Meet United States’s 101 Top Founders in the Telecommunications Space

David J. Grain

Founder and CEO of Grain Management

David J. Grain is Founder and Managing Partner of Grain Management, LLC. He is a proven operations executive, entrepreneur and investor with superior financial and leadership skills. David has extensive experience managing large and small businesses, turning around troubled companies, and raising and managing investor capital. During his career, he has measurably created billions of dollars in shareholder value. Mr. Grain currently manages the private equity firm he founded, Grain Management, LLC. Grain Management makes investments in the wireless communications sector including towers, spectrum and backhaul for both commercial and government systems. Grain Management’s flagship fund, the Grain Infrastructure Fund, manages capital on behalf of institutional investors including academic endowments and foundations, and invests in infrastructure projects throughout North America. Mr. Grain founded and was CEO of Grain Communications Group, Inc. (GCGI), a venture capital backed company with a core focus on acquiring, building, owning and operating wireless communications tower sites specifically developed for federal and state government wireless systems throughout the United States. GCGI owned towers in 22 states hosting a variety of government and commercial customers including the United States Coast Guard, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Federal Aviation Administration, the Internal Revenue Service, the Drug Enforcement Agency, the United States Department of Agriculture, and many state entities and commercial wireless carriers. GCGI was acquired by Grain Infrastructure Fund, L.P. From 2002 to 2006 Mr. Grain served as President of Global Signal Inc. (formerly NYSE listed GSL). As a skilled operations and financial executive, Mr. Grain was hired by private equity investors to lead Pinnacle Towers from bankruptcy through its successful operational turnaround. In June 2004, Pinnacle Towers was renamed Global Signal and was listed on the New York Stock Exchange through an Initial Public Offering. Mr. Grain grew Global Signal into one of the largest independent wireless communications tower companies in North America with a leading presence in the Southeastern United States. Under Mr. Grain’s leadership, Global Signal grew its portfolio from approximately 2,000 to over 11,000 communication sites in all 50 states, Canada and the United Kingdom. This growth was accomplished through numerous acquisitions, including the $1.2 billion acquisition of 6,600 wireless communication towers and related assets from Sprint Corporation. In 2006 Crown Castle International (NYSE – CCI) agreed to acquire Global Signal for $5.7 billion. The sale provided GSL’s private equity investors with a return of 15 times their original investment and IPO investors with a 3.5 times return on their investment. Prior to joining Global Signal, Mr. Grain served as Senior Vice President of AT&T Broadband’s New England Region, the third-largest cable television cluster in the United States at the time with revenues of over $1.5 billion, over 2 million cable television subscribers and a workforce of more than 6,000. AT&T Broadband was sold to Comcast Corporation in 2002. During his tenure at AT&T, Mr. Grain was selected by the Boston Business Journal as one of Boston’s Top 40 Leaders under 40 years old. In May of 2002, Mr. Grain also received one of the Ten Outstanding Young Leaders awards (TOYL) from the Boston Jaycees. Among his many civic activities while in New England, Mr. Grain was named by the Treasurer of Massachusetts to the State’s Pension Reserves Investment Management (PRIM) Board overseeing the State’s $40 billion employee pension fund. Mr. Grain was subsequently named to the PRIM Investment Committee where he served as Chairman. Mr. Grain spent more than a decade in the financial services industry and was an Executive Director in the High Yield Finance Department at Morgan Stanley in New York where he focused primarily on telecommunications, media and technology companies. As an active participant in national civic affairs, President Barack Obama appointed Mr. Grain to the National Infrastructure Advisory Council (NIAC) in July 2011. The NIAC provides the President through the Secretary of Homeland Security with advice on the security of the critical infrastructure sectors and their information systems. In September of 2009, Florida’s Governor Charlie Crist appointed Mr. Grain to the State Board of Administration’s (SBA) Investment Advisory Council where he serves as Chairman. The Florida SBA has oversight over how the State Retirement System Funds, Tobacco Settlement Funds and Hurricane Funds (collectively over $160 billion) are invested. In March of 2006, the Howard University Club of Southwest Florida honored Mr. Grain for his Outstanding Contribution to the Youth of Sarasota. The Club recognized Mr. Grain for his creation and funding of the Grain Fellows Program, which focuses on increasing the matriculation of African American and Hispanic high school students into top rated undergraduate institutions. Since 2004, The Grain Fellows program has assisted over 150 students in entering undergraduate school through SAT preparation, etiquette instruction, college tour trips and assistance with college application fees and financial aid negotiation. Mr. Grain is a member of the Board of Directors of Southern Company (NYSE – SO). He is also an active member of the World President’s Organization (WPO), Business Executives for National Security (BENS), is a founding director of Gateway Bank of Southwest Florida in Sarasota, Florida, and was a member of the National Finance Committee of Obama for America. In 2005, Mr. Grain was selected by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to participate in the U.S. Joint Civilian Orientation Conference-69 (JCOC-69). He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the College of the Holy Cross in 1984 and is a member of the College’s Board of Trustees. He also earned a Masters of Business Administration degree from the Amos Tuck School of Business Administration at Dartmouth College in 1989 and has served as a member of the MBA Advisory Board.

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About Gateway Bank FSB, Grain Management, Grain Management: Grain Management is a private equity firm focused on investments in the communications sector.

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