Anna McGee

My sales career has given me a front row seat to the ever changing and evolving wireless infrastructure industry and how impactful seeming innocuous activities can be.  One that comes to mind was back in 2005 right after Hurricane Katrina.  I was working at Nextel Communications selling to all Federal Agencies in North Texas.  All the cellphone stores between New Orleans and Baton Rouge had been looted and communications were hit or miss at the time.  As the sole Federal Sales Rep, I worked directly with Motorola and our supply chain to provide overnight deliveries to GSA Region 7, the DEA, EPA, FBI and Secret Service, all who had representatives at the Baton Rouge staging area that needed ground communications while networks were being restored and COWs were deployed.  Picking up phones and accessories on a Saturday from the Motorola warehouse in FT Worth and driving them around town to 3 Letter agencies to drop them off and help program call trees so they could take them to Alliance airport for transport to Baton Rouge was just part of what needed to be done to meet the emergency.  This was a non-stop effort for three weeks to support these agencies on the ground. Afterward, I received challenge coins from each agency in recognition of Nextel’s efforts to provide support.  This event sticks out in my mind because of how critical the wireless infrastructure was to restoring families and security in the affected areas.