Bob Richter, President
Mr. Richter has broad and deep experience with the E-Rate Program from both the applicant and service provider perspectives. From 1996-2003, he was the Executive Director for Technical Services of the Hartford Public School System in Hartford, CT. During his tenure, he had direct responsibility for all Universal Services Fund activity. The E-rate applications he submitted achieved over $35,000,000 in Federal funding for the school district and city libraries. Other accomplishments included implementation of a 64 site converged voice, video and data network within the city of Hartford and Hartford public schools, and design of enterprise wide security and 311 projects.
From 2004-2009, Mr. Richter was the National E-Rate Program Executive for the IBM Corporation, supporting IBM teams and clients in the K-12 education industry in the east coast of the United States. He established the E-rate Center of Competence which provided internal and external oversight for all E-rate activities. Under Mr. Richter’s direction, the Center was responsible for over $650,000,000 in E-rate funding commitments. His management activities included assurance of program compliance, internal staff training, ongoing evaluation of program rules, contract review, development of marketing strategies, and sales support. In addition, Mr. Richter worked closely with the Schools and Libraries Division to manage the Accounts Receivable process to significantly reduce a 90 day backlog of >$50,000,000. He was a key contributor to the team who successfully appealed multiple funding denials totaling $33,000,000. He worked closely with the SLD to develop a Basic Maintenance services list and crafted numerous Eligible Services lists and Notice of Proposed Rulemaking comments in response to FCC inquiries. Mr. Richter worked intimately with the IBM legal department regarding past E-rate program issues and continues to provide consultative services to IBM in this regard.
Mr. Richter served as a founding director for the E-rate Service Providers Association (ESPA). He is currently a member of the E-rate Management Professionals Association (E-MPA). He lives in Hardeeville, South Carolina.
Jon Talgo, Project Manager
Mr. Talgo has been a licensed Architect for over twenty-five years and a Project Manager for twenty years in both the public and private sectors He has been responsible for the design and construction of many building types including schools, libraries, colleges, police and fire stations, recreation centers as well as others. Mr. Talgo’s knowledge of the E-Rate Program is directly related to systems planning and communications infrastructure implementation within buildings as well as area-wide on the municipal level. In the mid 90’s he recognized that advances in communications technologies would lead to convergence of multiple wiring, control and communications systems. Working with the City of Hartford Information Services Department, he implemented infrastructure improvements necessary to support E-Rate programs within the schools and libraries as well as extending the similar systems into all City facilities. Prior to retiring from the City Mr. Talgo had implemented installations combining data, voice, security, video surveillance, HVAC control, and fire alarm monitoring into the IP environment via standard Ethernet and POE configurations using wired, wireless and combination configurations. His view of communications models anticipates and Is in line with much of the FCC’s Broadband proposals and the eventual convergence or interconnection of many different systems for cost, operations, maintenance and reliability reasons. His experience with the built and control environment is also advantageous in determining and rectifying problem areas as systems are converged with differing security, reliability, and operations requirements. As a Project Manager Mr. Talgo is familiar with the caveats resulting from Local, State and Federal bidding requirements any or all of which may apply to E-Rate projects due to funding sources as well as the basic requirements of the program. He also has extensive experience with contracts, contract management and enforcement. Prior to working for the City of Hartford for fifteen years he worked for three private architectural firms for fourteen years first in Colorado then in Connecticut.
Mr. Talgo holds a Bachelor of Arts from Colgate University, a Masters of Architecture from the University of Colorado and has lived in Ashford, Connecticut for twenty-two years.