Warren Mickens joined the FirstNet Authority Board in October 2021, when he was appointed to a three-year term by Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo. Mr. Mickens has had an extensive career leading technology and manufacturing companies. He retired as Vice President of CenturyLink Communications and was a former Vice President at Nokia/Alcatel-Lucent. Read his full bio to learn more about his experience.
We sat down with Mr. Mickens to get his perspectives on FirstNet and the FirstNet Authority’s mission.
How did you become involved with FirstNet?
I received a phone call from a previous work acquaintance who felt I might be a good fit. And the reason I got the phone call was that in my career I've engineered and operated both landline and wireless networks. And where the two come together is pretty interesting—and complicated. But if you've worked on both landline and wireless networks then you understand how the entire modern communications network functions and how the technologies are evolving.
What do you plan to bring to FirstNet? What do you want to accomplish during your tenure?
My expertise in the telecom business has focused on engineering and processes: what are the technological capabilities and how do you best implement them. If we’re trying to improve the network performance, the customer experience, and the cost structure all at the same time, it can be a challenge. And the best way to maximize performance is to focus on the engineering capabilities and processes. If you understand these two components, you can really make significant progress.
Your career background is engineering focused, but you also have interests and skills in cultural diversity. What experience shaped you most?
Every school I attended from grade school through high school was 100% African American. Then I attended a small private all-men's engineering college called Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. I was shocked to discover that I was one of only two African American freshmen. The Rose-Hulman education opened many career opportunities to me. So I got involved in working on diversity to make Rose better and to provide career opportunities to students from all backgrounds. That meant first getting the school to go coed, and then second to work on ethnic and cultural diversity. I knew we had to eliminate gender bias before we could improve ethnic and cultural diversity.
Today in any given year, a freshman class will have 25% to 30% women. The numbers of African American enrollment will typically vary from 20-40 students in the freshman class. That’s not where we want to be, but dramatically different and better than our past. And I will probably work on this issue for the rest of my life. I have the ability to be persistent if I think there's moral high ground.
What do you see is the impact of the FirstNet network?
We have the opportunity to make life a lot better and safer for our first responders. They can feel comfortable and secure knowing that they have a very reliable communications network. Having priority communication on a reliable network is just outstanding. The other thing is – because of how the network is built – when we encourage AT&T to improve coverage, it also helps regular commercial customers, especially in small and medium rural towns. Synergies exist. The power of the internet and wireless communications changes everything.
Is there anything further you would like to share?
This is a service business. When you have an experience with a service business, you’re left with only two things after the experience: the memory and the bill. What we want to do is make sure it's a positive memory for FirstNet users and then they feel good about the bill. We have opportunities to help a lot of people.
