Thomas Stroup

Position: Chief executive, Shared Spectrum, a Vienna-based provider of radio frequency wireless technology.

Career Highlights: Chief executive, P-Com Network Services; chief executive and co-founder, Columbia Spectrum Management; chief executive, Personal Communications Industry Association.

Age: 55

Education: BS, public administration, University of North Dakota; JD, Georgetown University.

Personal: Lives in Great Falls with wife, Heather, and daughter, Lily.

How did you get to where you are?

I had the good fortune of entering the cellular industry when it was getting started, initially as a lawyer. I prepared original cellular applications that included design, the land mass covered and business plan.

One of the entrepreneurs I met through that work was on the board of directors at an association that represents the wireless industry, and he recruited me to join the team. I thought policy issues were more interesting than applications because they were addressing issues like how to ensure that licenses contained cellular systems that could actually connect to telephone networks.

After working at the association for eight years and seeing that this was an industry driven by entrepreneurs, I decided to start my own company. We provided services to companies that had just received licenses through auctions.

I knew that there was going to be a great opportunity for this business. Having negotiated on behalf of an association and truly understanding the industry, I had the skills to pull in the resources and grow an organization. Within about a four-week period after the conclusion of the auctions, we had more than $10 million in purchase orders. I was fortunate.

I embarked on a variety of different entrepreneurial ventures, getting intimately involved in issues relating to radio frequencies and spending a lot of time securing frequencies for member companies for the next generation of cellular services.

I sold that first company and created a field services company that built out cellular systems in the United States and Europe. I've also been involved in starting a cellular company with licenses in the Midwest and the West Coast.

And so I'm familiar with issues related to wireless and using radio frequencies more efficiently, which is what I found Shared Spectrum to be doing.

It's a big vision, but ultimately, I would like to see this company's software integrated into virtually every radio that is sold, both for the military and the commercial sector.

--Vanessa Mizell

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