Brian Pitkin

Brian Pitkin is a Senior Managing Director in FTI Consulting’s Telecom, Media & Technology (“TMT”) practice and Co-leader of the TMT Dispute Advisory group providing expert testimony on telecommunications and transactions. Mr. Pitkin’s telecommunications expertise is founded on decades of experience serving as an industry executive and leading engagements in the areas of business strategy, transactions and transformation.

Mr. Pitkin works extensively on matters across the TMT industries, including telecommunications and integrated communications platforms, media content, distribution and transportation systems. His telecommunications experience spans wireline (copper, coaxial, fiber, hybrid) and wireless (fixed, mobile) operations. Whether in the context of disputes or strategy, he focuses on assisting clients in addressing risk and uncertainty — financial, legal, operational and regulatory. He uses data-driven analytics and geospatial modeling, combined with industry insight on issues ranging from competition, compliance, disputes, negotiations, performance and synergies.

Mr. Pitkin leads FTI Consulting’s pre-securitization planning and valuation work, leveraging a team of data analysts, economists, engineers, financial analysts, geospatial analysts and statisticians to understand the competitive and sociodemographic dynamics impacting market sizing, fair-share/penetration and performance. He also oversees the Agreed-Upon Procedures, including backup manager fee assessment, and serves as the team’s primary telecommunications industry cold backup manager, participating in quarterly and annual meetings to evaluate changes in the securitization over time.

In the telecommunications disputes arena, Mr. Pitkin has specific expertise in compliance and investigations, contract terms and conditions, cost-of-service and cost-based pricing in multiproduct firms, as well as damages, fraud, industry practices, intercarrier compensation, interconnection, modeling methodologies, policy, taxes and surcharges and valuation. Additionally, Mr. Pitkin has assisted companies from across the globe understand, navigate and shape changes in regulatory regimes and associated structures. During his 25 years as a telecommunications expert witness, Mr. Pitkin has testified in more than 70 proceedings, including in U.S. federal court, arbitrations, the Federal Communications Commission and more than 25 states’ public utility commissions.

Prior to joining FTI Consulting, Mr. Pitkin worked as a management consultant focused on acquisitions, intercarrier relations and strategic initiatives. In industry, he served as Senior Vice President of WorldNet Telecommunications, Inc., where he led the business analysis, finance, intercarrier relations, marketing, product development, regulatory and sales departments.

Relevant Experience:

• Led the valuation and management fee assessment for MetroNet and Goldman Sachs in conjunction with the first fiber-to-the-premise (“FTTP”) securitization; participated in lender and rating agency calls to explain the industry, competitive threats and impacts on both valuation and management fees
• Assessed the level of competition for fiber-based services in Puerto Rico as part of an antitrust review by the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) and Department of Justice (“DOJ”); performed field inspections and developed geospatial models to illustrate and quantify the number of fiber-based competitors across the island
• Testified on damages in a jury trial related to a breach of contract for dark fiber assets; involved an analysis of the potential business opportunities, including market sizing, fair share, wallet share, revenues and profits, made available from the issue route
• Testified in a qui tam action on issues related to industry practices in relation to both liability and damages in a jury trial related to allegations of fraud in the billing and collection of telecommunications surcharges
• Performed data analytics on large, complex datasets to assess call flows across the call detail records (“CDRs”) of multiple providers to create a complete picture of traffic routing over both traditional time division multiplexing (“TDM”) and internet protocol (“IP”) networks in order to assess the correct amount of intercarrier compensation between telecommunications companies
• Assisted with understanding and responding to a Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) Office of Investigator General (“OIG”) investigation into improper claims from the Affordable Connectivity Program (formerly the Emergency Broadband Benefit Program) based on applicable eligibility criteria