Bio In 1996, NYNEX recruited Mr. Christensen into their project management apprenticeship program, working for the Network Systems Marketing Group. This rare opportunity -- part of NYNEX’s management mentoring program -- offered two years of intensive “telco” education, and on-the-job project management training. Mr. Christensen was exposed to the full complement of ILEC functional organizations simultaneously, while integrated with existing cross-functional project teams. This unique experience taught best practices -- first-hand -- and cemented the operational foundation required for a successful management career. Mr. Christensen was retained when Bell Atlantic bought NYNEX in 1997; and, again in 2000 when GTE merged with Bell Atlantic to form Verizon. After a number of successful integration projects, Mr. Christensen received Verizon’s Project Management Excellence Awards in 2003. These successes led to involvement with other high-profile projects, including the “Hurricane Katrina Project” and a proprietary quality control initiative started in 2008 to improve the company’s flagship service offering, “FiOS.” In February of 2009, Mr. Christensen was affected by a corporate reduction in force (RIF). At that same time, local community leaders and business people were discussing participation in a competitive-bid to acquire funding through the U.S. Department of Commerce. A new, non-profit, corporate entity was envisioned, and a formal project charter (with the aim of creating a new Rhode Island based 501(c)(3) corporation, and a completed project bid) was established. Mr. Christensen assumed the duties of Project Manager with the goal of fulfilling all federal filing requirements for the three-year, $2.4M bid. As a result, Mr. Christensen joined the original board of trustees for Broadband-Works, Inc., fully established in August of 2009. The grant-funding project completed in 2011, and Mr. Christensen continued to serve on the board through 2012.Specialties: Since 2009 Mr. Christensen continues his studies via URI's Graduate School of Library and Information Sciences (non-degree), and Bryant University's Executive Development Center. Several courses have been completed with the aim towards achieving the Master of Public Administration degree. In addition, Mr. Christensen fulfilled the professional work experience and academic requirements necessary to obtain PMI's Professional Project Manager credential ("PMP"). and did so in August of 2011.