Board President

Matthew R. Rantanen is the Director of Technology for the Southern California Tribal Chairmen’s Association (SCTCA) and the Tribal Digital Village Initiative for 23 years, designing and deploying networking supporting tribal communities of Southern California.
Currently the Vice President of Tribal Broadband at GoldenStateNet, focusing on Tribal opportunities in the CA SB156: Middle-Mile Broadband Initiative.
Matthew is the co-founder of the Tribal Broadband Bootcamps, performing 3 day broadband networking training events with Native Nation broadband builders throughout N. America.
Matthew, of Finnish, Norwegian and Cree (First Nations) descent, has been described by his peers as a “Cyber Warrior for Tribal Broadband” and is considered an expert on community/Tribal broadband networking. He is an advocate for net-neutrality, broadband for everyone, always looking out for the unserved.
Matthew supports the 25 member tribes of SCTCA with technology development and strategy.
Matthew was appointed Co-Chair of the Technology and Telecom Subcommittee of the National Congress of American Indians in 2013. Working with tribes to draft telecom policy and promote better opportunities for Tribes within the Federal Government. He serves on the Advisory Board for Arizona State University’s, American Indian Policy Institute.
Matthew was named to the FCC Native Nations Broadband Task Force by two consecutive FCC Chairman in 2011, and then reappointed in 2014, serving 2 full-terms. He was also named to the Communications, Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council’s 4(CSRIC4) at the FCC in June 2013.

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