Offline - New Edge Networks CEO and President Dan Moffat - Interview

Telecommunications Americas, June, 2003 by Ted McKenna

Attending high school and college in Silicon Valley during the late '60s and early '70s, New Edge Networks CEO and President Dan Moffat got to live in California during an interesting time is U.S. history: race riots, the Vietnam war, the assassinations. Steve Jobs was his age at the next high school over, and other kids at school had fathers who were the founders of Intel and other firms that would someday become legendary.

"I talk to my kids about 1968 and what it was like to be 17 in the Bay Area and be going down the highway and 200 Hell's Angels would go past you--and this was back when they weren't Yuppies," says Moffat, a cofounder of Vancouver, Wash.-based New Edge, which was formed in 1999 and today operates a nationwide ATM network with 600 multi-service platform switches. Moffat says he and his friends in high school and college didn't know how big the industry would get.

"I got into telecom because I'm very interested in how information flow impacts businesses and people," Moffat says. "I'm interested in the social aspects of communications, the idea that when the printing press, for example, became ubiquitous, it really changed society in terms of how fast it could disseminate information."

A surfer since 1965, Moffat also runs Ironmans--the swimming-biking-marathon races for which he trains some 15 to 20 hours a week, including regular 100-mile bike rides.

Do you see parallels between Ironman competitions and the telecom business?

Absolutely. It's an endurance event, so much of it is mental. I think anybody can do it; it's just how strong you are mentally, because that will carry you through. Even the most out-of-shape person has incredible resources in their body. In a business situation, particularly during the last four years where we've been on this rollercoaster, there are two things that really matter: focus and perseverance. It also helps to be in the right space where there's strong demand.

Surfing and telecom might have some parallels in that they both have a lot of terminology that seems difficult to understand or arcane to outsiders.

Yes, they have their whole nacular. It's interesting, though, because, when people starting talking about surfing the Web, I thought, "Hmm, they're 'surfing' the Web."

Do you think that's because a lot of technology came out of California?

I don't know how that originated. If you look at the way that the new chaos theory is playing out, everything is energy and energy moves in waves. Waves take different, multiple forms, be it electromagnetic radio waves or physical waves in the water, so if you carry that analogy a little further, you can use that to talk about business waves and historical waves.

What kind of books do you like to read?

I spend a couple of hundred bucks a month on books. It's usually pretty far ranging. I'm reading a book called The Mind and the Brain, about neuroplasticity and how neurons form memories. It basically says that what they're starting to find is that you do become what you focus on, and there is a lot to this idea of focus and free will and creating your own world through your thoughts.

It's almost Zen-like.

Yeah, it starts to look like Eastern religion. And that's why it's so fascinating to be in our industry, because communications enables a lot of this. We don't know how this incredible pickup of velocity in information flow is going to impact society and business.

RELATED ARTICLE: Dan Moffat

Title: CEO and President, New Edge Networks

Age: 49

Resides: Camas, Wash

Lenth at Current Position: 4 years

Education: B.S. in Finance, California State University, Chico; m.S. in Telecommunications, Golden Gate university; M.B.A., Santa Clara University.