I work for Hawaiian Electric in our Pole Infrastructure Enterprise, which we lovingly call PIE. Our group was created in 2018 following the company’s purchase of the communication space on our formerly jointly owned poles from our ILEC, and PIE was stood up to handle the FCC pole attachment program. PIE has since grown to become the joint use and business development arms of the company. We handle pole attachments, macro colocation installations, dark fiber leasing, our double pole removal program, and we’re trying to explore data center partnerships. We work alongside our telecom division to try to get external funding to support buildout of their projects—pLTE and more fiber.

In my role, I engage with our external clients (telcos, content providers, DOD, state government) to work on business partnerships and leases, draft and negotiate the contracts for any of these leases, and draft our regulatory filings with our Public Utilities Commission. And perform extensive contract management, especially with the telcos on pole attachments and colocation. I come from a background in civil litigation, so it’s been a nice shift moving from company breakups towards company collaborations.