Profile: Edward Evans

NEW POSITION: Chief executive, TSI Telecommunications Services Inc., Tampa

PREVIOUS POSITION: President, chief operating office, Dobson Communications Corp., Oklahoma City

It seems as if Edward Evans is always on the road.

If he's not flying to distant points as the newly appointed chief executive of TSI Telecommunications Services Inc., he is watching one of his two NASCAR teams race around an oval track.

Evans took over the helm of TSI on Feb. 14 to "provide mission-critical services to wireless providers," he said. Evans will commute along Interstate 4 to Tampa from a home he bought in Orlando a couple of years ago, "only an hour and 10 minutes each way," he said.

Evans has always had ties to the Tampa Bay area. A native of St. Petersburg, he graduated from Lakeview High School in Tampa and attended Hillsborough Community College and the University of South Florida, finishing with an MBA degree from Georgia State University in 1996.

While he was in college, Evans began working in the growing wireless communication industry. He first worked for GTE in Tampa, starting in 1988 as a sales representative, then joined BellSouth as a director two years later.

After earning his master's degree, Evans went to work in 1997 for Dobson Communications. When GTCR Golder Rauner LLC of Chicago bought TSI, it moved Evans into the top role at the company.

Evans said he has been in the telecommunications industry "since its infancy. When we started, we sold wireless phones for $3,500 and air time was $1 a minute. We were just turning on the Tampa system back then.

"I believe in the product," he said. "What we were able to accomplish in the industry has benefited the productivity level of the United States. . . . The ability to communicate when sitting in traffic or away from the office is invaluable."

There are an estimated 100-million-plus wireless subscribers in the United States, Evans said. But the market share pales compared with that in some Scandinavian countries, Evans said.

"We're bumping up against 50 percent," he said, while some Scandinavian countries have 85 percent of the people wireless. "We'll catch up with them," he said. "The European wireless system is probably two to three years ahead of the U.S. market."

TSI, founded in 1987, has about 800 employees, mostly at its Tampa headquarters. The company's chief service is acting as a go-between when a customer of one wireless company places a call that roams onto another company's network. TSI authenticates the call, prices the call for both companies and settles the transaction. TSI handles millions of such transactions a day.

Evans' job involves some overseas travel. In his first month at TSI, he met with customers in China and in Europe for a week each. "I don't mind it at all," he said. "I enjoy the customer contact."

Evans is on the board of directors of the Cellular Telephone and Internet Association in Washington, and of Carolina West, a rural telephone company. He also serves on the board of Junior Achievement of Oklahoma.

But his passion is weekend trips to watch the two NASCAR teams he owns race in the Busch series of Saturday races. One team is the No. 7 car driven by Randy LaJoie. The other is the No. 87 car driven by Joe Nemechek of Lakeland.

"I get to go to about 20 races out of 34 a year," Evans said.

Evans, 41, is married and has two children. He said his family may relocate to the Tampa Bay area, cutting back on at least some of his time on the road.

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