FirstNet reveals plans for selecting a new general manager

WESTMINSTER, COLO.—FirstNet’s Governance and Personnel Committee yesterday outlined the organization’s search plan to find a replacement for former General Manager Bill D’Agostino that likely will not be completed until well into the summer, at the earliest.

When D’Agostino announced his resignation seven weeks ago, FirstNet issued a press release that it was launching a nationwide search for a successor to the top staff job in the organization that is charged with building a nationwide broadband network for public safety. But the search effort is still in its earliest stages, as a revised job description for the position has not been completed and FirstNet is working with the U.S. Department of Commerce and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to hire an executive search firm, new FirstNet Chairwoman Sue Swenson said during the committee meeting.

“We’ve been busy developing the prospectus for the general-manager position in consideration of where FirstNet is today,” Swenson said during the committee meeting, which was open to the public. “I’ve been working with the Governance and Personnel Committee to get that prospectus developed. We have a draft prospectus and job spec developed.

“We’d like to hire a search firm to actually conduct that process, to make sure that we reach out and identify all qualified candidates for the position. So that job spec is still in draft format, and it is likely that—as we engage with the selected search firm—there could be some modifications to that job specification.”

When the general-manager job description is complete, applicants for the position will be able to express their interest via a posting on www.usajobs.gov, while the search firm also will seek viable candidate willing to work at FirstNet’s new headquarters in Reston, Va. In the meantime, FirstNet Deputy General Manager TJ Kennedy has assumed the general-manager duties since D’Agostino’s resignation and will continue to fill the role until a permanent hire is made.