How is FON organized and managed?

FON is being organized as follows. The central headquarters are located in Alcobendas. Alcobendas is a town close to Madrid that is developing so quickly that there’s no building within a km of ours that is older than 10 years. Fon is so far only funded by myself and as of today is 4 months old.

At headquarters, there are 18 of us. We have Juantomas Garcia our CTO; Diego Cabezudo formerly of O2 who heads our Corporate Development; Antonio Fuentes, formerly COO of Jazztel, a company I founded, who oversees the financial, legal and human resources aspects; and…. me as the CEO. We also have two Americans; Eric Napoli, a US trained lawyer and Karissa Ryan, a US trained financial analyst, who give us a better understanding of the American scene. On the Spanish board at FON we have Alvy Ibañez, formerly with me at Ya.com and co-author of the number one blog in Spain, and Jon Berrojalbiz.

Each country in which FON operates will have a locally incorporated subsidiary that is owned mostly by FON but in part owned by the local board and employees. Case in point…the US. In the US, FON has already amassed an amazing board. Led by Ejovi Nuwere, board members currently include Wendy Meltzer, Ethan Zuckerman, Dan Gillmor, Andew Rasiej, Jerry Michalski, Rebecca MacKinnon, David Isen and David Weinberger . This group represents the strongest concentration of internet talent and brilliance that I have ever encountered.

Outside the US we are off to a phenomenal start in France. The organization process has been spearheaded full time by William Quiviger; and Yann Mauchamp acting as our lead Fonero. In addition, Jean Bernard Magescas and Tariq Krim sit on the French board. Jean Bernard is integrally familiar with the municipal WiFi movement in France while Tariq Krim is a remarkable entrepreneur and founder of the portal that has weaned me off My Yahoo after 10 years.

Other countries in which significant development continues to take place are Sweden, led by the remarkable internet entrepreneur Ola Ahlvarsson. Israel led by Jonas Weil. Argentina, where we are working with Mariano Amartino. Mexico with Eduardo Arcos. And Ireland lays claim to one of our most insightful foneros, Antoin Lachtain.

Last but not least we have Japan where we are especially honoured to be working with Joichi Ito. Aside from being an inspiration, Joichi is also a dear friend who has recently recruited a Spaniard, Hector Garcia, a particularly intelligent culture broker, who is very well associated with Spain and Japan formerly of CERN. In the Japanese advisory board we also have Fumi Yamazaki formerly of NTT and Gen Kanai formerly of Sony Corporation.