Jim Ross | Founder & Principal Officer

Jim Ross | Founder & Principal Officer

Jim brings over 25 years of telecommunications, wireless and real estate experience to Hollenbach, most recently serving as Chief Development Officer and Corporate Secretary of Grupo TorreSur (GTS), a company Jim co-founded in 2010. Backed by Providence Equity Partners, GTS was formed to aggregate the preeminent portfolio of wireless telecommunications towers in Latin America. With over 6,000 towers concentrated in the largest population centers in Brazil, GTS is now the largest independent tower operator in the Latin America.

Prior to joining Grupo TorreSur, Jim served as the President and Chief Development Officer of Optasite, Inc. Optasite was sold in September 2008 to SBA Communications, one of the United States’ most prestigious publicly traded tower aggregators. Jim Joined Optasite in 2003, serving as its President and Chief Operating Officer until January, 2006 when he was appointed Chief Development Officer. While at Optasite, Jim served on the Board of Directors of Optasite, on the Board of Optasite’s joint venture with Trillion Partners, Optasite-Trillion, LLC, and on the Board of Directors of the Concho Cellular One Telephone Company. He joined Optasite from Concourse Communications Group, LLC, where he was a founder and President.

At Concourse, Jim drove the Company’s new business growth, helping to make Concourse the leading developer and operator of in-building wireless Distributed Antenna Systems (DAS) in the nation’s largest transportation venues, including New York (LaGuardia, Kennedy and Newark Airports, the Lincoln and Holland Tunnels, the New York/New Jersey Port Authority Bus Terminal and PATH train stations), as well as international airports in Detroit, Minneapolis, Pittsburgh and Toronto. Prior to building Concourse, Jim co-founded National Telecommunications Advisors, LLC, New York Telecom Partners, LLC and Wireless Acquisitions, Inc., all companies focused on the successful development of wireless infrastructure in various parts of the nation.

Jim entered the telecommunications field as an offshoot of his commercial real estate appraisal practice, New England Valuation Advisors where he was a principal partner. At NEVA, Jim valued complex and special-use commercial real estate properties including golf courses, marinas, continuing care retirement communities, historic New England mill buildings, rights of way and all classes of commercial and industrial buildings and new commercial and residential real estate development projects throughout the northeast. NEVA’s principal clients included major commercial lenders, stage agencies and authorities and local municipalities.

Jim currently serves on the Board of Trustees at Springfield College where he serves as Vice Chair and formerly served on the School’s Executive Committee and as Chair of the Institutional Advancement Committee.  Jim is also Treasurer, Executive Committee member and Trustee of the Willie Ross School for the Deaf in Longmeadow, MA and is a Corporator of Monson Savings Bank. In 2017, Jim was appointed by Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker to serve on the Massachusetts Department of Transportation’s Public Private Partnership (“P3”) Infrastructure Oversight Commission. Previously Jim served on the Advisory Board of the University Without Walls at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, on the Board of Directors of the YMCA of Greater Springfield and as a Trustee of Daniel Webster College in Nashua, NH. Jim holds a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Over 25 years of telecommunications and real estate success contribute to the firm’s suite of C-Level capabilities