Congratulations to the 2016 Awards Winners
 

The Associate Member Outstanding Achievement Award

Chris Schroeder
Chief Executive Officer and Managing Partner, TCA

Schroeder has worked tirelessly over the last 30 years to raise awareness of rural telecommunications issues. He has devoted countless hours advocating for these issues at the FCC at the national and state level. His industry activities, accomplishments and honors include multiple terms on the NTCA Rural Broadband PAC board as a Colorado state representative; representing TCA as an early indispensable member of the NTCA Smart Rural Community advisory council, formulating the standards that now define the program's awards and also serving as a judge for awards; and all-around advocacy for industry, raising awareness of rural telecommunications issues at the national, state and local levels.

The Outstanding Marketing Achievement Award

Kim Simpson
Sales and Marketing Manager, KPU Telecommunications

Beginning in 2009, she led KPU through a strategic change in focus toward hosted IP systems that helped carry it into the new decade. This shift has made KPU an industry leader and turned her into an industry authority on hosted IP. She pushed for the abandonment of KPU's legacy market in favor of the new hosted IP systems market. This early entry into the hosted IP market put KPU years ahead of its local and regional competitors. She also took on the launch of a Verizon Wireless store located in the KPU building, devoting countless amounts of time and energy to the project, ensuring a flawless, on-time launch.

The Key Employee Award

New Lisbon Telephone Co.
Entire Staff

Its chief executive officer, John Greene, inherited a small ILEC operation in 2014 with just over 400 DSL customers, 400 ILEC telephone customers and 25 broadband-only CLEC customers. Over the past two years, New Lisbon employees have placed over 15 new fiber cabinets and have built out fiber to their most remote CLEC customers in East Central Indiana to offer a bundle of IPTV, video, and high-bandwidth internet where none existed before.In addition, two more major fiber builds in New Lisbon's service area were completed by the end of 2016. Over the past three years, revenues and assets have increased from $1.1 million to $2.3 million and from $5.5 million to $12 million, respectively. Because New Lisbon's customer base increased by over 2,000 new customers, this small Indiana telco had to hire 10 new employees to keep up with all the work. 

The Management Innovation Award

Eric Cramer
Chief Executive Officer and General Manager, Wilkes Telephone Membership Corp.

Cramer has a more than 20-year history in the rural telecommunications industry. After becoming Wilkes' CEO in March 2010, he immediately began pursuing innovative changes that brought profitability and growth to his company in a time when others were struggling. One of the first changes he made was to complete a fiber overbuild of Wilkes' existing copper network. He applied for and won a stimulus grant valued at $15 million, along with a $6 million low-interest loan to pay for the infrastructure upgrade. Under his leadership, Wilkes' fiber overbuild expanded rapidly over the next few years. He acquired several smaller telcos in the area and pursued other strategies and partnerships to help maximize his revenues and minimize costs.

The Director Life Achievement Award

Lee Logan
Board President, West Carolina Rural Telephone

An integral part of WCTel since 1996, he helped the organization expand its business offerings to full fiber-to-the-home and to become the first gig-certified ILEC in South Carolina. Prior to entering the telecommunications industry, he spent a large part of his professional career in education. In addition to his service to his telco, he has served on the boards of several community and industry nonprofits, including the Foundation for Rural Service, lending them his business and leadership experience.

The Manager Life Achievement Award

Lyman Horne Jr.
Executive President and General Manager, Star Communications

Horne began his career in 1980 with Star Telephone Membership Corp., now Star Communications, as a marketing manager. He quickly rose through the ranks, serving in various positions before being promoted to executive vice president and general manager in 2000, a position he has held ever since. He led the integration of Cox Cable into Starvision, Star's cable service, and oversaw the complete digital conversion of the entire system beginning in 2001 and lasting until 2008. He also led the expansion of Star's offerings to its customers to include full fiber-to-the-home, a home security suite, and DVR service. He also has lent his leadership to churches, schools, colleges, associations and foundations, including the Foundation for Rural Service and NTCA, serving as an FRS board member from 2010 to 2013 and as a member of the NTCA Resolutions Committee.