K. Robert Hoskins
2844 E. Michelle Way   Gilbert, AZ  85234
(480) 218-4441 or rhoskins@bbwexchange.com  

Career Objective:  To establish a clearing house of broadband wireless information; create sufficient marketing and publicity programs for vendors and suppliers to generate awareness for the industry; and to create the critical mass necessary to facilitate the creation of a billion dollar broadband wireless industry that will eventually be recognized as the clear leader among all broadband access technologies.

Professional Experience

Editor & Publisher/Broadband Wireless Exchange                                                          1/01 - Present

Broadband Wireless Exchange Magazine is the largest resource for the broadband wireless information in the world. Starting from a blank page and no model for success, the Broadband Wireless Exchange has grown substantially and expanded its repository to include everything needed from A-Z to plan, fund, build and manage a successful broadband wireless network.

·     Manage editorial direction and layout of 17 leading broadband publications

·     Propagated readership in over 71 countries that account for more than 100,000 unique visitors each month. The publishing group is projected to reach more than 1 million unique readers that generate over 10 million page views equating to more than 80 million hits in 2004.

·     Created consulting division to build broadband wireless turnkey systems and soon a broadband wireless franchise operation

·     Created business lead program that has generated more than $300 million of business leads for the broadband wireless industry

·     Successfully launched online shopping cart for broadband wireless equipment

·     Created the only primary research database covering nine segments of the broadband wireless industry

·     Created and manage all sales, advertising and marketing programs for BWE

·     Create and manage all national reseller agreements with wireless ISPs

·     Successfully established the Broadband Wireless Alliance, which helps small companies implement cost effective, advertising, marketing, public relations and customer acquisition programs

 

President/CEO/Front Page Public Relations                                                                      8/00 - Present

Front Page Public Relations is a full service public relations firm that specializes in serving high technology clients in the fields of Internet, data and telecommunications.

·     Manage business development, annual budget and P&L responsibility

·     Drive the launch and sales of new products and services into marketplace, including planning, competitive evaluations, market research, and contract negotiations.

·     Manage the public image aspects of clients, including corporate communications, public relations, and advertising

·     Facilitate the development of collateral materials, market research, and client presentations

·     Manage 4 high-technology media relations team members

Director, Corporate Communications/Sprint Broadband Wireless Group                         9/99 - 8/00

Sprint Broadband Wireless Group (BWG) is a new division of Sprint comprised of six former companies that owned MMDS broadband wireless licenses in 90 markets, reaching over 30 million households across the US.  SpeedChoice, mentioned below, was one of the acquired companies.  I was chosen to setup a corporate communications department to successfully introduce Sprint's newest division to the broadband marketplace.  BWG will be selling a two-way, high-speed wireless Internet service that competes directly with other broadband services such as Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) and Cable Modems.

·     Supported Tim Sutton, president of Sprint’s Broadband Wireless Group, and his direct reports.

·     Created a successful media relations department from scratch.  Secured over $1.4 million worth of positive publicity for Sprint BWG for first 6 months of 2000.

·     Responsible for product launch and roll outs in 22 markets across the United States in 2000.

Director, Media Relations/SpeedChoice (bought out by Sprint)                                         2/99 - 9/99

SpeedChoice was a high-speed wireless Internet access and cable television provider.  The company owned MMDS licenses in 10 major metropolitan markets bypassing 11.1 million potential residential and 592,000 business customers.  SpeedChoice markets a two-way wireless service that allows the company to completely bypass the local telephone company and provide Internet, data, video and music services using a wireless broadband local loop network.

·     Built a successful media relations program that gained national exposure for SpeedChoice and positioned its wireless local loop technology as a true contender for bypassing the Regional Bell Operating Companies

 ·        Obtained over $1.2 million worth of credible exposure and gained 32 million gross impressions in less than 5 months on a shoestring budget

 ·        The media exposure helped the company grow from a market capitalization of $20 million to over $125 million in less than 2 months and attracted a major telecom buyer (Sprint)

·     Reported directly to SpeedChoice's CEO and supported all top SpeedChoice executives

Senior Manager Media Relations/Cable & Wireless USA                                             9/98 - 11/98

Cable & Wireless was a $28 billion public corporation that sold data and telecommunications products and services on a global basis.  My team managed the media relations for the transition of MCI’s Internet division into C&W's organization.

·        Supported CW USA's CEO, and the presidents of both the Internet Consumer and Internet Business Divisions

·        Built a media relations program that successfully introduced C&W executives to the media and industry analysts

·        Launched C&W's consumer and business Internet offerings

 

Media Relations Manager/MCI Communications Corp.                                                4/96 - 9/98

MCI was a $22 billion public corporation that sold data and telecommunications products and services on a global basis.  My team managed the media relations for MCI’s organization of 20,000 engineers in networkMCI Services and MCI Engineering ¾ the divisions that planned, developed, built and managed MCI’s telecommunications, data communications and Internet networks, including IP, ATM, Frame Relay and SMDS transport services.

·     Directly supported MCI’s highest-ranking network and information technology engineering executives, including John Gerdelman, president, and Lance Boxer, CIO, of networkMCI Services and Fred Briggs, chief technology officer of MCI Engineering

·     Built a high-tech media relations program that positioned MCI as a leading provider of leading edge technologies to customers in the telecommunications and data communications industry.  This program increased the number of MCI feature articles appearing in run-of-book by 110% in 1996 and 111% in 1997. (1995 - 96, 1996 – 202, 1997 – 494, mid-98 - 187)

·     Secured more than 880 positive technology stories in over 70 leading national and business publications that delivered over 440 million impressions that equated to over $17.5 million worth of positive, credible exposure ¾ a 600% return on investment using a budget of $1.5 million

·     Researched, positioned and successfully delivered numerous high-technology media pitches on sonet rings, optical cross connects, wave division multiplexing, xDSL, IT, mainframes, data centers, network management, managed services, application development, data warehousing, fraud detection, Internet, intranet, Voice-over-IP, call centers and many other technologies

·     Planned, organized and managed numerous successful domestic and global media events and press conferences including corporate jet press trips to various MCI facilities around the world

Product Marketing Manager/Optical Data Systems, Inc.                                              10/94 - 4/96

Optical Data Systems, Inc. was a $100 million publicly held company that manufactured and OEMs networking hardware for Ethernet, Token Ring, Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI) and Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) networks.  Primary sales channels were direct in the United States and through manufacturer’s reps and large integrators in international markets.

·     Responsible for marketing budget of approximately $1 million and a staff of 5, including a desktop publisher, a copywriter, a trade show coordinator and an Internet webmaster

·     Supervised the management and coordination of marketing’s activities with outside OEM marketing partners like Cisco, Fore, IBM, Plaintree, Xylogics, Zylan and others to plan product rollouts including the production, printing and dissemination of white papers written in conjunction with engineering, product spec sheets for our sales force, press releases and media campaigns for the press, trade show planning, lead tracking and other ROI information for the CFO, plus post-campaign evaluations to measure our success or point out any areas for improvement

·     Duties included working with industry analysts to research, evaluate and position our product lines in the various channels; researching developing industry trends and technologies; compiling product specs and pricing information on our competition’s products

·     Other responsibilities included contract supervision for all vendors involved with advertising creative copy/design, printing, media planning, public relations, trade show events, direct mail, fax back systems and other related marketing programs

Marketing Communications Manager/STB Systems, Inc.                                            10/92 - 10/94

STB was a $120 million publicly owned manufacturer of video cards for personal computers.  STB sold video accelerator cards to major OEMs, distributors, VARs, systems integrators and large retail locations in domestic and international markets.

·     Managed their public relations, advertising campaigns and other marketing programs.  When I joined STB, the company produced approximately $20 million a year in gross revenue and had no marketing programs in place.

·     Researched, planned and implemented integrated public relations, advertising, direct mail and trade show programs to position and promote STB as a premiere video card company.  My team included a copy writer, a desktop publisher and a marketing engineer.

·     The literature we produced and the distribution system we put together netted STB a 600% return on STB’s investment.  Our public relations program netted over $315,000 worth of free press coverage, measured in black & white space; our advertising programs brought in over 17,000 leads; and, using direct mail campaigns, we were able to increase our trade show booth traffic over 200%.  All of these programs made big contributions to STB’s bottom line.  In tandem with a highly motivated sales force, STB went from a $20 million company in 1992 to over a $100 million company by 1994, less than two years.  This progress was even more evident when STB took their company public in February 1995 and raised over $9 million dollars in investment capital.

Media Planner/Temerlin McClain Advertising Agency                                                10/89 - 10/92

Formerly Bozell & Jacobs, Temerlin McClain was a $500 million advertising agency with a long list of high profile clients including American Airlines, NationsBank, Long John Silvers, The Dial Corporation, etc.  I was a member of the business-to-business, High-Tech Media Planning Group.

·     Researched, evaluated, planned and purchased media for over 120 advertising campaigns for twenty different high-tech accounts including: Texas Instruments, Bell Helicopter, Rockwell International, Halliburton, Mobilecomm, Frito-Lay, Azrock, Magnetek, Nissan trucks and others.

·     Worked closely with top company executives to define target audiences, determine advertising objectives and strategies, identify the correct of media mix and help craft the creative message for the correct target audience.

·     Put together advertising campaigns that effectively reached the federal government, the department of defense, government contractors, business-to-business accounts, large integrators and resellers as well as end-users who bought products from retail locations.

Education

B.A., Advertising ¾ Texas Tech University ¾ Lubbock, Texas - 1989

Double Minor in Spanish and Marketing

International studies in Mexican business ¾ Universidad de San Luís Potosí, Mexico – 1988

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