Rear Admiral (Retired), U. S. Navy
Consultant, Director – Fair Winds Consulting, LLC

Jan provides leadership, cybersecurity, and technical expertise to various public and private organizations through speaking engagements and advisory panel work. Previously she served as chancellor of the College of Information and Cyberspace at National Defense University after having retired from the U.S. Navy in the fall of 2012 at the rank of Rear Admiral (Upper Half).

RADM Hamby’s military career focused on the employment of telecommunications, space and computer systems to make information available for command and control of the Force and to enhance decision making at all levels of the chain of command.   Her service included two command tours at a regional telecommunications and networking site in the southeast United States and of a major information hub in Italy supporting military communications from Iceland to Iraq.  Her Washington, DC service included providing analytic support to the Chief of Naval Operations to validate and justify Navy investments in space, cyber and information programs.  She was the senior leader of the U.S. Navy Information Professional Officer Corps and is credited with developing its mentorship program and directing implementation of its professional qualification program that subsequently became the model for qualifications across the Information Warfare community.

During a one-year assignment in Baghdad, Iraq, Jan played a key role in untangling information disconnects and made substantive contributions to the Coalition Force’s second campaign plan.  As a flag officer she directed the global operations of the Navy’s offensive and defensive cyber forces, served as the director of the North American Aerospace Defense/U.S. Northern Command telecommunications and computer networking efforts, served as Vice Director for Command, Control and Computer Systems on the Joint Staff and was Deputy Chief Information Officer for the Department of Defense’s operational telecommunications and computer networks and cyber technology infrastructure.  

Highly decorated, Rear Admiral (Retired) Hamby’s highest military award is the Defense Distinguished Service Medal.  She holds a Doctor of Management degree and master’s degrees in the Management of Information Systems, Business Administration and National Security and Strategic Studies.  Her doctoral research focused on mitigating the impact of toxic leadership at all levels of the organization.  She serves on several boards of directors and is directorship certified by the National Association of Corporate Directors.

Major General (Retired), U.S. Marine Corps
12th NASA Administrator
Founder & CEO Emeritus, The Charles F. Bolden Group

Retired Marine Corps Major General Charles Frank Bolden Jr. was the Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) from July 2009 until January 2017.

Bolden’s 34-year career with the Marine Corps included 14 years as a member of NASA’s Astronaut Office. After joining the office in 1980, he traveled into orbit four times aboard the space shuttle between 1986 and 1994, commanding two of the missions and piloting two others.

Today, in addition to his numerous professional affiliations, General Bolden serves as the Founder and CEO Emeritus of The Charles F. Bolden Group, providing leadership in the areas of Space/Aerospace Exploration, National Security, STEM+AD Education and Health Initiatives.

Bolden is a graduate of C.A. Johnson High School in Columbia, SC. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the U.S. Naval Academy and a Master of Science degree from the University of Southern California.

Bolden is married to the former Alexis Walker of Columbia, SC. They have two children, A. Che’ Bolden, Colonel, USMC (Ret.), Dr. Kelly M. Bolden, MD, FACS, and five grandchildren – granddaughters Mikaley, Kyra and Talia and grandsons Walker Elias and Lenox Charles.

Reed E. Hundt is the Chief Executive Officer of the Coalition for Green Capital, a non-profit that advises governments on the creation and operation of green banks—government-charted finance authorities dedicated to increasing public-private investment in the new clean energy platform. He is a consultant to Covington & Burling, principally working with that firm’s communications practice group. He sits on the Board of Directors of Intel Corporation, the world’s leading semiconductor design and manufacturing firm, as well as on the boards of a number of private firms and the Connecticut Green Bank. He was Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission from 1993 to 1997 and served on Barack Obama’s 2008-2009 Presidential transition team.

Mr. Hundt has written many articles and four books: Zero Hour: Time to Rebuild the Clean Power Platform (E-Book; Odyssey, 2013); The Politics of Abundance: How Technology Can Fix the Budget, Revive the American Dream, and Establish Obama’s Legacy, an e-book co-authored with Blair Levin, (E-book; Odyssey, 2012); In China’s Shadow: The Crisis of American Entrepreneurship (Yale University Press, 2006); and You Say You Want A Revolution: A Story of Information Age Politics (Yale University Press, 2000). He graduated from Yale College and Yale Law School.

Timothy M. Donahue is the former Executive Chairman of Sprint Nextel Corporation and the former President and Chief Executive Officer of Nextel Communications, Inc. Since his retirement in 2006, Mr. Donahue has played active roles in advising and counseling numerous companies in the industry and technology sectors, including serving as a non-executive chairman of UCT Coatings as well as a director for Tyco International Ltd., Covidian Ltd., and Eastman Kodak.

Additional tenure includes his positions as northeast regional president for AT&T Wireless Services; president of the central region of its predecessor company, McCaw Cellular Communications; and president of McCaw’s paging division. Mr. Donahue also currently serves as chairman of the board for Radius Networks.

Doug Smith has led Ligado Networks as President and Chief Executive Officer since 2012 and brings over 30 years of experience in the telecommunications industry in a variety of strategic, technology, and operational roles.

He also previously served as the Chief Network Officer at LightSquared from 2010-2012 and as Senior Vice President of Network Operations at Clearwire from 2008-2009. While in these roles, Doug managed the functional organizations responsible for 4G technology vendors, network deployment, and network operations. Over the 1993 to 2007 period, Doug held various executive positions at Sprint, Nextel, and GTE serving in leadership roles that managed the deployment and operations of nationwide carrier networks supporting tens of millions of mobile customers.

Doug holds an MSE in the Management of Technology from the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton School and a BS in Electrical Engineering from Merrimack College.

Lawrence T. Babbio, Jr. was the vice chairman and president of Verizon until his retirement in April of 2007. He was responsible for the Verizon Telecom and Verizon Business units.  He was also a member of the board of directors of Verizon Wireless.

Babbio began his communications career in 1966 with New Jersey Bell Telephone. He served in a variety of positions in engineering, network construction, and technology development with New Jersey Bell and AT&T. In January 1995 he was elected vice chairman of Bell Atlantic Corporation.

Prior to the Bell Atlantic/GTE merger, Babbio was president and chief operating officer for Bell Atlantic. He shared oversight of, and responsibility for, all of the corporation’s business operations, restructuring of the business units, the GTE merger process, and developing new growth opportunities.

Babbio also served as chairman of the company’s Global Wireless Group, one of the largest wireless operations worldwide. He was the lead executive in charge of developing Bell Atlantic’s domestic and international wireless communications strategy. Under his leadership, Bell Atlantic substantially increased the size and scope of its domestic and international wireless holdings.

After retiring from Verizon in 2007 he became a Senior Advisor for Warburg Pincus until March, 2012.

He served on the board of Compaq and Hewlett Packard from 1995 until 2011. He was a director of ARAMARK from 1999 to 2017 and on the board of the Wallace Foundation from 2006 to 2018. He is currently on the board of a number of U.S. and international private wireless and software companies. Babbio also serves on the Board of Trustees of Stevens Institute of Technology.

He holds a B.E. in electrical engineering from Stevens Institute of Technology, and an M.B.A. from New York University.

Throughout his career, Alfred F. Hurley, Jr. has held several senior management positions at leading financial institutions, advising companies across a wide range of industries regarding the mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, and capital-raising required to achieve their strategic objectives. Following the 2008 financial crisis, he also served as a bank’s Chief Risk Officer and Chairman of its Credit and Risk Management Committee, and he oversaw the management of a family’s multibillion-dollar investment portfolio.

Mr. Hurley is currently a director of two publicly traded companies: Flutter Entertainment plc (LSE: FLTR.L) and New Mountain Finance Corporation (NASDAQ: NMFC), as well as the privately held TSI Holdings, Inc., where he is Chairman of the Board.

He is Chair of Flutter’s Compensation and Human Resources Committee, as well as a member of the Nominating and Transaction Committees. For New Mountain, he is the Chair of the Compensation and Nominating Committees and a member of the Valuation and Audit Committees. At TSI, he is a member of the Compensation and Audit Committees, and at Ligado, he is a member of the Audit Committee.

Mr. Hurley worked at Merrill Lynch (ML) for most of his career. His most recent management positions included serving as Senior Vice President of ML and Head of Global Private Equity Investing; Managing Director and Head of Japan Investment Banking and Capital Markets; Managing Director and Co-Head of the Global Manufacturing and Services Group; and Managing Director and Head of the Global Automotive, Aerospace, and Transportation Group. Mr. Hurley was a member of the Corporate and Institutional Client Group (CICG) Executive Committee, which had global responsibility for the firm’s equity, debt, investment banking, and private equity businesses; the Japan CICG Executive Committee; and the Global Investment Banking Management and Operating Committees.

He graduated cum laude from Princeton University with an A.B. in History.

John Fischer has served as an advisor to several high-tech start-ups and has significant experience advising telecommunications clients. As Logica Consulting’s managing partner of Telecoms, Mr. Fischer directed a wide range of telecom industry projects in 16 different countries on behalf of major U.S., European, and Japanese companies. In addition to his tenure at that pan-European management consultancy, Mr. Fischer served as general counsel of LCC International, Inc., a global wireless communications engineering company. He has more than 35 years of legal, management, and transactional experience at both major corporations and emerging growth companies throughout the U.S. and abroad. He has negotiated and closed acquisitions and related financings with a total value of more than $12 billion.

Mr. Fischer currently serves as deputy general counsel of Avanos Medical, Inc. (NYSE: AVNS), a medical device company. From 2014 to 2020, he served as the general counsel of Natural Grocers, a specialty retailer of natural and organic groceries and dietary supplements and, from 2006 to 2012, he served first as general counsel and subsequently as interim president and chief executive officer of The Berry Company, LLC, one of the country’s largest local search firms.

Mr. Fischer holds a BA degree from Stanford University (Phi Beta Kappa) and JD and MBA degrees from the University of California at Los Angeles.

Paul Aronzon is a strategic financial consultant, with extensive experience in successful deals pertaining to exchange and tender offers, proxy contests, rights offerings, and mergers and acquisitions (both company and asset sales). He also specializes in financing transactions, corporate reorganizations, and corporate restructuring transactions, as well as successful dispute resolution through mediation and other settlement processes.

Mr. Aronzon is the founder of PSA Consulting, LLC, where he provides financial and business advice in addition to fiduciary services. This includes serving as an independent director, lead director, chairperson, or special committee member on boards of directors for public and private companies in a variety of industries. Mr. Aronzon is also currently affiliated with Arete Capital Partners, providing similar services.

Formerly co-managing partner of Milbank’s Los Angeles office and co-leader of Milbank’s Global Financial Restructuring Group, he has more than 40 years of experience as an attorney and lead advisor. He also served as the Executive Vice President at Imperial Capital and co-head of its Corporate Finance Group from 2006 to 2008.

Mr. Aronzon has advised numerous entities, from boards/board committees, independent directors, and sponsors to parties acquiring assets, debt, or other companies in transactions across a wide array of industries. These have included such sectors as aerospace/defense, agriculture, automotive, broadcasting/cable, commercial real estate, energy, financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, oil and gas, pharmaceutical, and nutraceutical, investment banking, telecommunications, and bioscience.