Heather Burnett Gold

Vice President External Affairs
Mears Group, Inc.

Heather Burnett Gold, vice president, external affairs for the Mears Group, Broadband Division, is responsible for raising the division’s profile throughout the industry. including to key public stakeholders. Prior to joining the Mears Group, Gold served as the CEO of HBG Strategies, a consultancy engaged in broadband education and marketing targeted at enabling fiber deployment among underserved communities.

A 30-year plus industry veteran, Gold has also served as the president/CEO of the Fiber Broadband Association, where she led the association’s public policy efforts and its rebranding. Prior to that, she was the senior vice president of external affairs and access management for XO Communications.

Gold holds B.A. (magna cum laude) and M.A. degrees in economics from Tufts University and an MBA in finance and marketing from Washington University in St. Louis. She has also completed the General Management Program of the Harvard Business School. She was honored by the Washington Business Journal as one of its 2010 Women Who Mean Business and was recognized by Fierce Telecom as one of its Women in Wireline for 2013.