Broadband Live

Broadband Breakfast on July 16, 2025 – Making America's Digital Infrastructure Resilient

The problem space encompasses topics spanning cybersecurity, satellite and rocketry, and high-risk threat landscapes like a modern-day geomagnetic storm.

Mahesh Krishnaswamy, Andy Berke, Dan York, Samantha Schartman, Drew Clark

Jul 5, 2025 — 4 min read

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As America’s broadband infrastructure faces growing pressure from cyber threats, geopolitical tensions, and increasingly frequent natural disasters, the need for resilient, future-proof networks has become more critical than ever. In this Broadband Breakfast Live Online event, we’ll dip into the range of issues about which key observers are beginning to raise an alarm and demand greater awareness: Ensuring a resilient and secure national digital infrastructure.

This problem space encompasses topics spanning cybersecurity, satellite and rocketry, and high-risk threat landscapes like a modern-day geomagnetic storm such as The Carrington Event of 1859. Also, save the date for Broadband Breakfast’s in-person Resilient Digital Infrastructure Summit on September 18, 2025. The July 16 BroadbandLive event will bring greater awareness, energy and clarity around the need for resilient digital infrastructure.

Panelists

Mahesh Krishnaswamy, Founder and CEO, Taara
Andy Berke, Former Administrator, USDA's Rural Utilities Service
Dan York, Chief of Staff, Office of the CEO, Internet Society
Samantha Schartman, Director of Philanthropic Programs, Connect Humanity
Drew Clark (moderator), CEO and Publisher, Broadband Breakfast

Panelist Resources

Mahesh Krishnaswamy leads the Taara team in their mission to deliver fast, affordable connectivity to people everywhere using beams of light. Before founding Taara, Mahesh led the Manufacturing and Supply Chain efforts for Project Loon, which used a network of stratospheric balloons to deliver connectivity to rural and remote areas. Prior to joining Alphabet, Mahesh led product teams at Apple and Motorola.

For the last two decades, Andy Berke has led progress at the federal, state, and local levels. In 2022, he became the Administrator of the Rural Utilities Service, the largest funder of telecommunications, water, and electricity in rural America. His work led to the funding of more than $4.5 billion for new high-speed internet projects, and he utilized funding from the Inflation Reduction Act to create two new programs: Empowering Rural America (New ERA) and Powering Affordable Clean Energy (PACE). Together, these initiatives seeded $40 billion in clean energy projects across solar, wind, nuclear, hydro, geothermal, and carbon capture technologies.

For the last 14 years, Dan York has worked with the Internet Society to help bring a world where people everywhere have access to affordable, reliable and resilient Internet and where they have a safe and secure experience online. In recent years he led an effort around understanding low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite systems such as Starlink and wrote about Internet shutdowns and resilience for the Internet Society’s Pulse platform. He serves as a member of the advisory council of the Marconi Society’s Internet Resilience Institute and as a steering committee member for the Coalition on Digital Impact.

Samantha Schartman-Cycyk is a national leader in broadband infrastructure and digital transformation, currently serving as Director of Philanthropic Programs at Connect Humanity. She leads the Appalachia Digital Accelerator, supporting 68 communities across 11 states in securing sustainable broadband investments and advancing economically impactful connectivity strategies. A former NTIA official and Executive Director of the Marconi Society, she has created nationally recognized programs like the Digital Inclusion Leadership Certificate and the National Broadband Mapping Coalition.

Breakfast Media LLC CEO Drew Clark has led the Broadband Breakfast community since 2008. An early proponent of better broadband, better lives, he initially founded the Broadband Census crowdsourcing tool to collect and verify broadband data left unpublished by the Federal Communications Commission. As CEO and Publisher, Clark presides over the leading media community advocating for higher-capacity internet everywhere through topical, timely and intelligent coverage. Clark also served as head of the Partnership for a Connected Illinois, a state broadband initiative.