Board of Directors

• John Davies

  Retired Vice President, Intel Corp
  John Davies

  Retired Vice President, Intel Corp

  John E. Davies is the retired vice president of World Ahead for Intel Corporation. Davies focused on creating demand for Intel platforms via Solutions, new usage models, and ecosystem scaling. His mandate was to bring the benefits of technology to the next billion people by working with the industry, governments and development agencies. 

  Davies has worked for Intel since 1978, when he joined the company as the Reliability/QA Manager. During his 37 years with Intel, Davies has worked in engineering and manufacturing, as marketing manager for automotive products in Europe, and marketing manager for strategic accounts. He has been director of Marketing for the Mobile Computing Group, and vice president and marketing director for the Consumer Desktop Products group. In the late 90’s John was vice president and general manager of Intel Asia Pacific Region where he was based in Hong Kong.

  Prior to joining Intel, Davies worked as a postdoctoral research fellow at IBM and as a development engineer at Philips in the United Kingdom.

  Davies received his B.S. in Chemistry and his Ph.D. in Solid State Physics from Imperial College, London University.

  Intel has awarded Davies two prestigious Individual Achievement Awards for establishing Intel in the European automotive market in 1986, and for driving Intel’s mobile computing architecture into the Japanese market in 1992.

• Jay Elliot

  Founder & CEO, iMedGo
  Jay Elliot

  Founder & CEO, iMedGo

  Mr. Elliot is currently the Founder and CEO of iMedGo. Previously, he was the CEO and Founder of Nuvel,Inc. an internet acceleration software company. He also is the author of the worldwide best selling book, The Steve Jobs Way. Prior to Nuvel, he was the Founder and Chairman of Migo Software, Inc. a mobility software company. Mr. Elliot has more than 30 years' operations experience with such corporate giants as IBM, Intel and Apple Computer.

  He served as the Senior Vice President of Apple Computer, responsible for all corporate operations plus overall corporate business planning, reporting directly to Steve Jobs, Chairman of the Board, CEO, and co-founder of Apple. Mr. Elliot met Steve Jobs in a restaurant in Los Gatos, a small town in California. Steve was impressed with his entrepreneurial insight into computers and was hired 4 weeks later. His first day at Apple was a Saturday, and he accompanied Steve to Xerox Park to view the Star System.

  Steve and Mr. Elliot hit it off immediately and as a member of the Macintosh Development team he oversaw the software development of Macintosh. During his tenure at Apple sales grew from $150 million to more than $3 billion.

  After graduating from college, Mr. Elliot joined IBM as a programmer working on the airline reservation system and moved into management in several key projects in the disk drive development business, development of the ATM system, and the Fair Transaction System and eventually managed the company’s 16,000-employee software division as the Director of the IBM Santa Teresa software Laboratory. In 1980 he called Andy Grove and joined Intel as site Director of the California operations. He also worked with Gordon Moore, chairman of Intel, in the creation of the Intel Foundation.

  In addition to his vast technology background, Mr. Elliot has extensive experience in both the entertainment and healthcare industries. While at Apple he created Apple TV and internal employee TV communication system. He served as the chief executive officer of San Francisco Studios, where he produced the Academy Award nominated documentary, “Berkeley in the Sixties,” and the NBC television series, “Midnight Caller.”

  In the healthcare industry, Mr. Elliot was the chief executive officer of New Health Systems, a network technology group connecting physicians and payers to patients and affiliated hospitals. As part of the New Health plan, Mr. Elliot spent one year with the UCLA Medical Center and UCLA Computer Science Department helping to develop a software system for the operation of tele-medical centers.

  Mr. Elliot holds a B.S. in Mathematics from San Jose State University and a B.A. degree in Business from the University of California at Berkeley, California. He also was the author of "The Steve Jobs Way." 

• Tom Ferree

  Chairman & CEO
  Tom Ferree

  Chairman & CEO

  As the Chairman and CEO, Mr. Ferree is responsible for the leadership of Connected Nation, a national non-profit enterprise, representing broadband and digital inclusion work in more than 30 states and U.S. territories. He is the driving force behind Connected Nation’s corporate culture that empowers a highly effective, driven, and socially compassionate team of professionals. His passionate and effective leadership has resulted in a diverse portfolio of offerings and services, for both public and private organizations, including, but not limited to:

  ⦁ Influencing federal, state, and local policy for the advancement of high-speed telecommunications deployment, digital inclusion, economic development, and workforce development programming, frequently sought for policy input and congressional testimony.

  ⦁ Leading a world class, next-generation broadband infrastructure mapping and GIS team—considered the subject matter expert in all things GIS relating to broadband and telecommunications.

  ⦁ Overseeing federal contracts for independent verification and validation services in support of USAC’s Mobility Fund ($350M).

  ⦁ Creating a community technology certification program, Connected Community Engagement Program (ConnectedSM), a national engagement that spans across several states and more than 360 communities nationwide.

  ⦁ Guiding Connected Nation to become a renowned national authority on digital inclusion programming and other matters relating to broadband.

  Mr. Ferree also serves on the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee (BDAC) which was re-chartered in May 2019. The committee’s mission is to make recommendations on how to accelerate the deployment of high-speed internet access.

  He also manages Connected Nation’s national board of directors in matters of governance and steering of corporate vision and planning. As Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Ferree was responsible for the oversight of the National Telecommunications Information and Administration’s (NTIA) State Broadband Initiative (SBI), a five-year project portfolio of 12 states and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, involving professional relations management for more than 1,500 national and local broadband providers and more than 120,000 Community Anchor Institutions (e.g., schools, libraries, hospitals, first responders).

  In addition, Mr. Ferree led the implementation of Connected Nation’s No Child Left Offline and Computers 4 Kids programs which have resulted in the distribution of more than 6,000 computers and laptops to at-risk youth.

  As VP of Project Management, Mr. Ferree was instrumental in securing a two-year, $4.4M grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for work in the Foundation’s United States Libraries Initiative. This effort focused on 16 U.S. Library Systems that were challenged with inferior connectivity and technology strategies.

  
  Prior to joining Connected Nation, Mr. Ferree worked for the Commonwealth of Kentucky where he served as Chief of Staff for the Finance and Administration Cabinet as well as the Deputy State Chief Information Officer for Kentucky Governor Ernie Fletcher. He also served over ten years as a senior IT and Project Management professional for Kindred Healthcare and Hospital Corporation of America.

  Mr. Ferree was among the 2010 ‘Forty Under 40’ awardees recognizing the Louisville area’s up-and-coming leaders under the age of 40 based on career achievements and community accomplishments.

  He resides in Louisville, Kentucky, with his wife and two daughters where he serves his community on several civic and private boards and commissions.

• Wendy Lazarus

  Founder, Kids Impact Initiative
  Wendy Lazarus

  Founder, Kids Impact Initiative

  Founder, Kids Impact Initiative
  Senior Fellow, UCLA Healthier Children Families & Communities
  Founder & Senior Advisor, The Children’s Partnership

  Ms. Lazarus is a leading advocate and policy expert on a wide range of children’s issues, having spent more than thirty-five years working on the front lines for children throughout the nation. She is the Founder of Kids Impact Initiative, a start-up venture to support and strengthen existing advocacy for children by increasing accountability on issues that affect children’s well-being and helping develop the next generation of advocates.
  
  Her distinguished career includes founding and leading The Children’s Partnership for 22 years, serving as the Children’s Defense Fund’s first Director of Health in Washington DC, serving as founding Vice President for Policy for Children Now, and as a consultant to the Conrad Hilton and Piton Foundations. Throughout the years, she has helped secure improved health care, child support, access to information technologies, and other vital resources for hundreds of thousands of children and families.

  Under her leadership at The Children’s Partnership, between 1993 and 2015 Ms. Lazarus helped define children’s interests in the burgeoning digital economy, creating and raising the profile of the first-ever children’s digital opportunity agenda in the United States. Ms. Lazarus helped secure first-in-the-nation technology policy gains in California and has directed the development of an online technology policy resource used across the country and internationally. She has accomplished pioneering work on the content dimension of the Digital Divide, having co-authored the first comprehensive report on internet content from the standpoint of the needs of underserved Americans and produced a widely used Parents’ Guide to the Internet. 

  Ms. Lazarus has authored more than 25 reports and articles on a wide range of topics affecting children and is frequently turned to as an expert and strategist by policymakers, advocates, grant-makers, and the media.  She has been interviewed by dozens of media outlets including: ABC World News Tonight, Tavis Smiley Show, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, San Jose Mercury News, Sacramento Bee, San Francisco Chronicle, Chronicle of Philanthropy, and CNET.

  Ms. Lazarus serves as a board member or advisor to a number of national, state, and community-based organizations and companies. She served on California State Superintendent Delaine Eastin’s Educational Technology Task Force, Governor Schwarzenegger’s Broadband Task Force, and National Institute of Health’s Child Health & Human Development Council, among others. She also developed and taught a graduate-level course in child advocacy at UCLA.

  Ms. Lazarus graduated from Yale University in Yale's first class of women graduates, and received her Master's degree in Science in Public Health from the University of North Carolina. She lives in California with her husband and has two adult children.

• Mark McElroy, PhD

  Management Consultant
  Mark McElroy, PhD

  Management Consultant

  Signature Strengths:
  
  Strategic Leadership, Technology and Public Policy, Management Planning  

  Mark brings with him more than 20 years of experience in strategic leadership for both nonprofit and for-profit organizations and provides a unique perspective on the relationship of technology to public policy, business practices, and culture.

• Grant Seiffert

  Vice President of Workforce Development, Wireless Infrastructure Association (WIA)
  Grant Seiffert

  Vice President of Workforce Development, Wireless Infrastructure Association (WIA)

  Grant E. Seiffert was recently appointed to the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) Broadband Development Advisory Committee's working group on "Competitive Access to Broadband Infrastructure" and now leads the Wireless Infrastructure Association (WIA) announced that Grant Seiffert has joined WIA as Vice President of Workforce Development and Executive Director of Telecommunications Industry Registered Apprenticeship Program (TIRAP).  He previously served as president of the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA). 

  Seiffert oversaw the policy, standards, tradeshow and marketing efforts for the leading advocate in Washington, D.C. for the information and communications technology (ICT) industry. Seiffert joined TIA in 1996 as director of government relations. His main priority was the representation of the equipment industry’s interests, particularly regarding competitive issues during implementation of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

  He was promoted to vice president in 1998, directing domestic and global policy to help the association’s supplier members gain marketing opportunities around the world. In that role, he oversaw policy, including interaction with the U.S. Congress, the FCC and the Administration, as well as with international regulatory bodies and government leaders, and fulfilled the senior management role for association membership and TIA tradeshows. He succeeded Matt Flanigan as president of TIA in January 2007. Prior to joining TIA, Seiffert served five years with Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.).

  He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in political science from Radford University, where he served as vice president of his sophomore class and as a senator in student government for three years. He and his wife, daughter and son reside in Mt. Vernon, Virginia.

• Zippy Duvall

  President, American Farm Bureau Federation
  Zippy Duvall

  President, American Farm Bureau Federation

  President of the American Farm Bureau Federation since January 2016, Zippy Duvall is a third-generation farmer from Georgia. In addition to a 400-head beef cow herd for which he grows his own hay, Duvall and his wife, Bonnie, also grow more than 750,000 broilers per year.

   

  In December 2017, Duvall was appointed to the White House Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations. Also in 2017, he was honored by the National 4-H Council as a founding luminary.

   

  Prior to being elected AFBF president, Duvall served for nine years as president of the Georgia Farm Bureau. As GFB president, Duvall’s service on the AFBF board of directors included roles on the AFBF Trade Advisory Committee, including several international trade missions, and on the AFBF Finance Committee. He also was recognized with several state appointments, including then-Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue’s Agricultural Advisory Committee and the Georgia Development Authority. His many state honors include Georgia Dairy Family of the Year.

   

  Duvall’s long leadership history includes service on the Georgia Farm Bureau Young Farmers Committee and Georgia Farm Bureau board of directors. He also served on the AFBF board of directors as chair of the national Young Farmers & Ranchers Committee in 1987.

   

  Zippy and Bonnie have been married for more than 38 years and raised four children: Vince, Corrie, Zeb and Zellie. They now enjoy spending time with their five grandchildren. They attend New Hope Baptist Church in Greshamville, Georgia, where Zippy serves as a deacon.