The Wireless Internet Service Providers Association (WISPA) hired David Zumwalt as its new president and CEO, effective June 1, 2022.
Zumwalt will fill the role left vacant by Claude Aiken, who recently took the job as chief strategy and legal officer at Nextlink Internet.
Most recently, Zumwalt served as the chief operating officer of Broadband VI, an internet service provider in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Broadband VI offered fixed wireless access (FWA) and fiber connectivity. He was recruited by the company in 2018 to prepare Broadband VI for scale. He held full profit-and-loss responsibility and helped guide the company to its historic $84.5 million FCC Connect USVI win. The company was acquired by a unit of Liberty Latin America late last year.
Previously, he served as the CEO of the University of the Virgin Islands Research and Technology Park Corporation (RTPark), a government group formed to establish a knowledge-based sector of the territory’s economy. He led policy, workforce investment, infrastructure, and market outreach initiatives. RTPark has become a three-way partnership with private sector, government and university stakeholders.
In his early career Zumwalt founded CNet, a developer of operational support systems (OSS), network management and radio frequency (RF) planning software and services for the wireless telecommunications industry.
A graduate of Rice University, he has been named a Fellow of the Radio Club of America and is a licensed professional engineer in the state of Texas.
“We are excited to have chosen David to lead WISPA,” said Todd Harpest, WISPA’s Chairman of the Board, in a statement, “It is a crucial time in the industry, and his history of success in several different leadership roles will serve our members during this unprecedented time of broadband growth, government funding and increased private investment.”