Virginia K. Sheffield

President

Virginia K. Sheffield has more than 20 years of private and public sector experience as an economist, administrator and analyst in the telecommunications and utilities industries.

Prior to founding Sheffield Advisors, Ms. Sheffield was Vice President Regulatory for Genuity, a tier-one Internet backbone and e-commerce platform provider.   She is well known for her leadership within the industry on policy issues-especially network interconnection frameworks and is a published author and frequent international speaker. 

At Genuity she oversaw both domestic and international regulatory matters, helping the company implement a two pronged strategy capitalizing on both regulated and unregulated services markets.  She also was instrumental in evaluating alternative domestic interconnection options for Genuity and was  a member of the team that successfully separated it from GTE through an IPO in June 2000. Ms. Sheffield worked for GTE 1986 to 2000, the then largest U.S. independent telecommunications carrier.  She served in many capacities during her career at GTE, including Assistant Vice President Regulatory Policy for both GTE and GTE Internetworking.   

Before joining the private sector, Ms. Sheffield was Director of Telecommunications Policy at the Iowa Commerce Commission, where she lead the state's deregulation of a number of services.  She has also conducted primary research on pricing and demand for gas, electric and telecommunications.   Ms. Sheffield also has first-hand experience with the legislative process.  As Principal Fiscal Analyst for the Iowa General Assembly, she was the recipient of a National Science Foundation - National Conference of State Legislatures research grant to develop a costing model for public school funding.

Ms. Sheffield is a board member of the Afghan-American Chamber of Commerce. She also has been Chairperson of the Michigan State Institute for Public Utilities Executive Committee and Industry Advisory Boards.