The operable provisions of An Act Establishing and Funding the Massachusetts Broadband Institute (H 4864) relating to the MBI board are Section 6 – which indicates the required qualifications for appointed MBI board members—and Section 8—which indicates that the terms of all appointed MBI board members will be staggered (one through four years, respectively). The Broadband Act states that all four members appointed by the Governor “shall have knowledge and experience in one or more of the following areas: telecommunications, broadband infrastructure, public-private partnership development, information technology or other fields of experience consistent with the mission of the institute.”
Ex Officio Board Seats
There are five ex officio seats on the 9-person MBI board:
Chairperson of the Board: The Secretary of Housing and Economic Development or his designee
Secretary Greg Bialecki oversees the Commonwealth’s business development, housing & community development and consumer affairs & business regulations agencies.
As the Governor’s chief economic development and housing advisor and cabinet member, Secretary Bialecki is responsible for helping achieve the Governor’s top priorities, including strengthening and accelerating our economic recovery by supporting job creation in every region of the state.
Throughout the Governor’s second term, Secretary Bialecki’s agenda will focus on supporting and expanding the Commonwealth’s nation-leading innovation economy; helping small businesses grow by improving their access to capital and advice and by addressing their rising health care costs; and providing the housing opportunities that help build thriving, sustainable communities.
Before joining the Patrick-Murray Administration, Secretary Bialecki enjoyed a twenty-year career as a real estate development and environmental lawyer at the law firms of Hill & Barlow and DLA Piper Rudnick, where his work focused on the major urban redevelopment projects in the Greater Boston area.
The Secretary of Administration and Finance or his designee
Massachusetts Chief Technology Officer Jason Snyder
Jason Snyder is the Chief Technology Officer for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, providing strategic IT direction, engineering standards and design, and service implementation leadership for the Commonwealth at the Massachusetts Information Technology Division.
With a staff of over 100, Snyder also oversees the state’s IT integration services, systems engineering, policy and architecture, and the development of a second data center for the Commonwealth.
Among the innovative projects he is spearheading for the Commonwealth are: developing a Shared Application Infrastructure to eliminate duplication and increase efficiency through a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) implementation; defining a Commonwealth-wide network architecture to introduce improved bandwidth capacity and efficiency; leading the nation in the creation of an Open Data Initiative for Massachusetts to provide the public with broader, quicker data access and the ability to use that data for a myriad of purposes; and the development of a state-of-the-art, green power Second Data Center to consolidate many individual data centers across the state and provide improved service delivery times at significant cost savings.
Prior to his position as Chief Technology Officer for the Commonwealth, Snyder held the same position at the Massachusetts Executive Office for Health and Human Services. His experience also includes overseeing IT projects for companies across the nation as a Partner with CSC Consulting, and as an editor at WebLogic Developers Journal, and an analyst at Seattle’s Metro Environmental Laboratories.
Snyder holds Bachelor of Science degrees in both Economics and Computer Science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He lives with his wife, Robin, and 5 boys in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts.
The Commissioner of Telecommunications and Cable or his designee
DTC Commissioner Geoffrey G. Why
On June 15, 2009, Geoffrey Why was appointed by Governor Deval Patrick as the Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Telecommunications and Cable. From October 2007 until his appointment, Mr. Why was the General Counsel for the Department. Previously, Mr. Why worked as a civil and criminal litigator. From 2001 to 2007, Mr. Why was an assistant attorney general in the Massachusetts Office of the Attorney General, Consumer Protection and Antitrust Division, where he specialized in telecommunication and cable cases. In addition, he was a co-chair of the Attorney General’s Diversity Committee from 2003-2007. In 2006, Mr. Why was presented the Edward J. McCormack Jr. Award for Excellence by the Attorney General for his work on behalf of Massachusetts consumers. From 1998 to 2001, Mr. Why was an assistant district attorney at the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office, Appellate Division. From 2002 to 2005, he was a first-year legal writing instructor at Boston University School of Law.
Mr. Why has been active in a number of community groups. He has been a member of the board of directors of the Asian American Lawyers Association of Massachusetts since 2003 and the board of the Massachusetts Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights from 2006 to 2008. He is currently a Commissioner of the Massachusetts Asian-American Commission. Mr. Why graduated from Boston College in 1988 and Boston College Law School in 1998. Mr. Why is married to Annamarie Why and they have two sons. They currently live in Watertown, MA.
The Executive Director of MTC or his designee
The Chairman of the Governing Board of the John Adams Innovation Institute or his designee
Donald R. Dubendorf, Esq.
Don Dubendorf currently serves as chairman of MTC’s John Adams Innovation Institute Governing Board. An attorney in private practice in Williamstown, Massachusetts, and a founding partner of Grinnell, Dubendorf, and Smith, LLP, Dubendorf complements his concentration in the area of business organizations, contracts and finance with considerable expertise in the areas of environmental law and land use planning. His familiarity with the complex issues involved in administrative compliance and advocacy has made him one of the area’s foremost attorneys in these matters, with a client list of colleges, hospitals, financial institutions and entrepreneurs.
Dubendorf was also a driving force in the Berkshire Connect telecommunications initiative, a model program that helped organize and focus a variety of constituencies in an effort to bring high-speed Internet to western Massachusetts. His work on this project attracted interest nationwide.
For his pioneering telecommunications efforts, Dubendorf was awarded the Mass High-Tech All Star Award in 2000. He is also the co-author of The Insider Buyout, published by Storey Communications, Inc. In 2004, Dubendorf was named as one of Massachusetts’ Super Lawyers. The list of 2004 Massachusetts Super Lawyers includes only the top 5 percent of Massachusetts attorneys in more than 60 practice areas and is based on surveys of more than 37,000 lawyers across the state and through independent research by Law & Politics.
Gubernatorial Appointments
There are four appointments made by Governor Patrick that complete the 9-person MBI board:
Brian Burke (term expires January 7, 2014)
Brian Burke is the Senior Director of State Government Affairs for Microsoft Corporation and works closely with Microsoft’s community partners and government officials throughout the northeast. Prior to joining Microsoft, Burke was a Policy Director on Senator John Kerry’s Presidential campaign. Before the Kerry campaign, Burke was Senior Counsel in the Washington, DC office of Holland & Knight, LLP. Burke also served in several senior government positions including as Senior Policy Analyst on the White House Domestic Policy Council, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army, and Counselor to the Secretary of Energy. Burke began his career as a trial attorney with the United States Department of Justice, is a graduate of Brown University and the Georgetown University Law Center, and is the happy father of four children.
Dr. David D. Clark (term expires January 7, 2015)
David Clark is a Senior Research Scientist at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, where he has worked since receiving his Ph.D. there in 1973. Since the mid 70s, Dr. Clark has been leading the development of the Internet; from 1981-1989 he acted as Chief Protocol Architect in this development, and chaired the Internet Activities Board. His current research looks at re-definition of the architectural underpinnings of the Internet, and the relation of technology and architecture to economic, societal and policy considerations. He is helping the U.S. National Science foundation organize their Future Internet Design program. Dr. Clark is past chairman of the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board of the National Academies, and has contributed to a number of studies on the societal and policy impact of computer communications. He is co-director of the MIT Communications Futures Program, a project for industry collaboration and coordination along the communications value chain.
Linda Dunlavy (term expires January 7, 2012)
Linda Dunlavy is the Executive Director of the Franklin Regional Council of Governments (FRCOG). Dunlavy has worked for the FRCOG since 1993 and has led the organization as Executive Director since 1999. During her tenure as Executive Director, the FRCOG has grown to 45 employees with an operating budget of $4 million, and is recognized as a leader in regionalism across Massachusetts. Through her work, Dunlavy has served on a variety of regional and statewide committees and commissions. Since its inception in 2003, Dunlavy has been Co-Chair of Pioneer Valley Connect, an effort to bring broadband access to the three western Massachusetts counties that are known as the Pioneer Valley. She has served on several statewide transportation-related committees including the task force that created the award-winning MassHighway Design Guidebook. She currently serves on the Town of Hadley School Committee; the WGBY Public Television Board of Tribunes; the Board of Directors of Rural Development, Inc.; and the Board of the Franklin County Chamber of Commerce. She holds a Master’s degree in Regional Planning from the University of Massachusetts and a Bachelor’s degree from Boston College. Before working for the FRCOG, Dunlavy worked in the mental health field in Boston, managing programs that support disadvantaged individuals in obtaining job and life skills. Dunlavy lives in Hadley, Massachusetts with her husband Jim and son Cole.
Rick Oliveri (term expires January 7, 2013)
Rick Oliveri is the Director of IT Services, Information Services, Baystate Health, one of New England’s largest health care organizations, and the Co-chair of the Pioneer Valley Connect, an effort to bring broadband access to three Western Massachusetts counties that are known as the Pioneer Valley. Oliveri has 34 years of experience in Information Systems working in all areas of information processing, including Computer Operations, Applications Programming, and Technical Support. He held the position of Director for Technology Management for 21 years, providing support for all processing platforms, operating systems and networks including PCs, file servers, midrange computers and the mainframe system. In addition to the traditional I/S infrastructure, Oliveri is responsible for Voice Communications, Clinical Engineering (Biomedical Equipment), and the Help Desk. Oliveri led the development of an Enterprise Wide Area Data Network which consists of 11 Springfield, MA, based locations connected with a redundant Gigabit fiber infrastructure, connections to Ware and Greenfield sites linked via 100Mb VON Services from Verizon, and over 50 remote connections utilizing T1 and broadband cable connections serving several physician offices throughout surrounding communities of Springfield, Greenfield and Ware. The voice PBX supports over 10,000 phone extensions. Oliveri holds a Bachelor’s degree from Westfield State College. Oliveri lives in East Longmeadow with his wife Renee. All of their four children are married and reside in East Longmeadow along with several grand-children.