Richmond, VA: Ready to Build the Next Generation Network?

Tamarah Holmes, Ph.D., is the director for the Office of Broadband at DHCD and has been in the role since September 2019. She has spent over 20 years in the public sector in the field of community and economic development in New York, New Jersey, and Chesterfield, Virginia. Dr. Holmes has played an instrumental role in the creation of the Virginia Telecommunication Initiative (VATI), leading the development of the program that has grown from a $1 million to a $750 million appropriation since 2017. She is responsible for coordinating efforts across the Commonwealth to invest an additional $1.48 Billion in federal funds from the Broadband, Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program and $18 million in Digital Equity State Capacity program allocated under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to close the digital divide. In addition to serving as director, she serves as the Virginia Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) program manager, overseeing ARC's economic and community development programming in 25 counties and 8 independent cities in the Appalachian region of Virginia.

Over his 27-year career, Chris Bailey has worked for both supplier and distribution companies of various sizes. Chris has been involved in numerous deployments with telephone companies, cooperatives, municipalities, and other entities, launching fiber broadband networks. Having presented individually and with end-users and suppliers, Chris has extensive wealth of knowledge in the broadband market.

Lori Adams currently serves as the Vice President of Broadband Policy & Funding Strategy for Nokia and is a key member of the US broadband business development team within the Network Infrastructure business group. With over 20 years of experience as a telecommunications attorney focusing on broadband policy, she played a key role in helping Nokia achieve Buy America compliance for the BEAD program. Adams has participated at numerous industry events at the local, state and national levels as a moderator, panelist and keynote speaker.

David Eckard is currently the Vice President of the Broadband Partners at Nokia overseeing the company’s response to the historical influx of capital from the various federal and state funding programs that aims to close the digital inequities in our country. Since 1999, David has been a key contributor, advocate and industry leader for the creation and adoption of fiber access in the United States and around the world. He has overseen the development and investment of key enabling technologies that has allowed Nokia to be a trusted partner for next generation fiber networks. He is a Distinguished Member of the Technical Staff, holds many patents in optical access technologies, has represented Nokia in standardization forums for next generation optical access networks and resides on the boards of various trade associations representing Nokia.

Paul joined CommScope in 2010 through the BNS acquisition in 2015 and relocated to North America in 2020. Before relocating, Paul played a pivotal role in the successful deployment of Australia's National Broadband Network (NBN) and collaborated with carriers worldwide to develop fiber network solutions. As the Senior Director of Solutions Architecture and Strategy, Paul specializes in identifying and developing market solutions for fiber-based outside plant deployments. With a focus on network architectures and optimization, Paul has been actively involved in multiple large-scale network deployments globally, including Australia's NBN, New Zealand's UFB rollout, and several significant deployments across Europe. Paul brings over 25 years of industry experience and a wealth of knowledge and innovative approaches for deploying FTTH networks in challenging environments.