Board of Directors
Gerald Knoblach
Chairman and CEO, Space Data Corporation
Eric Schimmel
Former VP of Telecommunications Industry Association
Eric Schimmel earned degrees in electrical engineering and business administration from Northwestern University.
In 1999, he retired from the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) where he had served as vice president since its formation in 1988. At TIA, Mr. Schimmel was responsible for the administration of policy and technical activities of the wireless communications division. Mr. Schimmel was appointed by the U.S. State Department to head the U.S. delegation to Working Party 8A of the International Telecommunications Union, which oversees international regulation of terrestrial mobile services including paging and cellular services.
Mr. Schimmel is the immediate past president of the Vehicular Technology Society of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), and is a member of the IEEE Committee on Communications and Information Policy.
Prior to his service at TIA, Mr. Schimmel was vice president of the Information and Telecommunications Technology Group for the Electronic Industries Association.
Earlier in his career, Mr. Schimmel held a number of engineering and management positions at Motorola over a period of 20 years, including FCC liaison manager.
Jim Schnepf
Associate Professor and Chair of Computer Science
College of St Benedict/St John's University
Jim Schnepf is a faculty member at the College of St Benedict/St John's University where he teaches courses in computer science, specializing in computer networking. He has been a member of the faculty there for 17 years. In addition to his departmental responsibilities, he has been involved in faculty governance serving as chair of committees on budgeting and compensation. He previously taught at the University of Minnesota and helped to found the Bachelors of Information Networking Program there.
Prior to his academic career, he served two years in Africa in the Peace Corps before working in manufacturing management for 12 years at Rosemount Engineering, a company producing a wide variety of industrial and aerospace instrumentation. He holds a BA degree from St John's University in Mathematics and a MS and PhD in Computer Science from the University of Minnesota.
Jesús M. Sotomayor
Chairman, Softel; Chairman, Méryta
Jesús Sotomayor earned a Ph.D. in electronic and communications engineering and currently holds a professor's chair in telecommunications and information technology at Instituto Tecnologico de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (ITESM) and is a visiting professor in corporate governance at Instituto Panamericano de Alta Direccion de Empresa (IPADE).
Dr. Sotomayor is chairman of both Softel, a telecommunications company specializing in M2M applications, and Méryta, a consulting firm focused on information technology, regulation and telecommunications. He is a former corporate director of the Mexican telecom carrier Telmex and former chairman of Red Uno, now a Telmex subsidiary.
Doug Stone
Chairman & CEO, Rail Networks International
Doug Stone is the chairman and CEO of Rail Networks International. He is a 37-year veteran of the US Marine Corps Reserve and retired in 2010 at the rank of Major General. He held several command and staff positions, including Deputy Commanding General, Multi-National Force - Iraq, Commanding General, Task Force 134, Baghdad, Iraq, and Commanding General of Marine Air Ground Task Force Training Command and Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center, Twentynine Palms. He has served as President/CEO of GammaLink, President/CEO of Decisive Technology, led business and strategic development at Qwest Communications, and was a Senior Vice President at Scientific Applications International Corporation (SAIC). He is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and holds Masters Degrees in Human Resource Management, Public Administration, and Business Management from Pepperdine, USC, and Stanford Universities, a Masters Degree in International Security from the Naval War College, and Ph.D. in Political Science from USC.
Jim Wiesenberg
Chief Strategy Officer, Space Data Corporation
Mike Wooley
CEO, Wooley & Associates
Mike Wooley is the CEO of Wooley & Associates, LLC, a consulting firm in Navarre, Florida, concentrating in Special Operations plus Military and Civilian Aviation. He is a 35-year veteran of the US Air Force and retired in 2008 at the rank of Lieutenant General. He held Command Positions six times during his career. His last command was The Air Force Special Operations Command. He is both a military and civilian pilot with numerous certificates and ratings. He holds a B.B.A. from Northeast Louisiana University and an M.S. from Webster University plus completed two military programs of study at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. He is on the Military Advisory Board of FLIR Systems, Inc. and is a member of the Board of Directors for Alenia North America.
David Wu
CEO, Ai Squared
Dave Wu joined Ai Squared in 2008 and is responsible for overall strategic direction and tactical execution for the company. Dave brings a 20+ year track record of developing technology-based entrepreneurial ventures from concept to commercial success. During his career he has been instrumental in raising over $750 million in equity and debt investments for his companies and has achieved liquidity for his investors with valuations totaling over $4.5 billion.
Prior to joining Ai Squared, Dave was President and an early member of Space Data Corporation, a provider of wireless data and voice telecommunications servicing customers in underserved rural and remote regions. Additionally, he was President and a founding member of Mirror Image Internet, a pioneer in global content delivery networks. Earlier in his career, Mr. Wu was Vice President of Marketing at VideoGuide (sold to Gemstar TV Guide), an early innovator of interactive digital video recorders (DVRs) and at Intel where he was the marketing manager for video and document conferencing products. He started his career as an electrical/software engineer designing optical and machine vision products at General Scanning and Analog Devices.
Mr. Wu earned his MBA from Harvard University and both his BSEE and MSEE/CS from MIT.