Len Forkas - Renaissance Man (#33) - a podcast by Coe Enterprises

Bio



In addition to his writing and speaking, Len Forkas is the founder and President of Milestone Communications, a Reston, Virginia-based owner and developer of wireless towers in the Mid-Atlantic. Milestone has invested over $50 million in the development of wireless infrastructure in six states, creating thousands of jobs in construction, engineering and manufacturing in the USA.



In 2014 Len published his book What Spins the Wheel: Life and Leadership Lessons from the Race for Hope. Profits from the sale of the book are donated to support Hopecam’s work connecting children with cancer with their friends at school. Over 10,000 copies of the books are in print. 



Len has appeared on CNN Anderson Cooper, Fox and Friends, Wharton Sirius XMRadio and Baltimore/Washington DC affiliates of ABC, FOX and NBC.



Len also serves as Chairman of the Board of Hopecam, the charity he founded in 2003 to use technology to overcome the social isolation of children in treatment for cancer.



Hopecam has connected over 1,800 children with cancer to 35,000 classmates in 47 states. It has formed partnerships with over 50 hospitals. Ninety percent of Hopecam children attend title one schools and 1/2 are treated at St Jude’s hospital. 



Show Notes



Current



Day job- Founder of Milestone Communications- Partners with government entities to build towers on public land to lease to wireless carriers (4:00)Company has facilities from Delaware to FloridaFounded Hopecam due to his son’s leukemia having a video link to his classroom (5:30)Financed 3,000 children’s connectionsChair of Fairfax County Public School Foundation (7:30)Serve 60,000 children a day during the pandemic2,000 homeless children



Origins



Grew up in suburban Cleveland, OH (9:30)Dad was self employed salesman- always his hero (9:45)Mom worked in assisted living community and raised him and his three siblings (10:00)Loved sports and was active as a child growing upWent to Ball State University in Muncie, IN studying landscape architecture (10:45)Joined EDAW, a landscape architecture firm located in Alexandria, VA in 1982 (11:15)Met John Forstman, a developer who influenced him to get into the real estate business (12:10)Attended American University to get an MBA with Real Estate major (12:40)Joined Oxford Development– story about his interview with Bernie Lubcher (worked with Tom Bozzuto, John Slidell, etc.) (13:15)Joined Winchester Homes and learned the land development business (14:50)Worked for Rick DiBella thereJoined South Charles Realty during crisis time (16:00)Began working on the Milestone Community in Germantown, MDJoined ULI in 1991 (16:50)Transition from employee at So

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