FirstNet Authority provides update on CEO search

Without a permanent CEO for three months, the FirstNet Authority has hired a recruitment firm that will conduct the search for a new CEO to succeed Ed Parkinson, according to a statement made yesterday during the FirstNet Authority Board meeting.

FirstNet Authority Acting CEO Lisa Casias made the announcement, which was the first public update about the CEO search since Parkinson left the FirstNet Authority in May to take a position with RapidSOS.

“We are currently working with a recruitment firm to conduct a search for candidates for the FirstNet Authority CEO position,” Casias said. “An informational website on the position will soon be available to the public and will be available via www.firstnet.gov and other communications channels, followed by a posting on www.usajobs.gov.

“Please stay tuned for this information. We will share it far and wide once it is available.”

Casias has been serving as acting CEO since Parkinson’s departure and is expected to continue in that role until a new CEO is named. During the APCO 2022 event earlier this month, Casias told IWCE’s Urgent Communications that she is not pursuing the permanent CEO job and plans to return to her previous position as the FirstNet Authority’s deputy CEO after the new permanent CEO is hired.

This is not the first time that the FirstNet Authority has been without a permanent CEO or leader of the organization’s staff—in fact, the situation has occurred often during the past 10 years. Parkinson served as permanent CEO for a little more than two years, but that followed a period of 17 months in which Parkinson either was acting CEO or shared CEO duties with CTO Jeff Bratcher.

Mike Poth was hired as CEO in August 2015 and continued in that capacity for more than three years. However, Poth’s hiring followed an 18-month period in which TJ Kennedy served as the FirstNet Authority’s acting general manager—at the time, the top staff position in the organization.

Kennedy became acting general manager when General Manager Bill D’Agostino resigned in April 2014 after being in the job for less than a year.