The Tower Family Foundation announced on Friday the leadership appointments to the non-profit organization’s recently established Scholarship Committee. The Board of Directors has appointed the following leaders to the Scholarship Committee: Patrick Murphy, Chief Executive Officer at Murphy Tower Service; Seth Buechley, Owner at Cathedral; Mark Ciarfella, Executive Vice President, Domestic Operations at SBA Communications Corporation; Mike Clementi, Vice President and General Manager at Site Pro 1; Ryan Ford, National Vendor Manager at DISH Wireless; Dr. Gemma Frock, GFK Consulting Services, and Tara Rand, Senior Manager, Business Development at SAI Group.
The Scholarship Committee will be tasked with expanding the Tower Family Foundation’s Scholarship Program, including developing enhanced eligibility criteria and a new application form that supports more eligible students.
“Through the industry’s generous charitable giving, the Tower Family Foundation has a unique opportunity to expand the organization’s scholarship program,” said Board of Directors Member and Scholarship Committee Chair Patrick Murphy. “I am excited to roll up my sleeves and begin working with the first-class Scholarship Committee members to fulfill our mandate to support more students by providing financial assistance with their education expenses.”
The Board members are:
- Patrick Murphy founded Murphy Tower Service, LLC along with siblings Clyde Murphy and Lin (Murphy) Sheehey in 2004, after working in their father’s construction company, Murphy Construction, Inc. Pat is currently the CEO with 19 years of experience in the telecom industry, doubling as a tower climber in his first 10 years.
- Seth Buechley is board-level strategist and active investor in the wireless and broadband sectors. Drawing from his experience building and selling multiple companies, he serves as the Chairman of Cathedral, providing advice, capital, and M&A support to growth-oriented leaders.
- Mark Ciarfella joined SBA in 2007, and currently serves as Executive Vice President, Operations. He is responsible for the domestic tower operations, engineering, network operations center, services business, new tower development activities, and all new indoor and outdoor connectivity and data center businesses. Ciarfella manages an organization of approximately 700 employees and corresponding SG&A, OPEX and CAPEX expenditures. Before this, he served as Vice President, New Builds, managing the organization’s strategy and execution of building new cell towers.
- Mike Clementi serves as the Vice President & General Manager of Valmont Site Pro 1. Previously he served as National Sales Manager of Valmont Site Pro 1 and Valmont Structures for the America’s. When he first began his career with Site Pro 1, he turned a $500K territory into a high producing seven figure territory as a Regional Sales Manager.
- Ryan Ford is the current National Vendor Manager for DISH Wireless, he also leads the Vendor Safety Team for DISH Wireless. He has been with DISH for 12 years and with DISH Wireless since its inception in 2018. He currently works with NATE construction vendors and DISH market teams in an effort to ensure that they meet their build goals in a safe, timely and cost-effective manner.
- Gemma Frock has been engaged with the telecommunications industry since 2012, in her role as the Vice President of Education and Training at Aiken Technical College. She led the efforts to develop and implement a series of stackable certificates for a tower technicians’ program at the two-year community technical college. Students were able to earn certificates that led toward an Associate of Applied Science in Telecommunications Technology.
- Tara Rand has spent her entire 30+ year wireless career at three industry leaders in the New England market — Verizon Wireless, Crown Castle and currently at veteran national wireless, renewable energy and construction services provider, SAI Group, headquartered in Salem, NH.
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