Broadband Development Conference
Overland Strategies, Founder & Principal
Andy has spent nearly 30 years working at the intersection of business and government, and a large part of his career was focused on the exact moments this panel is about: the challenges that arise when an infrastructure project stops going according to plan.
Andy spent 12 years at Comcast, most recently as Director of Government and Regulatory Affairs, where he led local government affairs and stakeholder engagement for broadband deployment and expansion across Comcast’s West Metro Denver, mountain, and Boulder corridor service territories.
In that role, Andy managed the full lifecycle of high-visibility network builds — early discussions, franchise negotiations, permitting, and construction — through the moments when things went sideways: contractor conflicts, pole attachment and make-ready hurdles, gas line strikes, landowner disputes, community pushback, and pressure from elected officials and local media. He built and led government relations, stakeholder engagement, and communications playbooks that enabled Comcast to navigate every challenge it faced, working across construction, technical operations, business development, marketing, external communications, and legal to keep projects moving and local relationships strong.
Earlier in his career, Andy spent 16 years in Washington, D.C., including nine years in the U.S. Senate, six of them with the Senate Commerce Committee — giving him a working knowledge of the federal regulatory currents that increasingly shape local broadband and data center fights.
In 2026, he founded Overland Strategies, a Denver-based public affairs firm that helps companies, investors, economic development organizations, and infrastructure developers navigate the complex issues that arise at the intersection of business growth, local government, and community impact. Andy and Overland Strategies also introduced a fractional public affairs leadership model to the Colorado market.
Andy's recent civic service has included the Executive Committee of the Metro Denver Economic Development Corporation, the Board of the Jefferson County Economic Development Corporation, and a past presidency of the Lower Downtown Neighborhood Association (LoDoNA). He’s a graduate of the Denver Metro Chamber Leadership Foundation’s Impact Denver (2014), Leadership Denver (2017), and Leadership Fellows (2024) programs.
Andy received his MBA from the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, and he holds Bachelor of Arts degrees in International Affairs and Political Science from the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Let’s be honest. No broadband build or data center deployment goes exactly to plan. Permits stall. Make-ready drags. A contractor hits the wrong line. A landowner calls the county. Then the mayor. Then the press. What started as a routine hiccup turns into a public problem overnight. At the same time, AI-fueled data center growth has put a spotlight on projects that used to fly under the radar. Communities are asking harder questions. Regulators are watching more closely. Advocacy groups are organized and loud. And thanks to social media, every delay, disruption, or misstep now comes with photos, commentary, and a growing audience. This panel gets real about what actually happens when infrastructure projects go sideways and why critical communications is no longer a “nice to have,” it’s a core execution function. From early permitting through construction to live operations, the ability to communicate clearly, quickly, and credibly can be the difference between a manageable issue and a full-blown reputational mess. We’ll dig into real scenarios, including construction conflicts, community backlash, elected official pressure, major outages, cybersecurity concerns, and environmental events like wildfires. More importantly, we’ll talk about what to do when you’re in it. Because you will be in it. What attendees will learn:
