Leadership Team

Sandi Yatvin is CTC’s General Counsel and Chief Financial Officer. In these overlapping roles, she oversees all of CTC’s legal requirements, contracting, invoicing, and pricing. She is the point of contact for clients who have questions regarding contracts, CTC’s compliance with state and local laws and regulations, and any tax or financial questions related to our ongoing work. She oversees CTC’s business registrations in state and local jurisdictions.

Sandi is also a point of contact within CTC for project managers’ questions regarding contracting, invoicing, and pricing. She keeps team leaders apprised of developments regarding ongoing work, and ensures that team leaders understand the requirements of new engagements.

As the manager of CTC’s administrative and comptroller teams, Sandi ensures both teams are using the latest best practices and are informed of relevant financial and legal developments in the many jurisdictions in which CTC is active. She is admitted to the bar as an attorney in Illinois.

Andy Spurgeon is responsible for implementing corporate strategy and managing CTC’s day‐to‐day operational activities as well as providing strategic support for CTC’s clients in financial analysis and program management. Andy is particularly focused on helping our clients navigate federal and state funding opportunities for broadband.

Having served as Chief of Operations at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), Andy is particularly knowledgeable about grant program planning and the award, implementation, and oversight of broadband infrastructure and digital inclusion initiatives.

Andy’s work includes advising state broadband offices on grant program design, implementation, and compliance activities associated with federal programs including the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program, Digital Equity Act programs, the Enabling Middle Mile Broadband Infrastructure program, and the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (SLFRF) and Capital Projects Fund programs.

Andy is also familiar with the architecture and delivery of geospatial applications and systems from his experience at NTIA leading the design and implementation of the National Broadband Availability Map. He supports geospatial analysis and modelling for the BEAD program for multiple states, including Alabama, Delaware, Georgia, New Mexico, North Carolina, and Oregon.

In his decade-long tenure with NTIA, Andy was involved in the development of much of NTIA’s approach to broadband grant programs, including the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and other complex areas of federal policy. Andy led due diligence review of more than $3 billion in grant applications and $1.2 billion in awards—including leading the review and evaluation of materials to ensure grantee compliance with NEPA and Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) for the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP).

In this capacity, he supported grantees during their consultations with federal management agencies (such as the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the State Historic Preservation Officers (SHPO) in numerous states.

Andy also has extensive experience in senior business development roles, where he was responsible for strategic planning, organizational restructuring and change management, financial analysis, and program management. He is familiar with public and private infrastructure funding, including public subsidy, bonds and tax credits, and private equity / venture capital financing.

As CTC’s Chief Operating Officer, Andy is responsible for implementing corporate strategy and the company’s day‐to‐day operational activities. He is particularly focused on CTC’s growing project portfolio and the well‐being and professional development of the CTC team.

Matthew DeHaven has assisted in the planning and deployment of dozens of fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) networks for public sector clients, working on system-level designs and cost estimates as well as providing detailed engineering and construction oversight.

He managed the project that built CTC’s proprietary GOeS model, which incorporates economic, financial, topographical, and field data to produce what CTC believes is the most useful fiber network cost estimate available. The GOeS model is used by clients of all to estimate fiber broadband deployment costs, including state broadband offices that CTC is assisting with Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program implementation.

For California’s multi-billion-dollar Middle-Mile Broadband Initiative, Matt has worked on details including procurement strategy, network planning, and construction oversight.

Matt led the fiber broadband project in Holland, Michigan, where CTC oversaw the design-build contractor and coordinated a supply chain management project under which the city purchased and warehoused critical broadband construction inputs during a period of scarcity and long lead times.

He managed CTC’s work for the City of Westminster, Maryland, that pioneered the public-private partnership model where the city owns the fiber network infrastructure. His team created a financial model that incorporated the take-rate necessary for sustainability. CTC designed the fiber drops connecting every home and oversaw the construction contractors.

Earlier, Matt served on the grant application development team that successfully led the State of Maryland to a $115 million Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) awards from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), and became the Portfolio Manager for the One Maryland Inter-County Broadband Network (ICBN) BTOP grant project.

As a recognized expert in broadband analytics, mapping, and wireless engineering, Shawn oversees the data analytics and wireless siting teams of CTC Technology & Energy. He leverages his extensive knowledge and experience in advanced data analytics techniques, statistical modeling, graph theory, machine learning, and predictive analytics to develop tools and models. He leads the design and implementation of data-centric broadband strategies for state and local clients nationwide.

Drawing on more than two decades of experience in telecommunications and broadband planning, Shawn develops automated, data-driven solutions to support complex client projects and designs innovative networks and technology strategies.

Shawn leads the CTC teams that have developed analytical models and tools to enable the subgrantee selection processes for state clients’ Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Programs. These tools automate fiber and fixed wireless network designs, estimate costs, and predict funding requests for the statewide competitive grant processes. The models are helping state broadband offices evaluate applications in terms of cost, technology types, and numbers of unserved locations to be connected.

Under Shawn’s leadership, CTC’s data analytics team develops sophisticated analysis and tools to support our clients in complex decision-making. For example, Shawn led teams that developed a custom tool that enables more accurate estimation of fiber construction costs by using artificial intelligence to automate the detection of existing infrastructure; another application developed by Shawn’s team enables CTC’s outside plant (OSP) engineers to efficiently estimate make-ready costs for aerial fiber construction routes by streamlining data collection and analysis.

Shawn’s team also builds applications that enable clients to execute innovative public-facing programs. For example, to enable state broadband office clients to meet the requirements of the BEAD and Digital Equity Act programs, Shawn led the development of tools and client-facing dashboards to enable and manage statewide stakeholder outreach processes; the tools were used by state broadband offices to enable and track hundreds of public, industry, and local and tribal government sessions as part of the states’ BEAD planning processes.

As the Covid pandemic forced schools to close nationwide, Shawn and his team quickly developed the cloud-based database and other information systems necessary for the state of Alabama to launch and administer its $100 million statewide ABC for Students initiative, which provided free internet access to more than 200,000 students in low-income households.

Prior to joining CTC, Shawn was Co-Founder and CEO of In-Building-Wireless until he orchestrated its sale to Henkels & McCoy in 2011. Shawn then joined Henkels & McCoy as a manager of engineering and design, and subsequently director of the wireless division. He oversaw the successful growth of major wireless business ventures, and managed team engineering and design efforts.

In nearly two decades with CTC Technology & Energy, Ziggy has helped resolve the complex strategic questions raised by innovative broadband projects in light of evolving federal, state, and local grant programs, market forces, governance requirements, and public-private partnership opportunities. He specializes in applying data analysis and best practices to project planning and governance challenges, and walking clients through the relative benefits of strategic options.

Ziggy lends his expertise in program design and data analysis to support multiple states in administering funding under the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) and Digital Equity Act (DE) programs to reach complementary goals of universal broadband access and digital equity.

He has helped states design grant programs to meet their objectives for universal service with BEAD funding, including developing subgrantee selection processes and requirements and formulas for scoring applications. He also helped multiple states assess needs and develop metrics for their Digital Equity Plans by designing statistically valid statewide surveys and leading the survey data analysis.

Subsequently, he has supported each state in designing a programmatic strategy to subaward Digital Equity Capacity Grant funding and establish metrics for reporting to monitor progress toward the objectives in Digital Equity Plans.

Ziggy has also led broadband planning, strategy, and feasibility studies and advised on public-private partnership arrangements for local governments across the country. He has worked on several projects with the nonprofit Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) to bring affordable broadband to local communities and build local capacity for sustaining broadband initiatives, including the development of a handbook of best practices for delivering broadband in public housing.

Ziggy has also played key roles in dozens of large-scale broadband projects. He managed multiple federal-grant-funded interoperability projects that interconnect jurisdictional communications networks, including serving as the lead manager for all phases of deployment of NCRnet, the interoperable public safety communications network in the National Capital Region around Washington, D.C. He also oversaw the preparation of successful environmental assessments for major public sector fiber networks such as the One Maryland Broadband Network (OMBN) and the Urbana-Champaign Big Broadband (UC2B) network.

Since 2005, he has served as the lead manager for all phases of deployment of NCRnet, the interoperable public safety communications network in the National Capital Region around Washington, D.C. His role on this federally funded project includes oversight of fiber optic design, procurement, and implementation to network design, governance development, network operations, and long-term sustainability.

Ziggy holds a CGEIT credential, enabling him to serve as an organizational management consultant and advise on options for reorganizing and streamlining IT departments and services.

With more than 20 years of municipal utilities and telecommunications experience, Teles Fremin, P.E., is a recognized leader in the fiber broadband industry. Prior to joining CTC, she served as Director of LUS Fiber, the largest fiber-optic network in the State of Louisiana. As a founding member of the project, Teles pioneered one of the first municipally owned networks in the United States offering high-speed broadband technology to residents, businesses, and schools.

Serving more than 125,000 households, she led initiatives to expand connectivity to underserved areas, secure federal grant funding, and introduce new technology solutions and product lines to the market. Teles was responsible for leading the engineering, business, operations, and customer service teams – guiding revenue projection and financial analysis, strategic business planning and market analysis, and overseeing day-to-day operations.

As CTC’s Deputy Chief Technology Officer, Teles utilizes more than two decades of hands-on experience to provide engineering and technical oversight for telecommunications projects and services. Working closely with the CTO, she develops network technical analysis and strategy for state and local governments.

Teles draws on her two decades of hands-on experience to provide engineering and technical oversight for telecommunications projects and services. Working closely with the CTO, she develops network technical analysis and strategy for state and local governments, including the states of California, New Mexico, and Vermont and cities such as Chicago and Pittsburgh. Teles also brings extensive experience overseeing successful broadband deployments in rural areas of the country, from northern Nevada to southern Louisiana.

Previously, as interim director of LUS Fiber in Lafayette, Louisiana, she led initiatives to expand connectivity to underserved areas, secure federal grant funding, and introduce new technology solutions and product lines to the market. Under her leadership, LUS Fiber delivered broadband to more than 70,000 households. As a broadband authority with public-sector expertise, Teles has spoken at local and national conferences on topics ranging from fiber deployment planning, broadband policy, and industry insights to workforce challenges and customer service. She has also served as a member of the board of directors for the Fiber Broadband Association. Teles is a licensed Professional Engineer in multiple states.

Actively training in business management skills and practices, Teles will be earning an MBA next year focused on quality management, ethical considerations, technological applications and community-focused impact.

Deb is responsible for CTC’s State Broadband Programs, including strategic planning and execution of our clients’ BEAD, Digital Equity, and other federal grant-funded efforts. During her four-decade career in the broadband industry, she has worked in broadband network design, deployment, and operations, both in the U.S. and globally. Deb has experience in federal and state infrastructure grant programs, both as a grantee executing funded programs and as a grantor administering various state programs.