Alexandria, VA – Today, FirstNet announced that Sam Ginn is stepping down as Chairman and will remain as a FirstNet board member until serving out his term which concludes in August. Current board member Sue Swenson will assume the duties of Chairwoman immediately.

Sam Ginn was appointed by the Secretary of Commerce as the inaugural chairman of the Board of Directors for FirstNet. Since then, Mr. Ginn has devoted his considerable skills and experience guiding FirstNet into a fully functioning board with a growing set of professional staff, and laid the groundwork for implementing the nationwide public safety broadband network consistent with the needs of the public safety community.

“As a distinguished leader in the telecommunications industry for more than four decades, we were very fortunate to have someone of Sam’s caliber agree to become FirstNet’s first Chairman,” said APCO President Gigi Smith. President Smith continued, “Mr. Ginn was instrumental to FirstNet during these critical formative years. As a recent show of our appreciation for his commitment to public safety, APCO presented Mr. Ginn with its 2014 Leadership in Advancing Communications Policy Award. We presented this award to Mr. Ginn not only because of his work with FirstNet, but because he has been a true friend to APCO and champion of the public safety community. We congratulate and appreciate Mr. Ginn and wish him the very best.”

“The fact that Mr. Ginn is departing as FirstNet Chairman is tempered only by our strong confidence in Ms. Swenson, who will be taking on this role,” said President Smith. Smith added, “Ms. Swenson comes not only with an impressive list of prior career accomplishments, but already has a proven track record with FirstNet since being among the initial Board appointees. In this regard, Ms. Swenson has achieved a terrific reputation within our community, because she understands the needs of the public safety community. She also has taken on a number of leadership roles with great success to date, such as serving as Vice Chairwoman since December and leading the spectrum lease negotiations. We welcome Ms. Swenson as the new Chairwoman of FirstNet and look forward to working with her.”