Part of OSP’s mission is to share best practices and insights between colleagues and peers who have the telecom infrastructure in their blood. That begs the question – just WHO are your colleagues and peers?

What better way to explore this than to get inside the heads of those who make the OSP work. Each month we feature an OSP professional we think you’d like to know. We ask him/her questions that get inside the outside plant. Read it to learn from your peers, get ideas, and even snag a little wisdom every now and again.

Check out who is part of this special community. Then, nominate yourself or someone else you think deserves it. Send his/her name to our editor, Sharon Vollman: sharon@ospmag.com. She’ll take it from there.

Gale Green, Network Engineer and Project Manager -- Texas Pipes Project, Texas A&M Universit

Gale Green oversees construction, engineering and compliance of the Texas Pipes BTOP project and has some good stories to tell.

Fraser Pajak, CEO, QuEST Forum

Meet an Operations Guy turned CEO who leads an organization dedicated to maintaining and growing the legacy of Quality in the ICT industry. His commitment to advocate for doing the RIGHT thing is right on the mark.

Robin Queenan, Senior Sales Manager, OSP® magazine

Robin Queenan is both a reader’s and manufacturer’s advocate. Her many years in the business allows her to see both sides of the equation so she can link vendors with the customers they serve. Read more about this unique and passionate OSP-er.

Jennifer Fitzmaurice, Director Construction and Engineering (DAS), AT&T Services, Inc.

Jennifer Fitzmaurice directs a regional team and the M&P team at AT&T that is responsible for building quality wireless DAS systems. She is intimately familiar with how much DAS relates to the OSP.

Jeff Plaster, Senior Sales Manager, OSP® magazine

Like OSP? Get to know the people behind it and you’ll like it even more. Meet one of our newest additions: Jeff Plaster. He is a pro with a passion for honesty and get-’er-done-ness.

Read the August 2012 Perspective Q&A featuring Jeff

Rick Stern, CEO of Nitel, Inc.

Talk about telecom entrepreneurialism at its best! Rick Stern, CEO and co-founder of Nitel, grew the company from a single office offering telecom consulting to a nationwide provider of data connectivity services. His leadership has helped Nitel to be named to the Inc. 500/5000 list of fastest growing private companies in America for the past three years. But, wait. There’s more. Crain’s Chicago Business Fast Fifty has named Nitel the 5th fastest growing company in the Chicago area. Not bad, eh?

Read the July 2012 Perspective Q&A featuring Rick

Adam Rislov, Plant Supervisor for Nunn Telephone Company

If you’re looking for a great read about one of your own, read this! Adam tells two real-life experiences that will resonate with you at one point in your career. Funny, frightening, and very, very real.

Read the May 2012 Perspective Q&A featuring Adam

David Borrego, Director Network Engineering Systems, Verizon

David lives and breathes OSP engineering. He is so well respected that his neighbors call him to solve all types of troubles they have in their home -- telecom related or not! Read David’s approach to this and more.

Read the April 2012 Perspective Q&A featuring David

Dick Segress, President/GM, Terral Telephone Co.

Dick considers himself a very lucky man because he gets to do every job in the company, including fixing the toilets. In one day, he may handle a trouble in the field. Later that same day, he may be in strategic planning over issues that are critical to delivering broadband to rural customers. Talk about wearing many hats!

Read the March 2012 Perspective Q&A featuring Dick

Jim Gerber, Assistant Vice-President, AT&T

Read Jim's great insight into how network evolution is driven by the human network. In Jim's opinion, a straight-forward approach to leading is what it takes. He starts with passion, adds a positive attitude and never stops believing that his team can achieve things some see as impossible.

Read the December 2011 Peer Perspective Q&A featuring Jim
 

Steve Herman, OSP Construction/Engineering Network Process and Quality Manager, AT&T

We’re featuring Steve Herman as the peer perspective in the November issue of OSP magazine. Steve’s telecommunication career began in 1989. Check out what Steve has to share.

Read the November 2011 Peer Perspective Q&A featuring Steve
 

Curtis Ashton, Principal Power and Grounding Tech Support Engineer for CenturyLink

Curtis Ashton is the kind of OSP pro who lives and breathes his profession -- respecting the intensity of power quite literally. (You’ll understand what we mean when you read about his near brush with death as he dodged a lightning strike during a hike at 14,000 feet!) OSP gives a standing ovation to his kind of attitude in the field.

Read the October 2011 Peer Perspective Q&A featuring Curtis
 

Doug Abolt, Vice President of Field Operations for Consolidated Communications

Check out Doug's opinions on copper bonding, the CCI holiday elves, and avid dedication to job and family. You don't want to miss one of Doug's good stories.

Read the July 2011 Peer Perspectives Q&A featuring Doug
 

Lee Gevara, Outside Plant Construction Manager for Verizon

We can’t wait to introduce you to Lee Gevara -- a man with a work ethic that brought him from the mail room (literally) to construction management. Read about Lee’s interesting encounters as a rookie… and more!

Read the June 2011 Peer Perspectives Q&A featuring Lee
 

Scott W. Long, Local Manager Customer Operations and Construction, Verizon

Scott Long is a Verizon Customer Operations Local Manager. He's responsible for 20 technicians who work to deliver best-in-class customer service. With a military background, he is all about delivering on his promises. Read and learn from this pro -- who also has some great stories to tell!

Read the May 2011 Peer Perspectives Q&A featuring Scott
 

Frank Virgadamo, Senior - Network Support, AT&T

Frank Virgadamo came recommended highly by Tim Wolff, VP Construction & Engineering, AT&T. Frank began his career with Southwestern Bell in 1974 as a service representative. In 1977, he transferred to the Construction and Engineering organization as a cable splicer. Since then, he’s had different management positions in Construction and Engineering that have brought safety to the forefront of his priority list.

Read the April 2011 Peer Perspectives Q&A featuring Frank
 

Douglas Thornton, Local Manager of Construction and Operations, Verizon

We always applaud those in telecom who have the official title of Safety Director. But, we can't help but admire those folks in the OSP who take safety seriously even when it's not their official job. (At least at the beginning, it wasn't.) Doug Thornton is one such person who has some tremendous insight to offer about the role of safety in the OSP.

Read the March 2011 Peer Perspectives Q&A featuring Doug

Andy Betscher, Senior Specialist for Field Operations, Cincinnati Bell

In 1991, while working for the family electrical contracting business, Andy Betscher earned a B.S. in Industrial Technology from Morehead State University. Betscher continued to work for the family business until 1998, when his father took ill and decided to close the business. In March of 1998, Betscher began a new career at Cincinnati Bell as a Construction Splicer. He held that position for 5 years before accepting the position of ADSL Splicer, working that position for another 5 years. Working as an ADSL Splicer, Betscher was given an opportunity to join management as a Team Leader for the FTTH group (FiOptics). Those previous positions prepared Betscher for the position he holds today as Senior Specialist for Field Operations.

Read the February 2011 Peer Perspectives Q&A featuring Andy

Don McCarty - McCarty Products Inc

Donald McCarty began his telephone career in 1965 as an outside plant technician. In 1972, he joined Dynatel as an outside plant training specialist. After 14 years of training both craft and management in the telecommunications industry, he founded McCarty Associates, Inc. in 1986, now known as McCarty Products. His success as a world-renowned trainer, speaker, and writer is credited to his straight-forward teaching style coupled with his ability to make complex subjects easy to grasp. Donald sets the technical benchmarks and standards for McCarty Products. He is a regular columnist, The OSP Expert, in OSP® magazine, and is the co-author of The Fine Art of Fault Locating, the industry standard training manual for outside plant fault location.

Read the January 2011 Peer Perspectives Q&A featuring Don >>