About Us

Katherine Waldron, has been in the telecommunications and information technology industry for more than 25 years. Recently, Ms. Waldron partnered with Deborah Kobza to set up the Center for Technology Innovation in Florida. She is also the Executive VP for Business Development for both NH-ISAC and GICSR – two major national cybersecurity efforts based in Florida.

Katherine is involved with non-profit organizations on projects and grant opportunities including working with statewide educational institutions on the federal government's $7.2B broadband initiative. She and her team are also working with small businesses to help them develop their business and marketing strategies.

Prior to this she was a Vice President at Sprint, she worked with state and local governments on their telecommunications needs and was involved in several major federal government proposals and awards, including FTS2000 and FTS2001. She became vice president within the Sprint Wholesale Services Group in 2000, where she built her organization into a $500 million a year international sales group managing Sprint’s largest customers and working with them on their needs assessment, proposal development, implementation and customer care requirements.

Ms. Waldron received her BA from the University of Virginia in Economics and is pursuing her MBA at the Palm Beach Atlantic University. She is involved in her local community and is currently in her fifth term as president of a 350 unit condominium association. She founded the downtown West Palm Beach’s first Political Action Committee. 

Mr. DePetro offers more than 25 years’ senior management and consulting experience within the telecommunications industry, both domestic and international.

Most recently, Mr. DePetro, through his private consulting association, served as Director, Business Development for National LambdaRail. The NLR network consists of over 12,000 miles of owned and operated fiber optic cable providing a high-performance test bed infrastructure for many of the world’s most demanding research projects. Mr. DePetro is actively involved in the roll out the National Broadband Plan and continues to position his client base as strategic providers of network services to R&E communities, anchor institutions, non-profit organizations and BTOP awardees.

Prior to joining National LambdaRail, Mr. DePetro was the President and COO of Vinculum Communications, a $40MM San Diego based VoIP provider specializing in international wholesale termination services.

As Executive Vice President of Global Business Development for Pacific Gateway Exchange, Mr. DePetro directed the company’s worldwide sales organization. He traveled extensively throughout Europe and Asia / Japan negotiating asset exchanges and network swaps.

Barry is an Emmy award winning global telecommunications executive with 25+ years professional consulting management experience in Project Design/Management/Implementation; Strategic Technical Analysis; Site Research/Surveys/Property Acquisition; Business Development – strategic marketing/competitive intelligence; Expansion and Distribution Planning/Implementation; Wide Area Network Design in voice, data, video, including mobile, V-Sat and undersea fiber optic transmission and operations in the telecommunications, broadcast, corporate, and health care industries.

Creativity and innovation are among Barry’s strengths in combining technology to solve client problems and meet challenges on a global basis. Barry wrote and developed the operation plan for "SkyPath", NBC Television Network news and programming, the network distribution delivery system used today. At Digital Caribbean Fiber Network, Ltd. Barry oversaw the development of specialized undersea fiber optic cables in the Caribbean region and planning the first international cable between Jamaica and Cuba. The US Department of Treasury and the Office of Foreign Asset Control authorized this historical cable and its future expansion of the cable between the USA and Cuba.

At present, Barry is designing and developing state-of-the art healthcare mobile units with advanced satellite telecommunications networks for global disaster mitigation. Barry has a BA degree in Broadcast & Communications from Long Island University and is a doctorial lecturer to Post PhD. Students Nova Southeastern University. He is a founding member of the Caribbean Telecommunications Council and a technical advisor for CENTR - Caribbean Emergency Network for Telecommunication Recovery.

Deborah Kobza is the Executive Director and Founder of the Global Institute for Cybersecurity and Research (GICSR). She has also led the Information Technology Center of Excellence (ITCOE), one of the leading information technology best practice and education organizations in the U.S. ITCOE was formed as a non-profit organization to provide the public and private sector with a technology and education resource, and a continuous and sustainable defining voice in the evaluation, definition, and application of information technology best practice and education standards. Ms. Kobza served as Director/CIO in 2004 and was elected Executive Director/CEO in 2007. Certified in the Governance of Enterprise Information Systems (CGEIT), Ms. Kobza has 25+ years of expertise in strategic planning, business & technology executive management, analysis, design, information security, quality assurance, computer systems validation and instructional design.

Tracy Rickett is located in Washington D.C. area and is an attorney who has worked within the federal government as well as within the communications industry on contract negotiations and contract management. He has in-depth knowledge of bankruptcy law, telecommunications and IT contracts, as well as extensive contacts within the political and regulatory sectors of the industry.

Prior to joining Waldron and Associates, Tracy led Sprint's contract negotiations for its largest customers, including BellSouth, Verizon, Southwestern Bell, Qwest and several international telco providers.

He lives in Alexandria, VA with his wife and is currently the chair of the Budget and Fiscal Affairs Advisory Committee for the City of Alexandria, and past chair of the Alexandria School Board's Budget Advisory Committee. He is on numerous boards, including the Scholarship Fund of Alexandria and the T.C. Williams' High School Unified Booster Club. He has worked on and/or managed a number of local elections. He is the Chair of the Administrative Commission at his church.