In July 2014, Joe completed a 7-year stint as President and CEO of MCNC. MCNC operates the North Carolina Research and Education Network (NCREN), which provides broadband connectivity to most Community Anchor Institutions in North Carolina (all of K-20 public education, most research organizations, many non-profit hospitals and public health clinics.) Under Joe’s leadership, MCNC quintupled its revenue $10 Million to $50 Million annually, grew NCREN’s connector community by 700% and now possesses a book value of over one quarter billion dollars.
Also, during Joe’s time at MCNC, the organization completed a $144 million dollar expansion of NCREN, called the Golden LEAF Rural Broadband Initiative (GLRBI). This was funded by a $40 million private fund raising effort and the successful application for two rounds of Broadband Technologies Opportunities Program funding totaling $104 million. This expansion included building over 1800 miles of new fiber optic infrastructure, acquiring 800 miles of fiber optic infrastructure through Indefeasible Right to Use (IRU) agreements and adding these fiber assets to the NCREN network. The result is an NCREN that covers over 80% of North Carolina’s counties.
Joe led the effort to negotiate the fiber leases as the lessee and the lessor and all types of lit service, colocation, above the net services arrangements. MCNC successfully IRU’d to broadband service providers over $25 million of fiber on the GLRBI. Joe and MCNC were recognized as White House Champions of Change in 2012 and Computer World Laureates in 2013 for their efforts.
Freddoso has also served senior executive roles at Cisco, Turner Broadcasting, LLC, Walt Disney World and for several entities in the Olympic movement including as President and CEO of the 1999 Special Olympics World Summer Games, the largest sporting event in the world that year.