Cox, Horowitz named as new FirstNet board members

WASHINGTON, D.C.—U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker yesterday announced that Neil Cox and Edward Horowitz will serve as new board members for FirstNet—replacing Tim Bryan and Frank Plastina—and that Kevin McGinnis and Annise Parker have been reappointed to the board.

FirstNet was established in 2012 as an independent authority within the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), which is housed within the U.S. Department of Commerce. Each year, the terms of four FirstNet board members expire, requiring new appointments—or reappointments—to be made, typically during the latter half of August.

“I appreciate the willingness of these individuals to serve our nation by lending their expertise to the task of building this historic nationwide public-safety broadband network,” Pritzker said in a prepared statement. “The board will continue the important work of ensuring our firefighters, police, and emergency responders have the most advanced technology to communicate effectively and save lives.”

Cox is a technology executive from Illinois, and Horowitz is a New York venture capitalist, according to a U.S. Department of Commerce press release.

Cox is CEO of Repio, which is a company based in Newport Beach, Calif., that has developed a platform designed to help enterprises manage their online images and identities. Cox previously served as an executive vice president for Qwest Communications and as longtime executive for Ameritech—later sold to Southwestern Bell, which became AT&T—in the 1980s and 1990s.

Horowitz is chairman of EdsLink, a venture-capital fund that provides technology consulting services. He has been an executive in a variety of satellite and television communications companies during the past four decades.

Cox and Horowitz are replacing Tim Bryan and Frank Plastina, neither of which sought reappointment to FirstNet board, according to the government press release. Plastina recently was named as the CEO of new company that is a spinoff Cree’s power and RF divisions, and Bryan expressed concerns that his job as CEO of the National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative (NRTC) could be perceived by some as a possible conflict of interest to his duties as a FirstNet board member.