Region 5 Meeting

Eric Fuchs is the Chief Sales Officer at Metroswitch Technologies, Inc., a role he has held since 2013. He leads the company’s strategic sales direction, managing a high-performing sales team and collaborating closely with the technology division to enhance and expand Metroswitch’s innovative solutions.  Specializing in the Utilities and Financial Services sectors, Eric brings over two decades of expertise in advanced telecommunication technologies, delivering state-of-the-art solutions for real-time routing, geographic redundancy, and seamless interoperability with multiple Tier-1 carriers, all powered by the company’s proprietary patented technology. 

Prior to Metroswitch Technologies, Eric held prominent leadership roles, including Chief Sales Officer at CNM Network, where he oversaw the scaling of national sales teams, operations, and implementation.  He also served as Sales Director at ICG Communications in Silicon Valley.  Eric managed the National Accounts team at Ocular Sciences, where his leadership drove multimillion-dollar growth and contributed to a successful IPO. 

Eric earned a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in Organizational Communication with an emphasis on Business Marketing from Arizona State University. 

David Hattey is a seasoned strategic leader with thirty-plus years of successful executive assignments across IT, telecom, wireless, cloud services, and networking companies serving the Utility, Public Service, and Enterprise spaces. He is currently a consultant providing technology and strategy support through Lockard & White. David has held contributing and leadership positions in every area of business while working for companies ranging from start-ups to Fortune 100. He was awarded BS Electrical Engineering and BS Computer Engineering degrees from the University of Michigan, both Magna Cum Laude, as well as an MBA from Duke’s Fuqua School of Business where he was named a Fuqua Scholar. David is a named inventor on 11 US patents.

Larry Horner is a Principal Engineer and Senior Solution Architect at Intel. His efforts focus on accelerating the transformation of the global communication provider network. His work covers all aspects of the carrier transformation including virtualization from innovation to scale deployment from the enterprise edge premises equipment into the core of the CSP network.

His insights, breadth of experience, and ability to work directly and in depth in both the business and technical levels of the transformation taking place in this industry bring a sharp focus to the opportunity and challenges being addressed today by the industry.

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Steve Liegl is currently the Director Infrastructure and Operations for WEC Energy Group, consisting of seven regulated gas, electric, and renewable energy utilities.

WEC Energy Group was formed seven years ago through an acquisition of Integrys Energy Group by Wisconsin Energy. WEC Energy Group is headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin with major utility operations in Wisconsin, Upper and Lower Michigan, Minnesota, and the Chicago area.

At WEC Energy Group Steve is responsible for managing his group’s operating/maintenance budget, capital project budget, staffing, technical training, and outsourcing. Steve also has

responsibility for the strategic, tactical, and operational direction of multiple IT infrastructure and operations teams supporting IT infrastructure, exchange/messaging, service desk, client devices, software deployment, and IT asset management. Along with managing the IT teams, critical business relationships are required due to the unique systems within the various electric and gas utilities.

Since joining the organization ten years ago he has held three different positions ranging from the leader of the network operations group, manager voice/data communications infrastructure, and his current role.

Prior to joining the utility industry Steve spent 17 years in the cellular industry working for companies such as Verizon Wireless, AT&T, T-Mobile, and BellSouth. While at these organizations Steve held roles in both network operations as well as core network engineering.

Along with six years of active service in the United States Marine Corps, Steve currently holds a Doctorate of Business Administration from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Wisconsin Lutheran College and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater

Kathy Nelson, PE is the Founder and Principal at KN Utility Telecom Consulting, a firm specializing in utilities telecommunications strategy. Ms. Nelson has over 31 years of experience in the utility telecommunications industry including a long career of 25 years at Great River Energy, serving on the board of directors for UTC for 10 years including as Chairwoman from 2017 – 2018, providing strategic direction and leading IEEE standards development at Ondas Networks, providing strategic telecommunications consulting for utilities at West Monroe Partners and most recently founding KN Utility Telecom Consulting.

Ms. Nelson is a strong supporter of women in STEM, hosting a podcast “Ordinarily Extraordinary – conversations with women in STEM”. Ms. Nelson resides in Minnesota and is the mother to three adult children and a lively sheepadoodle dog.

Rob Wright is a Senior Consultant within the IP Routing division at Nokia with a special focus on providing innovative networking solutions for vertical and enterprise markets including utilities, oil &gas, state and local governments, public safety, and transportation. He has over 25 years of data network design experience on telecom networks. His roles have included initial design consulting, identifying feature requirements, configuration development, and implementation of final solutions. When not working, he enjoys kayaking and biking.