Albert Kangas

Telecommunications has been the focus of my entire career. The evolution from a technician to an executive has spanned the course of 35 years. The delivery of standard telephone service over copper lines to voice and enhanced broadband services over next generation wireless and fiber has been rewarding to be part of.

In parallel to the industry changing, the career changes to more executive management duties matched the abilities and knowledge that was being acquired . An opportunity presented itself when a position with a Minnesota based cellular company opened up in St. Cloud which provided for continued growth in this industry. This business grew from 15 employees and 3,000 subscribers upon arrival to over 250 employees and 160,000 subscribers when the ownership group exited the business through a sale of both lines of the business. During this time, I had the opportunity to learn the fundamentals of business as well as understanding how large corporate entities operate through the Sprint affiliate relationship. Upon the sale of those businesses, a small group of employees worked with an investment group of telephone companies to form NewCore Wireless. NewCore was a hosted wireless switching company that served customers in 17 different states and involvement as a company board member and Chief Operating Officer led to incredible opportunities in this industry. As broadband services became more important to the nearby communities, Palmer Wireless was started as a cellular phone and fiber broadband business to serve the local communities of Becker, Big Lake, Clear Lake and portions of St. Cloud. A network of 30 miles of fiber serving underserved areas was deployed using fiber to the premise technology while managing the needs of the community with a hybrid solution of wireless and fiber. The introduction to state and federal grants were a large part of how services were made possible by Palmer Wireless and led to five different grant awards for Palmer Wireless. The experiences with the different businesses in this career, offered a plethora of unique experiences from technical and business operations, sales and marketing to merger and acquisitions which will continue to benefit myself and the companies I am associated with into the future.