Telecommunications visionary – Levoy Knowles honored with national award
Ben Lomand Telephone Cooperative CEO Levoy Knowles was recently recognized by the National Telecommunications Cooperative Association with its 2007 Management Achievement Award.
Knowles received the award at the NTCA annual meeting in Orlando, Fla., and Ben Lomand employees held a local reception for him Friday at the Ben Lomand Plant Operations Building.
The Ben Lomand CEO is no stranger to recognition from the association, which represents more than 570 independent local exchange carriers providing telecommunications services throughout rural America. He received Excellence in Leadership Certificates in 2001 and 2004 prior to winning the Management Achievement Award.
?The most exciting thing about it is the staff nominated me,? Knowles said. ?I didn?t know anything about it. It was a total secret. They were actually notified I had won about six weeks ago, and they presented me their own plaque and told me what they had done at one of our staff meetings. So I was really excited, totally surprised.
That staff says it was a no-brainer to nominate the company CEO.
?Every year the NTCA gives out these awards,? said competitive services manager Carrie Huckeby. ?And when I looked at the Management Achievement Award, I thought ?Who is a natural to win that?? and Mr. Knowles definitely is. We knew he was a shoo-in to win.?
Marketing and public relations coordinator Karen Wilson agreed.
?We?ve achieved so much here at Ben Lomand,? Wilson said. ?Advancing in video and other technologies. He has led the way in all the new services that we have added. It?s been under his direction that we?ve achieved as much as we have. We?re just very proud of him for leading us into the 21st century with all of this new technology. Without him we might still be back with dial-tone. We?re just glad he has the foresight to see where the future is going.?
Knowles says he has always worked to make Ben Lomand an innovative and progressive telecommunications company, and he is also proud of its achievements and the quality and range of services it offers its members.
?We?re a totally integrated service provider,? Knowles said. ?We?re one of the few companies in the nation that has total communications services. You?ve heard of the triple play, where you have data, voice and video. We have a quadruple play, which is data, voice, video and wireless mobile service.?
He added it is also gratifying to be able to offer these services to all Ben Lomand members.
?Every single customer we have can get DSL at this point in time,? Knowles said. ?Some of the big guys in Nashville and Knoxville and other places are bragging they have reached 75 percent penetration. We can get 100 percent already.?