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Leo Staurulakis and Steve Meltzer Named as Recipients of Key Industry Awards
March 14, 2023
Leo Staurulakis and Steve Meltzer Named as Recipients of Key Industry Awards
March 14, 2023, Greenbelt, MD: During the recent 2023 Rural Telecom Industry Meeting & EXPO (RTIME), JSI Co-Chairman Leo Staurulakis and JSI President Steve Meltzer were named the recipients of NTCA-The Rural Broadband Association’s (NTCA’s) “Associate Member Outstanding Achievement Award” and the Foundation for Rural Service’s (FRS’s) “Distinguished Service Award,” respectively.
NTCA’s annual RTIME event – which is the largest conference for rural, independent broadband providers in the United States and regularly plays host to thousands of industry leaders and vendors – was held in San Diego, California this year, from February 19 through February 22, 2023.
NTCA Associate Member Outstanding Achievement Award
NTCA established its annual Associate Member Outstanding Achievement Award for the purpose of recognizing an employee or recent retiree of an associate member company who has demonstrated “outstanding personal and professional accomplishments” as well as “extraordinary service for the benefit of the telecommunications industry” at the local, state, and national levels.
Each year, NTCA’s member-based Awards Committee selects the recipient of this and the association’s other prestigious “eXcellence Awards,” which are the highest honors that NTCA confers on individual members. The association then officially announces the names of all its annual eXcellence Award winners at RTIME.
Mr. Staurulakis, a former JSI Executive Vice President and now Co-Chairman, joined JSI on a full-time basis in 1983. Mr. Staurulakis has been actively involved in assisting the firm’s clients with various management and operational issues in the areas of business, management, and financial services. Specifically, Mr. Staurulakis has worked with individual clients in areas including strategic business planning and business plan development, competitive services development (such as broadband, CLEC, video, resale, and wireless, among other things), operational management, as well as the acquisition, sale, valuation, and financing of communications properties.
Further, Mr. Staurulakis previously served on both the NTCA’s Associate Member Advisory Council and the FRS Board of Directors, and he spearheaded the creation of the Staurulakis Family Scholarship, underscoring his lifelong commitment to giving back to rural America. In addition to the considerable time and financial support that he given to support NTCA events and initiatives, Mr. Staurulakis has served as a speaker, sponsor, and consistent presence at decades’ worth of NTCA conferences.
FRS Distinguished Service Award
FRS’s annual Distinguished Service Award is the highest honor awarded by the foundation, which was established in 1994 as the non-profit arm of NTCA to support rural telecommunications companies, consumers, and policymakers with educational information, products, and programming. First presented in 2022, the Distinguished Service Award was designed to recognize exceptional individuals who have made significant impacts and meaningful contributions to FRS through their leadership or fundraising efforts.
Mr. Meltzer, who in recent months celebrated his forty-fifth year of employment at JSI, serves as the President of JSI’s Consulting and Business Services Division and oversees all work under the company’s financial, business advisory, regulatory affairs, billing and order management, and revenue requirements departments. His knowledge of the rural telecommunications industry, particularly in relation to universal service, settlements, and complex Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations, has made Mr. Meltzer a highly sought-after speaker and industry policy group member.
Mr. Meltzer has supported the industry for decades through the coordination of toll cost studies as well as his critical assistance with FCC filings and important industry matters such as the Universal Service Fund (USF), among other things. Additionally, along with his lengthy service on the FRS Board, Mr. Meltzer has worked on the National Exchange Carrier Association’s (NECA’s) Cost Issues Task Group, NECA’s Rate Development Task Force, the Rural Association Group that worked on regulatory and settlement reform with the FCC. Mr. Meltzer continues this tradition of service through his ongoing work as a member of NTCA’s Industry and Regulatory Policy Committee.
About JSI
JSI is a full-service consulting firm and broadband solutions leader, providing a complete range of financial, engineering, management, operational, regulatory, and strategic assistance to independent, community-based communications providers. For more than 60 years, JSI’s business knowledge, experience, and demonstrated record of success have helped its clients plan and realize long-term success and profitability. JSI has relationships with approximately 750 communications entities in 46 states and several US territories. Headquartered in Greenbelt, Maryland, JSI also has offices in Alaska, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, Texas, Utah, and Wisconsin. For more information, visit the JSI website at https://jsitel.com/.
