgia Tech and a Master of Science in Engineering Administration and Marketing from Virginia Tech.

Steve Holt, Director of Business Development, KGP Logistics
A member of the FTTH Council board for the past two years and board secretary in 2009, Steve Holt began his career in 1977 as an equipment technician with United Telephone Company of Kansas, where he designed some of the state's first fiber optic systems. In 1984, he became a transmission engineer for US Telecom, which eventually became Sprint, and was instrumental in the deployment of the first nation-wide fiber-optic long-distance network. He later moved into Sprint's National Operations Control Center (NOCC) as a supervisor, and in 1989 he transferred to Sprint North Supply, which is now KGP Logistics, and helped to start their Network Deployment Services organization. Holt has a bachelor's degree in business administration from Ottawa University in Kansas.

Kyle Hollifield, Vice President Marketing and Business Development, Bristol Virginia Utilities
Kyle Hollifield, a 25-year veteran of the telecommunications industry, is the vice president of marketing and business development at Bristol Virginia Utilities, a municipal utilities company, where he oversees marketing and development strategies for the utility and its OptiNet division, where he also oversees BVU FOCUS, a division that provides advanced telecom consulting and management services to other municipal entities seeking to launch broadband networks. In 1988, Hollifield co-founded KS Telecom Inc., a successful West Palm Beach, Fla., telecom design, OEM manufacturing and distribution company. In addition to serving in the U.S. Air Force, Hollifield studied business management and marketing earning a marketing and business degree at the University of Tennessee and currently is completing his master's degree in IT at Virginia Tech.

Dave Kiel, Market Manager, Corning Cable Systems
Dave Kiel is a market manager at Corning Cable Systems and has more than 15 years experience in the telecommunications industry, including seven years supporting FTTH deployments. His diverse background includes product development, application engineering and account management. He is currently responsible for developing and executing the marketing initiatives for the independent telephone company market. Kiel has served as the Chairman of the FTTH Council's technology committee for the past six months. He has both a bachelor's and master's degree in Mechanical Engineering from Virginia Tech.

George O'Neal, Vice President Network Services GVTC
As VP of Network Services for GVTC, the largest telephone cooperative in Texas, George O'Neal helped architect a $35 million fiber to the home overbuild program, and has led the transition of GVTC's legacy phone network onto a more-reliable IP-based platform. He has also supervised the extension of GVTC's fiber lines directly to customer homes, enabling the company to offer a full array of services, including phone, cable, Internet and security monitoring. Prior to joining GVTC in 2006, O'Neal spent seven years at Alltel, where he served in several network management positions, and before that he was at SBC Communications Inc. He is a graduate of the United States Military Academy and holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering.

Max R. Kipfer, Executive Vice President Regional Operations, Connexion Technologies
Prior to joining Connexion Technologies, a fiber optic / broadband infrastructure company based in North Carolina, Max Kipfer was directly involved in the development of several of the nation's first FTTH communities in northern Virginia, starting in 2001. His FTTH career started after a successful 25-year career in the cable television industry. Kipfer has been a regular speaker at industry conferences and has briefed federal policymakers on the benefits and capabilities of FTTH broadband networks. He most recently served as FTTH Council board chairman in 2009. He is a 1979 graduate of Valparaiso University.

About the Fiber-to-the-Home Council

Now in its ninth year, the Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) Council is a non-profit association consisting of companies and organizations that deliver video, Internet and/or voice services over high-bandwidth, next-generation, direct fiber optic connections - as well as those involved in planning and building FTTH networks. The Council works to create a cohesive group to share knowledge and build industry consensus on key issues surrounding fiber to the home. Its mission is to educate the public and government officials about FTTH solutions and to promote and accelerate deployment of fiber to the home and the resulting quality of life enhancements such networks make possible. More information about the Council can be found at www.ftthcouncil.org.
Media Contact:

David St. John
Media Relations
FTTH Council
315.849.3800
media@ftthcouncil.org