John Kneuer, who retired Nov. 30 as boss of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, has a new job—and it doesn’t involve digital-to-analog converter boxes.
Instead, he’s the new senior vice president for strategic planning and external affairs for Rivada Networks, which “offers public safety, homeland security, and defense customers advanced, affordable communications solutions that can be deployed today using existing technologies and infrastructures,” according to the company’s Web site. “Responding to the ongoing need of first responders to communicate across agency and regional barriers and to have access to broadband technology, Rivada offers an IP-based solution capable of delivering robust, mobile voice and high speed data services over commercial cellular and satellite infrastructures, backed up by private, deployable cellular networks.”
The company, based in Ireland with offices in Arlington, Va., and Colorado Springs, Colo., was founded by Declan J. Ganley, who has been celebrated by the business press as one of Europe’s top young entrepreneurs. Other company officers include retired Coast Guard Rear Admiral Robert F. Duncan and retired Coast Guard Admiral James Loy, who also served as the chief of the Transportation Security Administration.
As NTIA boss, Kneuer repeatedly assured Congress that the program to deliver coupons for digital-to-analog converter boxes was on track. In the face of GAO reports charging a lack of leadership in the converter box program, he also resisted calls for an inter-agency task force or czar for the coupon program, and told Congress that he had sufficient contact on the matter with FCC Chairman Kevin Martin.
“In recent years, Kneuer worked closely with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the Federal Communications Commission and state and local officials across the nation to develop solutions to the shortcomings in public safety communications systems,” his new company said in a statement. “His new role at Rivada will enable him to promote the only interoperable, broadband solution that is available today, does not require new federal mandates or spectrum set-asides, and offers far greater range and capability at a fraction of the cost of any other solution available today.”
“The most rewarding part of my public service was working with my federal, state and local counterparts to identify advanced technical solutions to difficult communications challenges,” Kneuer said in the statement. “Joining Rivada Networks gives me the opportunity to continue to serve this important national and homeland security mission with the most advanced and efficient solution available.”
Prior to joining NTIA, Kneuer was a senior associate at the law firm of Piper Rudnick in Washington. From 1997 to 1998, he was the executive director for government relations at the Industrial Telecommunications Association, and prior to that was an attorney-advisor in the Commercial Wireless Division of the FCC.
Meredith Attwell Baker took over Kneuer’s spot at the NTIA as interim administrator Dec. 1.
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