2025 MATSS Presentations

Following are links to the 2025 presentations and keynote address of the Mid-America Showcase & Seminar. Following the links are speaker bios.

2025 Speaker Information

Following are short bios of the 2025 MATSS speakers. They are in alphabetical order by last name, followed by their organization and presentation topics

Jeremy Hill, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, keynote address

Jeremy Hill of Kansas City Federal Reserve
Hill

Jeremy Hill serves as Regional Executive and Assistant Vice President for the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. In this role, he is the Bank’s regional economist for Kansas and Missouri, leading regional research initiatives regarding key industries and community issues across both states’ economies. He also coordinates strategic outreach initiatives to enhance the Bank’s connections throughout the two states.

Hill joined the Bank in 2024, from the Center for Economic Development and Business Research at Wichita State University, where he served as director since 2009. In that role, he engaged with a variety of stakeholders, including economic developers, community and civic leaders, business leaders and others on a wide range of economic issues affecting Kansas. His work included creating and managing indexes, developing economic forecasts, and leading outreach events with a diverse set of participants.

Prior to 2009, Hill served in roles of increasing responsibility at the Coastal Rivers Water Planning & Policy Center and the Bureau of Business Research and Economic Development, both in Statesboro, Georgia.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration and Master of Public Administration from Georgia Southern University. Hill has been involved in a number of national and regional organizations, including the Association for University Business and Economic Research, for which he served as president in 2015, and the National Association for Business.

Amanda Hofer, JSI, “From Cost to Cash: Lifting Margins, Unlocking New Revenue, and Reducing Reliance on USF”

Amanda Hofer is an Executive Business Consultant at JSI, based in Texas, with more than 20 years of experience in the rural telecommunications industry. Amanda’s expertise spans efficiency reviews, process audits, department restructuring, staffing strategies, network integration, and holistic FTTH project management. She is known for her strategic vision, her ability to bridge client and vendor relationships, and her leadership in sales and marketing initiatives.

Before joining JSI, Amanda held leadership roles at two rural telephone cooperatives, served as Assistant General Manager and Director of Business Operations and worked with both an industry billing software vendor and a regional cellular carrier, where she managed billing, network integration, revenue assurance and regulatory filings.

Amanda holds a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from Angelo State University and an MBA in Management from the University of Texas of the Permian Basin.

Brandon Johnson, GOCare, “CX Strategies that Win”

Brandon Johnson brings over two decades of expertise in the software and telecom industries to his role as VP of Sales at GOCare. His passion for customer service was ignited early in his career, where he held leadership positions across various sectors, including non-profits, the music industry (where he perfected the art of hitting drums hard with sticks!), IT businesses, and ultimately, the telecom space in 2005. Thanks Craigslist!  

Leading both sales and operations for global telecom projects reinforced Brandon’s core belief: exceptional customer experience is one of the most powerful competitive advantages a company can have, especially in the fast-paced world of broadband and communication service providers.

Ryan Johnson, Aldrich Advisors, “One Big Beautiful Bill Act”

Ryan is passionate about keeping his telecommunications and utility clients informed about taxation matters relevant to their industries and helping them achieve their goals. He specializes in business taxation and has spent his career consulting on entity and transaction structures, along with regulatory issues related to taxes. Ryan is active in multiple industry associations presenting on various tax and business planning topics. He also provides several local nonprofit organizations with various tax and accounting services. Ryan is a CPA and lives in Salem, Oregon, with his wife and three teenage daughters.

Steve Kirks, Complete Splicing, “The Cost of ‘Good Enough’ GPS Data”

Steve Kirks is Subsidiary Manager at Complete Communications, where he directs all operational and strategic activities for the STE Communication subsidiary. With over 16 years of telecommunications and technology leadership experience, Steve specializes in helping organizations navigate complex fiber deployments, digital transformation, and strategic business development. Throughout his career, Steve has led cross-functional teams through high-stakes initiatives, including managing multimillion-dollar fiber overbuild projects and developing go-to-market strategies for new fiber markets at Brightspeed and Lumen Technologies. His expertise spans divisional management, technical solution design and organizational leadership, with a proven track record of building systems that bridge finance, operations and sales departments to drive measurable results.

Trevor Lapointe, Baker Tilly, “The State of Cybersecurity”

Trevor Lapointe is a Senior Manager in Cybersecurity Consulting with Baker Tilly, bringing over a decade of experience helping organizations strengthen their security posture and manage technology risk. He began his career with a Big Four firm, where he guided enterprise clients in designing, evaluating, and operating vulnerability management and compliance programs.

Over the past ten years, Trevor has helped startups, mid-sized firms, and global enterprises build and mature their cybersecurity programs—assessing risk, implementing security controls, and developing pragmatic roadmaps to align with business and regulatory objectives. He has led and supported PCI DSS assessments, program maturity evaluations, and remediation initiatives across a wide range of sectors including telecom, oil and gas, energy, technology, aerospace, automotive, restaurant and public sector organizations.

Trevor’s expertise spans cybersecurity governance, vulnerability management, incident response readiness and compliance frameworks. He is passionate about helping organizations bridge the gap between security and business strategy—enabling resilience, compliance, and operational efficiency in an evolving threat landscape.

Hitesh Mali, Juniper Networking, “AIOps for Networking”

Hitesh Mali is Chief Architect at HPE–Juniper Networks, partnering with global operators to design and evolve large-scale IP/MPLS networks, AIOps and ML-driven automation.

Mark Pflum, RVW, “Satellite Internet”

Since joining RVW in July of 2008, Mark Pflum has been working with clients on Cable TV systems, Fiber-to-the-Premises designs, and Central Office Electronics. Mark starts by listening to the client’s needs to define the system requirements, then develops detailed designs that meet those needs. As part of the design process, Mark works closely with the client to weigh the options in order to provide the best desired results.

The services don’t stop there. Mark creates the Plans and Specifications, conducts bids, evaluates and summarizes the proposals for the client so that an informed decision can be made. Mark also assists in contract administration, project coordination, and RUS Loan Applications from design to submission.

Prior to joining RVW, Mark worked for Motorola as a Systems Engineer. He worked in Motorola’s satellite communications division and worked on the Celestri and Teledesic programs which were sometimes referred to as “The Internet in the Sky”. Mark then spent the last 8 years of his career at Motorola working in their CDMA infrastructure division. Mark worked on CDMA, EVDO, and LTE system requirements, verification through lab and field testing, and the development of end-to-end network simulations. Mark’s specialties in these technologies were power control, hand off algorithms and system optimization.

Brian Schuldt, Calix, “WiFi and 50G PON”

Brian Schuldt is a Regional Vice President of Network Sales Engineering at Calix.  Brian has extensive experience and knowledge helping customers design and deploy networks based on the latest technologies.  Brian has architected and designed modern networks and solutions for over 20 years, supporting customers ranging from regional carriers to Fortune 500 Global networks.

Bob Stewart, NECA, “Future Broadband Technologies”

Bob is senior manager, Tariffs and Training for NECA’s Southern and Eastern regions, where he is a regular speaker at state and national association meetings and is supervisor of NECA training nationally. Prior to being a part of Tariffs and Training team, Bob was manager, Member Services, and USF coordinator for the Southern region for 15 years. He was primarily responsible for working with telephone companies in Alabama, Florida, Maine, Mississippi, Tennessee and Virginia. Before joining NECA 25 years ago, Bob taught high school mathematics and computer science in his home state of Tennessee. Bob has been an adjunct college instructor for the Quest Program of Belhaven University and Covenant College and is currently a part-time college instructor for Kennesaw State University. Bob has a Bachelor of Science in mathematics from Bryan College, a Master of Arts in leadership and liberal studies from Duquesne University, and an Education Specialist post-graduate degree in organizational leadership from National University.

Todd Thorson, Forvis Mazars, “Forecasting & Budgeting”

Todd Thorson is a partner with FORVIS MAZARS with a specialty in telecom companies.  Todd is a CPA working with telecom companies for 30 years including audit, tax, and consulting.  Todd has spoken at numerous conferences around the United States.