FirstNet names telecom veteran as CIO
Jim Gwinn, chief information officer for the Agriculture Department’s Farm Service Agency, has been named CIO for FirstNet.
Gwinn will oversee the internal communications and support functions for FirstNet, which will provide a single interoperable platform for emergency and daily public safety communications.
For the past five years, Gwinn has worked with FSA where he’s been responsible for all facets of information technology including strategic planning, systems development, architecture, infrastructure, security, and policy and planning.
Prior to that, he was a vice president at Verizon business and worked for a number of telecom companies in his 28-year career, including MCI, WorldCom and LDDS.
Signed into law in February 2012, the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act created FirstNet. The law gives FirstNet the mission to build, operate and maintain the first high-speed, nationwide wireless broadband network dedicated to public safety.
FirstNet is an independent authority within the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration and is governed by a 15-member board of directors consisting of the U.S. attorney general, the secretary of homeland security, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, and 12 members appointed by the commerce secretary.
