Movers and Shakers
Malek honored by state firefighter group
Rep. Luke Malek, R-Coeur d'Alene, has been presented the Professional Firefighters of Idaho Legislator of the Year Award from the state union.
The award has been given for five years to legislators who have made it a priority to work with firefighters to enact legislation that allows for safer working conditions, proper staffing and response equipment.
Malek served as the deputy prosecuting attorney for Kootenai County and has worked on political campaigns, including for U.S. Sen. Jim Risch.
Malek is the director of legal affairs at Heritage Health in Coeur d'Alene. He is in his second term at the Legislature.
Malek is working on a measure that covers specific cancers to which firefighters are susceptible from the combustion of synthetic materials found in homes.
Fatbeam adds construction division
Fatbeam, a competitive access provider, has expanded its corporate team and has created a new construction division to better serve clients in building fiber infrastructure for ultra-high-speed Internet.
The company named Chris Jasper to lead Fatbeam Construction as vice president of fiber networks and announced the hire of Tammy Palm, who will serve as director of sales.
Fatbeam Construction will be responsible for building and maintaining many of Fatbeam's key networks thus reducing overall construction costs and further lowering the barrier to bring fiber into prospective customer locations.
As vice president of fiber networks, Jasper is charged with heading Fatbeam Construction. He brings more than 20 years of experience in building fiber-optic networks and has been with the company since 2012, previously serving as manager of construction. In his new role, Jasper will oversee all aspects of aerial and underground construction in addition to fiber splicing.
"Chris is one of those talented individuals who is always one or two steps ahead of the original plan, which is a huge asset in the telecom landscape and for our company," said Fatbeam president Greg Green.
Palm joins Fatbeam with a proven track record in sales, channel management and product marketing with Fortune 500 companies including Integra Telecom, XO Communications and Nextel, among others.
"Having worked with Tammy at Avista Communications and XO Communications, I knew she would be a strong asset to our sales team. Her history of success in sales really speaks volumes as to how fortunate Fatbeam is to have someone of her caliber in our organization," Green said.
Fiber is the preferred industry standard for Internet delivery in wide-area networks (WAN) and often only found in larger markets. Fatbeam creates fiber infrastructure in markets with populations ranging between 5,000 and 100,000. These communities often lack access to high-speed and high-capacity Internet. Fatbeam builds its fiber at a minimum of 1-Gigabit.
Fatbeam currently operates fiber networks in more than 16 markets spanning Idaho, Montana, Washington and Wyoming with additional network in development in Oregon. For more information, visit www.fatbeam.com.
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