Hello and welcome back to Luminaries in Telecom!

April’s luminary feature is an established leader in the industry and actively advises numerous boards and private equity firms. His tenure stems from his service as a field artillery officer in the Army after graduating from West Point. We are coining him, “The Industry Vet” aka William (Bill) LaPerch. LaPerch has ties in just about every sector of telecommunications industry from data centers to cloud and fiber. He has collaborated alongside some of the biggest names in the industry. He granted us the opportunity to learn some exclusive insights into his storied career.

History in the Making

LaPerch was born in the Bronx in New York City, being the eldest son of seven children. His father set an early example of service to the community as a New York City Police officer. He remembers interesting talks at the family dinner table as his father was the “Kojak” (aka the Detective Lt. in charge) with Manhattan South homicide unit. His was a family of devout Catholics that further formed his background. After graduating JFK Catholic High School and feeling the call to serve similarly to his father, he attended the iconic U.S. Military Academy at West Point. This experience gave him a real lesson in leadership and the skills he would use throughout his career.

After graduation in 1977, earning his BS in Science he was commissioned as an officer.  In the Army he joined the famed 101st Airborne unit out of Fort Campbell, Kentucky, eventually attaining the rank of Captain. LaPerch reminisced with a smile about his service, where repelling out of helicopters and parachuting out of planes trained him to remain steadfast under pressure.

He brought his unique skillset to the civilian world and quickly found an opportunity through New York Telephone’s MCDP (Management Career Development Program) program, a career development initiative looking for veterans to take management positions.

Climbing Telephone Poles to Success

LaPerch’s telecom journey began upon joining NY Tel where he was tasked in managing various outside plant operating teams. He was faced with his first major challenge; multiple lengthy union strikes that forced him to learn the technical side of the field. This required him to climb into manholes, clamber up telephone poles and splice wires. While navigating these hurdles, he met his first mentor, George Barletta. Barletta saw and believed in LaPerch’s potential. He offered to be a sponsor in furthering LaPerch’s education and encouraged him to get an MBA at Columbia.

This ultimately would lead to another opportunity that LaPerch could not pass up, when an old colleague of his urged him to join MCI. As LaPerch remembers, Nate Kantor, a fellow West Point alum, badgered him for months attempting to recruit him to MCI. He remembers saying to Nate, “I might be interested but I’m not leaving a company that’s on strike, they need my help”. On the day the strike finally ended, he made the decision and climbed all the way up a telephone pole and called Nate right then and there and said, ‘OK Nate, I’ll take the job!’”

Jumping on board with MCI in 87’ the world opened up to the young New Yorker now tasked with traveling across the country building out fiber networks. He used the tools of the time, such as, V-Net, Friends and Family and the advent of the newest innovative system that was about to change the world, email. 

LaPerch reflected “as silly as it sounds today, when I joined MCI, the paradigm shift was from a company that communicated over days and weeks via carbon copies to one that communicated instantaneously by way of email.”

LaPerch expressed, “It was great timing to join the David vs Goliath fight in MCI’s growth. It was a faster, more flexible environment – think DIY guerrilla warfare much more so than the structured groups I had become accustomed to. The team of people I worked with were the do-it, fix-it-type mentality. Many of my successes can be traced to life-long friendships and connections I made while at MCI.  It was truly life changing.”

After a 10-year run at MCI, it was time for another change as World-Com acquired MCI. LaPerch, with many of his peers, left MCI since this wasn’t an acquisition they wanted to work for. The next step in his career took him back to his home state with Metromedia Fiber Network. A novel group for LaPerch to join as it was the first company to construct fiber into the metro market, rather than between cities as was standard at the time. LaPerch crafted a reputation as a capable operator and was granted permission to be captain of the “dream team”.

Rising Ranks

LaPerch onboarded fifteen of his best from MCI to run all the cities where Metromedia was established. Working as a collective in achieving these lofty goals of effectively competing in ILEC dominated local markets, Metromedia ended up spending about four billion dollars in building networks out in thirty major cities and eight major European markets. Six months into his time, the infamous Internet bubble burst, causing massive reorganization/rebranding for not just Metromedia, but the entire industry.

LaPerch had much to say about his experiences during this time of the industry and what he was able to achieve, “I was COO of the company and it had gone bankrupt… I was able to convince a former colleague from MCI, John Gerdelman, himself a former Navy Top Gun Pilot, as well as my leader and mentor at MCI to become the CEO. John fulfilled his role of handling all the messy and complex bankruptcy related issues, while I essentially ran the company. After all was done and the dust cleared, John left to pursue his own projects while I took over as CEO of the newly coined AboveNet. 

After restructuring we were able to essentially build the company on the back of enterprise thirst for high bandwidth fiber solutions. We enjoyed 11 years of double-digit growth and we were able to build value effectively. In 2012, we sold our company to Zayo for $2.25 billion. Our shareholders enjoyed a 13x return over this period. Out of the fifteen that joined me from MCI, fourteen had stuck it out with me through it all. We did it as a team and all of us were rewarded financially. That team was what created the value. I was the CEO, but clearly the team around me was the reason for my success.”

“Having great assets is a good thing, having great people around you is much more important” LaPerch said. “Anyone can put people around themselves that complement them. I think great leaders find a way to put people around themselves that supplement them. Doing that really strikes me as being important for success in business.”

After selling AboveNet, LaPerch has remained active through his own firm LaPerch Consulting. As many of you readers know, he serves on numerous boards for some of the big names in the industry including Windstream, Digital Realty Trust, First Light, ITG and South Reach Networks to name a few. 

“One of the things I learned through my board experience is how to toe the line between oversight and management. I have a penchant for action. When I see something wrong, I want to fix it or get involved in fixing it. That’s not really a board’s responsibility. The responsibility is to provide oversight so management can go do those things,” he said. “Additionally make sure when you interact with management, you do it with the intention of creating value for the company and not just creating more work for an already busy management team.”

LaPerch offered some insights about where the industry is heading with Fiber and with The Edge.

“Basically, The Edge is about gathering and storing data closer to where the data lives,” he said. Networks don’t need to bring all the information to centralized locations. “You’d rather have Edge collection points all around the country where you would store and manipulate the data, and then return it to its origin very quickly. Much of The Edge is going to be about latency and how quickly all of this is going to happen. 

“To me The Edge could easily be on every cellular tower in the U.S., they all have enough space to put a few servers in,” or he said. “Why isn’t The Edge every old central office that Lumen, AT&T, or Verizon has? They are centrally located buildings that would be ideal” LaPerch summarizes by pointing out “the edge is in very early innings. There are still many things to evolve, and the final definition has not been settled on.” 

“Fiber really defines where I have come from” LaPerch points out “Today, fiber and the connectivity it provides is basically a utility that everyone needs access to. While I have enjoyed watching the evolution of fiber connectivity over the past 20 years, we still have lots to do and much to build. This is evidence by the billions of dollars our government is spending to deploy it ubiquitously. Fiber is the lifeblood of digital infrastructure.”

Well said Bill LaPerch! Thank you for taking time out of your schedule to share your story and some wisdom! And of course, there is more to the story of “The Industry Vet” Bill LaPerch that we just couldn’t cover and that we may revisit in the future. A strapping young man from the boogie-down Bronx became a leader and role model for the telecom industry.  This concludes this month’s feature of Luminaries in Telecom. Please feel free to add to the conversation! Have you worked alongside Bill LaPerch before? What did you take away from his adaptability and approach? Sound off in the comments below with any fun facts/specifics that may have been missed or any suggestions about any movers and shakers in telecom history you think deserve a feature. Send a message to [email protected].

Hello all and welcome back to Luminaries in Telecom!

We reached out to see what insights our education system is discovering about meta topics that are affecting not just our industry, but society entirely. Current trends including infinitely complex open A.I space, ChatGPT, Cyber Warfare/Security, and the Internet of Things (IoT). This month we got that opportunity to illuminate a scholar in the industry, Dr. Jenifer Sunrise Winter, a professor at the University of Hawaii at Manoa School of Communication and Information. She is also the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Information, Communication, and Ethics in Society and the Co-Chair of the Research Committee at Pacific Telecommunication Council (PTC).

Dr. Winter has immersed herself in studying and researching multiple facets of the industry. She has made her mark on the world, showcasing years of dedication to teaching and understanding the field of telecommunications through various publications. We are eager to share all that we have learned from Dr. Winter, in this enlightening Q&A edition of NJFX’s Luminaries in Telecom!

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Q: Events such as ever increasing public/private sector A.I and the rise of cyber/domestic attacks of major institutions such as Uber, GitHub etc. As well as attacks on multiple substations nationwide the recent attack in D.C. comes to mind. How do we further prevent and safeguard ourselves as a member of the telecoms community and as a further message to our colleagues and partners?

A: We have seen increasingly sophisticated attacks on critical cyber and physical infrastructure for some time, and this will likely continue to accelerate. Today, every sector – the economy, agriculture, natural resources, health, energy, education, defense – is increasingly reliant on telecom networks, and homes, cars, and even our bodies are also connected to myriad networked devices. This is a constantly changing landscape with more and more sophisticated attacks and more vectors for attack. This includes ever-sophisticated AI as both a threat and possible defense. We can even look ahead to concerns such as the possible development of quantum encryption/decryption. There is no easy answer, of course, but telecoms companies should continue to work closely with federal agencies on securing critical infrastructure, and we need to create an even better pipeline of trained cybersecurity experts.

Q: It seems as though the Gen pop is OK with quickly clicking “Yes” on the terms of service (T.o.S) giving carte blanche to companies to buy/sell/trade user data. This in turn further increasing malware/spam/phishing attempts by bad actors to gain further data on those uninitiated such as the youth/elderly. What can we do as a collective to crackdown on such a widespread issue further preventing these bad actors from spreading?

A: The EU, under GDPR, has taken action to restrict the collection and use of personal data, and we see individual U.S. states adopting similar policies. We also see signs that the U.S. government is looking towards stronger data protection laws and enforcements. I think this is a first step towards a solution. For example, I note with interest recent discussions about the FTC requiring “algorithmic disgorgement” (i.e., destruction of AI algorithms derived from unlawful data collection).

Q: What are some communications related issues Hawai‘i residents face vs. mainlanders may not be aware of?

A: Hawaiʻi is the most geographically isolated population center in the world (1.44 million residents and a few hundred thousand visitors on an average day). It is a volcanic island chain with seven populated islands located in the central Pacific Ocean. As such, we are highly reliant on submarine fiber and some more limited satellite coverage. Decades ago, people thought that we would always be the meeting place between East and West, and that new submarine fiber drops were assured. Over time, as the technology progressed, more and more new fiber routes bypassed us. We are fortunate to have some amazing telecom leaders here who have been working to ensure we are not left behind (for example, the Broadband Hui, a collection of more than 200 telecoms folks, local government leaders, non-profits, and educators who want to improve broadband infrastructure and advance digital equity). Many people in the U.S. will be surprised to learn that our urban areas have historically been a bit ahead of the U.S. mainland as far as telecom services (early mobile adoption, WWW, broadband, etc.) We have been innovators and early adopters. We had early giants like Norm Abramson (AlohaNet) and Wes Peterson here on the UH faculty, and have always had passionate leaders who worked for the benefit of Hawai‘i and the Pacific. We do have a notable rural-urban divide as with many parts of the U.S., so there is still much work to do!

Q: What are the biggest trends/concerns/predictions to watch for?

A: I think it is clear that we have entered a completely new telecoms policy space, largely brought about by the challenges of multiple technologies characterizing the modern Internet—and data is central to it. Many of us are very interested in artificial intelligence or the Internet of Things or Big Data – I myself have published in all of these areas. What I’ve come to realize is that we really need to think of these as a collection of interrelated technologies that together are driving the so-called “data revolution”. This revolution is not just about more data-–there are many novel data types-–the Fitbit or Apple Watch you may be wearing, sensors in the natural environment—there’s a huge amount of data being shared and, importantly, new analytic tools to make sense of it. In many cases, these data are aggregated, shared or resold–moving data beyond its original context. Predictive analytics also creates new data that move beyond their original context. Data linkages are increasingly common –and some argue necessary for innovation in AI and machine learning. There are many seeking to exploit the value of these data resources. My forecast for this year is that we are going to see more tensions between Big Tech and government, with heightened concern about individual privacy and security, and social equity. I think we will see stronger attempts in the U.S. to create and enforce related regulations and policies.

For the record, I am not really sold on ChatGPT or the Metaverse being transformative in any fundamental way this year. I am, however, watching with interest.

Q: Out of your many publications which one would you like highlighted. Any favorites that have direct correlation to some current geopolitical events?

A: I recently published an article in Telecommunications Policy with my colleague Elizabeth Davidson on the subject of personally generated health data (PGHD) governance. PGHD are data collected by patients themselves using apps provided by health technology firms. These data often fall outside of conventional health data regulation in the U.S. (such as HIPAA) and some other countries. We are seeing  friction between federal- or state-regulated health data and what is essentially self-regulated PGHD collected by Big Tech, and our work offers insights to resolve this. Given that data is so fundamental to the function of many aspects of our lives, questions about how we can better manage it has led me to work for several years in this area. The pandemic of the last three years has highlighted in a way that we could not have imagined the importance the governance of health data has to policy at all levels. 

Q:  Millennials, Gen-Z, and Gen Alpha are quickly approaching an age of responsibility. We are trying to find solutions to the worlds many complex issues all the while trying to find the specialization that suits us best. Do you have any words of encouragement to the young leaders entering the industry?

A: I think everyone benefits from a diverse skill set. It fosters problem-solving and interdisciplinary insights. Don’t  feel you have to narrow in on an exact career path right away. Take a variety of subjects that interest you, go to events, and try an internship or two. If you are in the workforce, see what various teams are doing within the organization. There is definitely a place for you, so find others that are doing what you think looks interesting and learn about their own pathways and the competencies they think were most essential to develop.

Q: Any closing remarks/asides to close with?

A: Mahalo! I hope that we will see you in Hawai‘i –perhaps at PTC ’24!

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Thank you again Dr. Winter for taking the time out of your schedule to enlighten us! This concludes this month’s feature of Luminaries in Telecom. Please feel free to add to the conversation and tell is what you learned from this interview. Sound off in the comments below with any fun facts/specifics, or any suggestions about any movers and shakers in telecom history you think deserve a feature send a message to [email protected]. We at NJFX hope you’ve gleaned a bit of inspiration to take with you through the rest of your week!