Staff

Janice Obuchowski, President

Janice Obuchowski, founder and President of Freedom Technologies, has held several leadership positions, both in the United States government and in the private sector. Mrs. Obuchowski served as the United States Ambassador to the World Radiocommunication Conference 2003 in Geneva, Switzerland. She successfully concluded negotiations on 48 agenda items, securing international spectrum allocations for numerous technologies, including WiFi and GPS. She also served as Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information at the Department of Commerce, leading the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) under President George H.W. Bush.

Mrs. Obuchowski also serves or has served on several corporate Boards of Directors. She currently chairs public company Corporate Governance and Human Resources and Compensation Committees. Earlier in her career, Mrs. Obuchowski had responsibility for all international government affairs for NYNEX (now Verizon). Mrs. Obuchowski also held several positions at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), including Senior Advisor to the Chairman.

Mrs. Obuchowski earned a J.D. from the Georgetown University Law Center where she was an Editor of the Law Journal and a B.A. with Honors from Wellesley College.

Fred Wentland, Senior Vice President

Fred Wentland is a leading national telecommunications and spectrum expert. Fred heads FTI’s Annapolis, Maryland, office, where he guides the firm’s work as a subcontractor to ITT Corporation in support of the Joint Spectrum Center (JSC) contract. . FTI is part of the ITT team supporting this Electromagnetic Spectrum Engineering Services Contract for the Defense Information Systems Agency’s JSC. The team provides engineering systems support, technical analysis, test support and long-term strategic planning for JSC to meet national security and military objectives. He also provides advice on a variety of telecommunications activities being addressed by FTI in the greater Washington DC area.

Prior to being a member of FTI, he has been with National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), Washington, D.C., for the past 27 years and has worked in all facets of telecommunications & information and spectrum management. While at NTIA, he served as the Associate Administrator for NTIA's Office of Spectrum Management (OSM) where he made significant contributions through his leadership and management of 146 spectrum professionals to streamline the Federal government spectrum management processes through information technology, make spectrum available for new technologies while balancing the safety of life requirements of the Federal government, work with the FCC in establishing appropriate rules and regulations in shared spectrum, participate in continuity of government activities in support of national emergencies, and meet the everyday spectrum requirements of 56 federal agencies. One of Fred ‘s primary responsibilities was to provide the necessary leadership to carry out the President’s Spectrum Policy Initiative for 21st Century.

Prior to NTIA, he spent 22 years with the Air Force as an officer and worked in the area of communications and satellites of which he spent over 7 years with the Department of Defense’s Joint Spectrum Center. One of his major achievements with the Air Force was his participation directly in NASA’s Gemini/Apollo programs as a flight controller at Houston and also on the first lunar landing in July 1969.

Fred received his Bachelor of Science Degree in electrical engineer from Oklahoma State University.

John Alden, Vice President

Mr. Alden has more than 12 years’ experience in telecommunications policy fields, including spectrum management. He has provided policy and technical guidance to DoD on telecommunications and network contingency support and migration planning for current and future humanitarian missions and post-conflict situations, and notably advised DoD on spectrum management reform and development in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere in the Middle East.

Mr. Alden has extensive international regulatory experience. At the World Radiocommunication Conference 2007 (WRC-07), Mr. Alden served as media relations liaison for the U.S. Delegation. Mr. Alden has also served the International Telecommunication Union as a regulatory expert, including as rapporteur for the ITU’s Global Symposium for Regulators in 2003-2004. Since 2000, he has been the editor and author of the ITU’s Trends in Telecommunication Reform, which is the major annual publication for the Sector Reform Unit of the ITU’s Development Bureau. He has advised the World Bank on spectrum management issues in developing economies. During the 1990s, Mr. Alden was Senior Editor of the telecommunications policy journal Telecommunications Reports.

Mr. Alden is a graduate of the University of Georgia, with a master’s degree in international communications from the American University in Washington, D.C.

Mary Greczyn, Vice President

Ms. Greczyn has extensive spectrum policy experience as a journalist covering wireless telecommunications for Communications Daily and as a consultant. Aside from her knowledge of spectrum management issues, Ms. Greczyn has far-reaching wireless industry contacts, which she used to help coordinate the DoD Spectrum Summits of both 2004 and 2005. These conferences had record-setting attendance, and brought together the most diverse range of private sector, international and federal government spectrum experts ever assembled to date.

Ms. Greczyn has provided strategic guidance to OASD NII on spectrum policy issues, including the upcoming Advanced Wireless Services and 700 MHz spectrum auctions and their impact to military incumbents, the repercussions of unlicensed devices for DoD operations, and developments with the President’s Spectrum Initiative. Ms. Greczyn has advised a leading domain name registrar and provider of Internet services on questions of international internet governance and competition policy, and has provided consultative advice to private sector wireless clients on current FCC regulatory issues. As a journalist, she covered commercial wireless and federal regulatory issues, in addition to international policy developments, including WRC activities. She co-authored a legal periodical article on broadband regulation in 2004 for the Practicing Law Institute’s 22nd Annual Institute on Telecommunications Policy & Regulation.

Ms. Greczyn is a Phi Betta Kappa graduate of Lehigh University, with a master’s degree in journalism from the Columbia University School of Journalism.

Cathy Slesinger, Vice President

Cathy Slesinger is an accomplished government relations and public policy executive with over 20 years of demonstrated success in securing positive regulatory results from national and foreign regulators. She has served in executive public policy positions with the GSM Association, a global trade association representing more than 690 GSM mobile service providers and 145 manufacturers, Cable and Wireless, an international telecommunications company, and NYNEX/Bell Atlantic (now Verizon). She began her career at the U.S. Government Accountabilty Office.

Her expertise includes state, federal and international advocacy with regulators, legislatures, and the diplomatic community as well as with international organizatons such as the United Nations, the ITU and World Bank. Her areas of expertise cut across all segments of the communications industry from wireline, wireless, internet, to web hosting and content .Her subject matter expertise has been equally robust including security, liability, privacy, broadband, emergency services, market access, and economic development matters.

She has held and continues to enjoy various positions, including member of the U.S. State Department Advisory Committee on International Communications and Information. Her board involvement has included the World Affairs Council, the Women’s Foreign Policy Group, and the United States Internet Provider Association.

Albert Halprin – Vice President & General Counsel

Albert Halprin specializes in domestic and international telecommunications law as Senior Partner of the Halprin Temple firm. Earlier in his career he served in several senior roles in federal and state government, including as Chief of the Common Carrier Bureau of the Federal Communications Commission. He was a Partner, leading the communications practice, at the law firm of Dewey Ballantine.

Mr. Halprin also served as an adjunct professor of international telecommunications law at Georgetown University Law Center for fifteen years. Mr. Halprin is a graduate of Harvard Law School (1974) and of Western Washington State College (1971).

Colin Alberts, Senior Counsel

Mr. Alberts joined FTI after recently returning from assignments over more than a year and a half in Iraq, working to create, sustain and improve an independent telecommunications and media regulator, the first of its kind in the Middle East, as well as performing a multitude of other tasks to improve the climate for private investment or public-private cooperative ventures in the telecoms sector. His responsibilities for the U.S. Government (Defense and State Departments, and USAID) also included drafting advanced telecommunications laws and regulations, and negotiation of complex agreements including license tenders and internet registration operations.

Prior to his deployment to Iraq, Mr. Alberts worked in leading telecommunications law firms in Washington, D.C., including Swidler & Berlin, and Blumenfeld & Cohen, where he worked on issues relating to the response to the Telecommunications Act of 1996, including nationwide deployment of xDSL networks, fiber-optic network consolidation, interconnection, and network unbundling. Mr. Alberts also developed business and legal strategies for international telecommunications operators. He has represented clients before the FCC, other federal and state regulatory bodies, and federal and state courts.

M. Alberts is a graduate of the University of Michigan Law School, and is admitted to the bar in New York and the District of Columbia. He received a B.A. from Boston University.

Jay Chauhan – Counsel & Director, Policy Analysis

Jay Chauhan works with our Internet and Telecommunications clients performing a wide range of regulatory and legal work.

He spent eight years working in the Information Technology sector prior to joining Freedom Technologies.

Jay is a graduate of Boston University School of Law where he served as the Executive Editor of the Science and Technology Law Journal. He is admitted to the bar in Pennsylvania. Jay received a M.S. in I.S. from Drexel University and a B.B.A. in I.S. from The George Washington University.

Gordan A. Crandall III – Consultant

Gordon (Bill) Crandall has been a radio frequency (RF) engineer for over 35 years in both the public and private sector with extensive experience in frequency management and electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) studies. He worked for the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) for 27 years and served in various leadership positions in the Spectrum Engineering and Analysis Division and the Spectrum Support Division within the Office of Spectrum Management. Bill was the Chairman of the Frequency Assignment Subcommittee of the Interdepartment Radio Advisory Committee. Bill was also the lead NTIA member of the US delegation for negotiations with Mexico and Canada regarding use of the radio spectrum along common border areas.

Prior to NTIA, Bill worked for a DOD contractor in the field of electromagnetic compatibility where he worked on various interference prediction and measurement support projects.

Bill received his Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering from the University of Maryland.

Thomas Trimmer - Consultant

Tom Trimmer has been in spectrum management and EMC (electromagnetic compatibility) engineering for over 36 years and has extensive experience in both national and international spectrum management and telecommunications. He was formerly with the U.S. Army Spectrum Management Office (ASMO) for 18 years where he handled all of the Army's international spectrum issues. In that capacity, Tom represented the Army and the United States at many NATO Frequency Management Subcommittee meetings and working groups. He negotiated with host nation frequency management authorities in both the European and Pacific theaters concerning the introduction and support of Army radio frequency (RF) equipment and weapon systems. Tom served as the Army representative on the Combined Communications - Electronics Board , which provides a forum for negotiation and coordination of spectrum-related matters with the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and the U.S. He was on several World Radiocommunication Conference delegations and represented the Army's interest at ITU working parties.

Prior to being a member of ASMO, Tom was a spectrum manager/engineer for eight years at the Headquarters, U.S. European Command and the U.S. Embassy in Bonn, Germany. He served as a liaison officer between the German frequency management authorities, military and civilian, and the U.S. military forces in Europe.

Tom worked at the DoD Electromagnetic Compatibility Analysis Center for 10 years prior to relocating to Germany. He was an electromagnetic compatibility engineer and performed many EMC analyses concerning a wide variety of RF equipment and the electromagnetic environment.

Tom received his Bachelor of Science from Southern Illinois University and a Master of Science from George Washington University.

Kay Hawkins – Executive Assistant/Office Manager

Kay Hawkins serves as Freedom Technologies’ Office Manager and Janice Obuchowski’s Executive Assistant. She is responsible for managing the office as well as coordinating all aspects of Mrs. Obuchowski’s schedule.

Prior to joining Mrs. Obuchowski’s staff Ms. Hawkins worked at Verner Liipfert Bernhard McPherson and Hand, and the Birmingham-based firms of Maynard Cooper & Gale, and Berkowitz Lefkovitz Isom and Kushner.

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