Corporate Governance

Tom Stanton is Chairman of the Board and CEO of Adtran Holdings, one of the world’s most successful telecommunications companies. He assumed the role of Chief Executive Officer in 2005 and Chairman of the Board in 2007.  Tom is also Chief Executive Officer of Adtran Networks, SE (formerly Adva Optical Networks, SE), acquired by Adtran in 2022. Prior to joining Adtran, he served as an executive for Transcrypt International and held several senior management positions with E. F. Johnson Company. Tom has served on the board of directors for a number of technology companies and is a past chairman of the board for both the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s Birmingham Branch and the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA). He currently serves on the board for both the Economic Development Partnership of Alabama (EDPA) and BancorpSouth. Tom holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Engineering from Auburn University.

Brian Protiva is Vice Chairman of the Board of Adtran Holdings.  He co-founded ADVA in 1994. Under his leadership, ADVA advanced to become one of the top players in metro wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) worldwide and a global market leader in Ethernet access devices. Prior to leading ADVA, Brian was managing director at AMS Technologies (now the EGORA group), which he joined in 1987 and where he focused on co-managing its subsidiaries. He holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University.

H. Fenwick Huss served as the Willem Kooyker Dean of the Zicklin School of Business at Baruch College, a city college of the City University of New York, from July 2014 - December 2022, when he retired. He also served as a tenured Professor in Baruch's Star Ross Department of Accountancy.  He previously served as the Dean of the J. Mack Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University from 2004 to 2014. Prior to his appointment as Dean, he was Associate Dean from 1998 to 2004 and Director of the School of Accountancy at Georgia State from 1996 to 1999, and on the faculty since 1989. He also served on the faculty of the University of Maryland as an assistant professor from 1983 to 1989 and is a visiting professor at the Université Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne. Dr. Huss has been a member of the Board since 2002.

Professor Johanna Hey is Vice President for International Affairs at the University of Cologne and is one of the most respected authorities on Tax Law in Germany. Johanna serves as Professor of Tax Law and Director of the Institute for Tax Law at the University of Cologne. She studied Law at the University of Würzburg and in Cologne and in 1996 received her Doctor Juris (Ph.D. equivalent) at the University of Cologne. Prior to her professorship in Cologne, she held the Chair for Business Taxation at Düsseldorf University in Germany. In 2007, she served as Senior Emile Noël Fellow at NYU Law School and was appointed as Global Professor in 2015. Johanna holds a Doctor Juris (Ph.D. equivalent) from the University of Cologne.

Gregory McCray is an experienced executive with 30 years of business, marketing, sales, engineering, operations, M&A, management and international experience in the communications technology industry. Mr. McCray is the CEO of FDH, an engineering and science company that monitors, inspects, designs, and performs structural analysis for infrastructure assets utilizing wireless monitoring devices and patented non-destructive testing techniques. During his career, Mr. McCray has served in management and executive roles including CEO of Access/Google Fiber, CEO of Aero Communications Inc., which provides installation, services, and support to the communications industry; and CEO of Antenova, a developer of antennas and radio frequency modules for mobile devices; and Chairman and CEO of PipingHot Networks, which brought broadband fixed wireless access equipment to market. Other roles include Senior Vice president of customer operations at Lucent Technologies where he managed the Customer Technical Operations Group for Europe, the Middle East and Africa; and a member of the board of directors at CenturyLink, Inc., the third largest network operator in America, where he was chairman of the Cyber Security & Risk Committee. Mr. McCray holds a B.S. in Computer Engineering from Iowa State University, an M.S. in Industrial & Systems Engineering from Purdue University. He has also completed executive business programs at the University of Illinois, Harvard, and INSEAD. Mr. McCray has been a member of the Board since 2017.

Balan Nair is currently president and Chief Executive Officer of Liberty Latin America. Liberty Latin America is an integrated telecommunications company, focused on the Caribbean Islands and Latin America.

He has been a part of the Liberty family of companies since 2007, when he joined Liberty Global as its Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer. He most recently served as Executive Vice President and Chief Technology and Innovation Officer.

Prior to joining Liberty Global, Balan served as Chief Technology Officer and Executive Vice President for AOL LLC, a global web services company, from 2006. Prior to his role at AOL LLC, he spent more than 12 years at Qwest Communications International Inc., most recently as Chief Information Officer and Chief Technology Officer. Mr. Nair has been a member of the Board since 2007.

Jacqueline (Jackie) Rice has served as General Counsel and Corporate Secretary of MillerKnoll, Inc., a publicly traded furniture and design company, since February 2019. Ms. Rice is a Board Director at Adtran, Inc. and acts as Chair of the Nominating and Governance Committee and a member of the Audit Committee. From 2014 to 2017, Ms. Rice served as Target Corporation’s EVP and chief risk and compliance officer with responsibility for enterprise and vendor risk, corporate security and corporate compliance and ethics. Prior to joining Target, she served as chief compliance officer and legal counsel for General Motors from 2013 to 2014 and before that as General Motors’ Executive Director, Global Ethics & Compliance from 2010 to 2013. Ms. Rice graduated from the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law, where she was editor-in-chief of the Law Review. She received her undergraduate degree from James Madison College at Michigan State University.

Nikos Theodosopoulos has over 35 years of experience in the technology and finance industries. Nikos currently serves as an independent board director and advisor in the technology industry. He served as Managing Director at UBS Investment Research for 17 years where he was a Senior Research Analyst in the communications and networking industries, Global Technology Strategist, and U.S. Technology Sector Head. Nikos began his career at Bell Laboratories and AT&T where he held roles in engineering, project management, and sales. He holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Columbia University, a M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University, and an MBA from New York University.

Kathryn A. Walker has more than 30 years of experience in the communications industry. Since 2009, she has served as a managing director for OpenAir Equity Partners, a venture capital firm focusing on the wireless, communications and mobile Internet sectors. In addition, Ms Walker is concurrently serving as Chief Technology Officer at Main Street Data, an agriculture data science company founded by OpenAir Equity Partners. Prior to joining OpenAir, Ms. Walker worked in a variety of roles at various subsidiaries of Sprint Corporation from 1985 to 2009, culminating in the position of Chief Information and Chief Network Officer at Sprint Nextel Corporation. She currently serves on the board of directors for SmartHome Ventures, on the Council of Trustees at South Dakota State University, as the President of the Board of Trustees at Missouri University of Science and Technology and as a member of the board of directors of the Heartland Chapter of the National Association of Corporate Directors. Ms Walker is a National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) Board Leadership Fellow. She demonstrates commitment to the highest standards of exemplary board leadership by earning NACD Fellowship – The Gold Standard Director Credential – year after year. NACD Fellowship is a comprehensive and continuous program of study that empowers directors with the latest insights intelligence and leading boardroom practices. Ms. Walker has been a member of the Board since 2014.