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STAY CONNECTED

LEVERAGING THE FIRSTNET WIRELESS BROADBAND NETWORK
IN AMAZING WAYS

Assured Wireless Corporation was founded to deliver reliable communications solutions in the most demanding environments. We are at the forefront of a surge in innovation that is being applied to advanced connectivity solutions for first responders like police, EMT, fire and rescue personnel.

The high power user equipment (HPUE) breakthroughs from the team at Assured Wireless are driving that technology surge from the test labs and into the field. We build the enabling technology that provides public safety professionals with the most reliably-connected broadband devices ever. Devices that stay connected even in the most challenging environments.

We believe that this upgrade in communication reliability is the cornerstone that will enable the mission-specific situational awareness apps and services that are being built by next-generation public safety network architects.

Executive TEAM

Our highly-skilled team combines experience with passion, creativity, and dedication. With more than 140 combined years of experience in advanced wireless technologies, executive management, and business development in the global public safety market, the Assured Wireless team is dedicated to providing the most advanced capabilities to our public safety first responders around the world to help them save lives and protect property.

John Goocher

CEO

John Goocher is the President and CEO of Assured Wireless Corporation, where he leads a world-class team developing leading-edge wireless solutions for network operators, first responder organizations and critical enterprises. John served Assured Wireless as a management consultant before accepting his current role. He has extensive experience as a board member, company executive, and investment banker, and is a self-described tech nerd.

John joined Assured Wireless from Kidron Capital Securities where he was Managing Director. Previously, John was Managing Director for Carnegie Technologies where he completed four acquisitions and led product development teams. Prior to Carnegie, John served as CEO at Pocket Communications, a wireless carrier that was sold to Cricket (now AT&T) for $200 million.

He was Vice President of Marketing at CT Communications, Inc. (Nasdaq: CTCI), and was one of the original members of the Sprint PCS organization, serving as Finance Director and Senior Director of Sales. John started his career working at BellSouth (now AT&T) for 10 years in various capacities including mergers and acquisitions, accounting, financial management, and network operations for domestic and international business units. He has advised numerous boards and individual directors throughout his professional career.

John has been involved with several non-profit organizations including the YMCA and the Boy Scouts of America. He is a graduate of the University of Alabama at Birmingham with a degree in Finance and passed the CPA exam in Georgia.

Bob LaRose

Vice President, Business Development

Bob LaRose, one of our co-founders, received a Philmore cat whisker crystal radio set for Christmas at the age of 10 and that was it. He fell in love with radio.

He pursued that passion and received his bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from the Rochester Institute of Technology. However, he soon found more of an interest in the marketing and sales of land mobile radio communications systems, especially for Public Safety and in developing countries.

His involvement in marketing and sales led him to executive management sales positions in domestic and international companies, like Harris Corporation, STORNO (Denmark), Datron World Communications, and Raytheon/JPS Communications.

Bob is a Senior and Life Member of the IEEE, a Fellow in the Radio Club of America, and holds Amateur Radio Extra Class License W6ACU.

Edward Lin

Vice President, Engineering

Edward is an Assured Wireless co-founder and resident radio frequency wireless technology expert. Developing leading-edge technologies in cellular, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and other communications products is his forte. He runs the gamut when it comes to his experience in companies large and small for the past 24 years, fusing innovation with product development to produce cutting-edge technology.

He has designed systems for RF Solutions, TurboNet Communications, Public Wireless, Nextivity, Motorola, TV/COM International (Hyundai Electronics) and E-Systems, Inc. (Raytheon) as an electrical engineer.

Edward is a graduate from Villanova University in Pennsylvania with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and a master’s degree from University of Pennsylvania in electrical engineering.

George Mansho

Vice President, Licensing & Strategic Alliances

George Mansho brings together a unique combination of legal experience – from patents to understanding the basics of what makes intellectual property valuable – and keen business expertise in the practicalities of monetizing such property. He also has expertise in international operations and finding the right partners to move technology into international markets.

With more than 17 years at Qualcomm, Inc., as a vice president in the legal department, he applied his business development and negotiation skills as well as his wireless ecosystem expertise to ensure rapid and seamless worldwide growth of next-generation wireless technologies and services through licensing Qualcomm’s intellectual property. As a senior vice president in Qualcomm CDMA Technologies (QCT), he was responsible for business development, strategic alliances, and mergers and acquisitions for the semiconductor business. Before joining Qualcomm, Mansho spent more than 13 years at Ball Corporation where he held various management and legal positions for Ball’s communications division.

Mansho holds a BA and Juris Doctorate degree from the University of Colorado, Boulder and practiced law in the State of Colorado and the Federal District Court.

Sheikh Hafiz

Vice President, Product Engineering

Sheikh is Assured’s Product Engineering lead and Carrier/Industry Certification expert. He was a key player in defining new products, cutting-edge technology development and commercialization at Qualcomm for more than 23 years. He led the technology and product certification and commercial launch of the first CDMA handset in North America followed by multiple 3G/4G commercial handsets and Gobi module product launch in worldwide operators- AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint, Vodafone, Orange, Telefonica, NTT DoCoMo, China Telecom, America Movile, and others.

Sheikh has a strong track record of building highly efficient engineering teams from ground up and meeting aggressive product launch timelines for new technology development, industry adoption through carrier certifications and worldwide commercial product launch. He is driven by new and dynamic challenges with desire to be successful in all endeavors.

Sheikh received his master’s degree from George Mason University in electrical and computer engineering and bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Delhi College of Engineering. Sheikh currently owns 5 key patents on wireless systems and RF designs implementations.

Mike Fox

Vice President, Software Engineering

Mike Fox has been directing software development for many decades, he has led the development and productization of network management systems, voice over IP gateways, video compression and optimization platforms, as well as over the top push to talk solutions.

He holds patents in areas of signal classification, network processing, and network optimization. Mike graduated with a BS in Physics from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD).

Tom Bilotta (1957-2020)

Founder

Tom founded Assured Wireless in 2016 with three longtime colleagues and led the development of high-power wireless communications technology for public sector service providers and first responders including police departments, fire and rescue agencies and a wide spectrum of emergency services organizations and critical enterprises.

Over a technology career spanning nearly four decades, Tom served in a variety of engineering, management and executive roles within wireless, networking and communications sectors at companies such as TurboNet Communications, Malibu Networks, TV/Com International, MultiSpectra Engineering, CenterComm, Rainbow Network Systems, Obsirv, Nextivity, Public Wireless and Linkabit Corporation. Assured Wireless was his most ambitious project, and the fourth company that he founded or co-founded.

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Board of Directors

Scott Fox

CEO, Global View Partners

Board Member

With over four decades as an executive in telecommunications, finance, and startups, Scott is currently the CEO of Global View Partners, a Strategy, Technology, and Business Consulting company supporting clients across the global wireless ecosystem.  A visionary and forward-thinking strategist, he has been the CTO for BellSouth & Cingular, Chairman of the GSM Association, Group President – WFII (took public on the NASDAQ), Lead Consultant for FirstNet (NTIA), to name just a few, and has served as a Board Member for over 30+ public & private companies. In addition to serving as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence (EIR) at University of Colorado Boulder’s Venture Partners.

TJ Kennedy

CEO, Wrap Technologies Inc.

Board Member

TJ is a proven technology executive who has successfully led growing teams and disruptive business models from tech startups to Fortune 500 businesses. He was also one of the founders and principals of The Public Safety Network, a company focused on communications technology solutions to meet the mission-critical needs of public safety. He served as the President of First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet.gov), which designed and oversaw the world’s first nationwide 4G LTE wireless network dedicated to first responders. At FirstNet, he was responsible for executing strategy development to build a $40 billion public-private partnership from a startup. Prior to FirstNet, he served as the President of JPS Communications, Inc., a subsidiary of Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN). Mr. Kennedy led the strategy for public safety at Raytheon which leveraged the technology, research and development, and experience in the military and homeland defense markets to implement affordable, effective and interoperable public safety solutions.

Matthew Walsh

AVP Product Management and Development

Board Observer

Matt’s career in wireless spans 27 years across a diverse set of business units within AT&T’s enterprise, public sector, and retail organizations. He has significant experience in the development of new businesses and strategic corporate initiatives, having spent time in AT&T’s Emerging Devices Organization focused on driving innovation across a broad list of categories. Matt currently leads the FirstNet and NG 9-1-1 Product organizations driving innovation and modernization for products and solutions focused on enabling Public Safety. These innovations include advancing NG 9-1-1, Mission Critical Services, Public Safety 5G Implementation, Public Safety Grade Devices and IoT, Applications, as well as Disaster Recovery and Continuity of Operations Solutions. Previously, Matt Walsh served as Assistant Vice President in AT&T’s Public Sector and FirstNet organization. He was responsible for developing and executing upon AT&T’s strategy supporting the go to market of advanced data solutions with State, Local, Education and Federal organizations.

Trusted Advisors

Frank Bell
Advisor
Wireless Consulting Services, Inc.

Frank is a visionary Business Executive, with over 30 years of experience overseeing business operations with an award-winning record of leveraging untapped potential to maximize sales opportunities, generate revenue and reduce costs with high-tech and start-up companies. He was a Founding Officer at MetroPCS and held Officer positions at Sprint PCS, PR Wireless Inc., and Globalstar. Currently at Wireless Consulting Services, Frank drives initiatives that have propelled his client companies to attain 50+% annual growth generating over $50M in monthly revenues. Prior to Frank’s successful business career, he served as a Captain in the US Army.

Tim Bresien
Advisor
Strategic Marketing Consultant

Tim has worked with a wide variety of entrepreneurs and business leaders within the wireless, telecom and networking sectors and served in professional marketing roles from across the spectrum of organizational environments: from stealth-mode startups to publicly-traded companies to technology standards bodies to consulting organizations. He has contributed to strategic market entry programs in nascent HD and 4K broadcast, RFID, IoT, drone/UAV video, optical networking, 4G/LTE wireless, high-performance computing, data center and consumer electronics segments. With 30 years of cross-functional marketing leadership and go-to-market achievement, his association with Assured Wireless co-founder Tom Bilotta began at wireless broadband pioneer Malibu Networks in 1999.

Tom Sidman
Advisor
Former GC, Nextel Communications, Inc.

Tom has developed a broad and varied skill set over a 40+ year journey through a number of experiences, contexts, and roles. As the General Counsel for Nextel Communications, Inc., he served as a key member of senior management for three CEOs and was heavily involved in architecting and implementing the aggressive financing, acquisition and construction programs that enabled Nextel to launch and operate the first nationwide all-digital mobile communications network in the U.S. After Nextel, Tom pursued a number of investing and entrepreneurial activities in the mobile communications industry. He played a role in the FCC redesignation of spectrum for use in private broadband wireless networks for members of the critical infrastructure industry in the United States.

Company FAQ

When was the company founded?

Wireless industry veterans Tom Bilotta, Steve Morley, Bob LaRose and Ed Lin established the company in 2016 to address the void that has separated first responder organizations from each other. The Assured Wireless team is attacking difficult design and engineering challenges to deliver industry-first enabling technology which will drive persistent, real-time, inter-agency communications and collaboration using broadband mobile networks. The founders, and the executive team that they assembled, have extensive career successes in wireless connectivity. Assured Wireless was funded by company principals and angel investors with deep ties to the wireless community, particularly in San Diego.

What was the motivation to start this journey?

Assured Wireless was founded with intention to apply the most appropriate technology advances to the most vexing communications challenges that have stressed first responders. Hurricane Katrina, the 9/11 attacks, Hurricane Maria, the California wildfires and other large-scale catastrophes result in a near-annual reevaluation of emergency response programs that need to quickly react to both natural and man-made disasters wherever they occur. Every flood, tornado, hurricane, power outage, shooting incident, earthquake or building collapse puts a recurring spotlight on the shortfalls and incompatibilities of traditional wireless infrastructure(s). And the story repeats. Even day-to-day incidents from fender benders on the freeway to non- life-threatening trips in an ambulance highlight the lack of strong wireless connections in cell-edge rural areas and deep within buildings and parking garages. In addition, the wide spectrum of emergency response teams and first responders are often using communications platforms and networks that cannot speak to each other in the most mission-critical circumstances.

It is within this era of fast-advancing 4G and 5G wireless technology development and an ever-growing separation between and among the spectrum of police, fire, EMS, search and rescue, government response teams and medical organizations that Assured Wireless has emerged.

Do you have patents?

Yes, we have multiple patents on our technology issued by the Patent and Trademark Office in the U.S. and other, similar patent offices around the globe.

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