Rise Management


Jim O’Brien – Chief Executive Officer

Mr. O’Brien was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Rise Broadband in June 2018, after previously serving as President / Chief Operating Officer and Senior Vice President of Customer Operations. Mr. O’Brien provides overall leadership for Rise Broadband to develop and execute business strategies, tactics and objectives to maximize operating results.

Mr. O’Brien has 20+ years’ experience driving operational performance and possesses a deep industry knowledge in telecommunications. Mr. O’Brien is highly adept at uncovering key process improvement opportunities and driving change management initiatives that greatly affect the overall profitability of organizations.

Previously Mr. O’Brien served as EVP and Chief Operations Officer with Birch Communications; EVP Infrastructure, Engineering and Operations with Earthlink; EVP Operations with Deltacom; and SVP of Operations and ICG.



Jeff Kohler – Co-Founder and Chief Development Officer

Mr. Kohler co-founded JAB Broadband (Rise Broadband’s parent company) in 2005 and is the company’s Chief Development Officer; responsible for merger, acquisition and corporate development activities. Under his leadership, more than 100 companies have been acquired since the company was formed.

With over 25 years of wireless industry experience, Mr. Kohler previously served as Director of Corporate Finance and M&A with GVC Capital LLC, where he focused on mergers, acquisitions and capital formation within the wireless industry. Mr. Kohler was also CEO and Founder of Reason, Inc., a wireless management services company which was acquired by InPhonic (formerly NASDAQ:INPC) in 2002. Furthermore, he held senior positions with AT&T Wireless and McCaw Cellular Communications.

He currently serves on the Board of Directors and the FCC Committee for the Wireless Internet Service Providers Association (WISPA) and is active in advocacy efforts with both the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) as well as the U.S. Congress. Mr. Kohler received his MBA from Regis University (Denver) and BS/BA from the University of Denver.



John Clelland – Chief Commercial Officer

Mr. Clelland joined Rise Broadband in February 2019 as Chief Commercial Officer and provides strategic leadership over all Marketing and Sales initiatives. His responsibilities include direction and oversight for brand management, promotion and advertising, web and social digital/media, product management and data analytics.

Mr. Clelland has over 25 years of marketing expertise. He most recently served as Head of Marketing and Studio for Katalyst Fitness, a startup located in Seattle, WA, where he led all marketing, communication and studio operations. Prior to that, he was Chief Marketing and Customer Engagement Officer for Doubledown Interactive, the world’s largest online social gaming casino and was responsible for leading all marketing, customer support and business intelligence teams.

Throughout the prior twelve years, Mr. Clelland held senior leadership roles with T-Mobile including Senior Vice President Core Marketing, Vice President Channel Development, Vice President Segment Marketing, and Vice President Brand Marketing. He has also served in leadership roles with YUM Brands, Tricon Restaurants, Colgate-Palmolive and PepsiCo-KFC. He completed his Bachelor of Commerce at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario.



Bret Westwood – Chief Technology Officer

Mr. Westwood currently serves as Chief Technology Officer. In his current role, he provides strategic leadership over Technology, Network Deployment and Program Management. Previously, he held the title of SVP of Network Deployment and Operations.

Mr. Westwood has led engineering, construction and operations efforts for internet service networks since 1997 and wireless networks since 2004. Prior to coming back to Rise, Mr. Westwood managed the Network Deployment and Operations activities for Google Fiber in Utah (Salt Lake City and Provo). Mr. Westwood has also served as Vice President of Network Deployment for Vivint Wireless. In this role he pioneered high throughput fixed wireless deployment strategies utilizing small/micro cell architectures with unlicensed spectrum. Before Google and Vivint, Mr. Westwood had served a range of posts for Rise from 2006-2014. These posts included Network Manager, Operations Manager and VP of Technical Operations. He has worked at Rise for a total of 10 Years and was one of Rise’s earliest employees.

Mr. Westwood holds two degrees from the University of Utah. These include an MBA and a Masters in Arts in English.



Ronald Gray – Chief Operating Officer

Mr. Gray currently serves as Chief Operating Officer and previously served as Senior Vice President of Customer Operations and Information Technology. In his current role, he oversees operations, which includes Regional General Managers, Field Engineering, Centralized Operations and Information Technology.

Mr. Gray has over 30 years of professional experience in operations, technology, consulting and engineering. His specialty is managing organizations and complex programs that need restructuring to achieve dramatically improved operating results.
Mr. Gray has served in senior leadership positions in operations, finance, network, information technology, strategic planning and research for corporations such as EarthLink, Windstream, Boeing, Sprint, GTE, Rhythms, BTi, and Deltacom.

Mr. Gray earned his MBA from the University of Kansas and his Bachelor of Science in Engineering from the University of Missouri.


Eden Elder headshot

Eden Elder, Vice President, Head of Human Resources

Ms. Elder serves as Vice President and Head of Human Resources. In this role, she provides strategic leadership over Human Resources, Training and Development, Talent Management, Compensation and Benefits, HRIS as well as Employee Engagement.

Ms. Elder has over 20 years of experience in Sales, Supply Chain, Information Technology, Strategy, Change Management and Human Resources and has led these functions in leadership roles for various companies across numerous industries. Ms. Elder specializes in applying industrial organizational psychology principles to common work practices to optimize employee engagement and productivity as well as to measure human capital’s impact on the bottom line.

Ms. Elder holds numerous degrees from national and international universities, among which Master’s and Doctorate degrees in Adult Education, Organization Development, and Psychology.