Marilyn Fox

President

Marilyn is a professional accountant, specializing in utility rate regulation and other financial and policy issues. She has worked for the finance departments of municipal governments regulating electric, gas and water utilities and negotiating franchise agreements and contracts with business entities. She has also handled franchise and access line fee compliance. She has served as an expert witness in local, state and federal proceedings and presented testimony before the State Legislature of Texas. Marilyn has worked with clients from the public and private sector on a variety of projects ranging from franchise fee reviews and negotiations to applying the Federal Communications Commission’s Rules for pole attachment rate calculations. Marilyn managed the due diligence review of proposed purchase of a telecommunications service provider.  She filed testimony at the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) in many major rate cases and participated in various rule-making workshops. She also assisted in strategic planning for two large commercial companies considering entry into the deregulated electric markets.

Paul Smolen

Vice President

Paul has over thirty years of experience in infrastructure development and regulatory compliance. His clients include public- and private-sector organizations preparing to exercise their options in deregulated telecommunications and electric markets. Paul helps public power utilities and other entities to implement electric deregulation plans. In addition, he prepares feasibility studies and business plans for telecommunications networks. He conducts cable television needs assessments and prepares municipal policy reviews related to telecommunications issues. Paul has served as a municipal regulatory affairs officer and negotiated licenses and franchises for cable-television and telecommunications providers. His duties included rights-of-way management, telecommunications tower sitting, Internet public service delivery and other economic development initiatives. As an economist at the Public Utility Commission of Texas, Paul was involved in telecommunications and electric tariff development, and rate design. He also coordinated energy efficiency and load-management projects and served on several Federal Communications Commission Joint Boards.