Brian Mefford

Brian Mefford is founder and CEO of CNX (Connected Nation Exchange). At CNX, Brian leads a diverse team of broadband professionals enabling cities and states to modernize policies and processes that encompass the technical, legal, regulatory and financial aspects of leveraging public assets for accelerating intelligent connectivity. CNX exists as the bridge between cities and carriers with a platform that combines the vision of city leadership with the communications infrastructure ambitions of the private sector. CNX implements a balanced approach that maintains local control while ensuring service providers are attracted to an environment that is ripe for investment. 

As a broadband entrepreneur and innovator, Brian has championed the Public-Private-Partnership model to drive investment in broadband. Today, CNX unites private broadband service providers with states and cities to expand and leverage their public properties and assets for expanding fiber, small cells, 5G and related smart city infrastructure.

Previously, Brian served as the Founder, Chairman & CEO of Connected Nation, a non-profit known globally for its ability to close the digital divide. Over the decade he led Connected Nation, he was profiled in various technology trade publications as well as the Wall Street Journal, the Economist and as part of C-SPAN’s Communicators series. In 2012, he led the spin out of CNX from Connected Nation, an internationally recognized non-profit broadband development and advisory firm that Brian founded and led as CEO for more than a decade.