4 minute read
Mark Shantla
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1965–2022 • CATEGORY
BUSINESS • RESIDING
SIOUX FALLS, SD • NOMINATED BY
VERNON BROWN Before South Dakota was a state, telephones connected us. By the 1900s, over 400 community telephone companies dotted the state. In the early 70s, Mark Shlanta moved to Brookings, SD with his parents, Steve and Gail, and sisters Kimberly and Katie. Most homes in South Dakota had access to phones with cords that connected them to a complicated network of copper stretching from home to home and city to city. Mark knew none of this. He was just happy his mom could arrange scout meetings, organize events at church, and get the news she needed to keep him active in the Brooking Swim Club and proud that his father could run his insurance business with the phone that rang in his home office.
In the early 1980’s, single strands of copper wire still crisscrossed the state atop poles along dirt roads at the same time that cordless home phones were gaining popularity. Mark’s family moved to Sioux Falls where he attended Lincoln High School. He became a part of the community, participating in cheerleading and the Sioux Falls Snowfox Swim Team.
When Mark started his career in telecommunications in the 1990s, the industry was at the beginning of a new era. Home computers were just beginning to connect to the internet, and mobile phones were ready to explode onto the scene. Mark earned a master’s degree from the University of Missouri Rolla in mechanical engineering and engineering management, and accepted a position with Contel, a telephone company in Missouri. Mark was charged with expanding and modernizing their network. He met and married his wife, Peggy, and began his family which grew to include four sons: Michael, Karl, Joseph, and Scott.
In 1998, Mark moved home to South Dakota to work for a regional fiber optic startup, SDN Communications. Created and owned by 17 independent South Dakota telephone companies, SDN’s mission was to keep the state on the cutting edge of technology by providing a shared fiber optic infrastructure. Today, the member/ owner companies take fiber into farthest corners of the state of South Dakota touching nearly 80% of the state’s geography.
Mark’s 23 years at SDN, 21 years as CEO, changed the technology and communications trajectory of South Dakota. SDN worked with the Janklow administration to connect the schools and universities with a fiber optic network, opening schools to new technology and collaboration opportunities. He expanded the fiber optic network to 50,000 miles in South Dakota and surrounding states improving communications and connectivity for mobile wireless, healthcare systems, and state and county governments. With an eye to the future, SDN built a data center and started providing cybersecurity services. And in 2020, SDN began a public-private federal project to improve internet access and cellular coverage in the rugged terrain of the Black Hills. Mark’s work in expanding broadband and cybersecurity services garnered national attention. He served as an expert witness for several U.S. Congressional committees. In 2015, an international trade magazine named him a Progressive Rural Network Evolutionary. Much of what SDN achieved under Mark’s leadership is invisible to the average citizen, but it became the backbone of daily communication in South Dakota.
Inspired by the Eagle Scout pledge Mark took as a teenager, he strived to make his influence count in his community and through his contacts with other people. He believed it was his duty to find ways to serve his community. Mark was a longtime classroom volunteer for Junior Achievement. He was a dedicated Boy Scout leader, helping guide almost 50 boys to their Eagle Scout award, including all four of his sons. And in 2021, Mark was named “Friend of the Festival” by the Sioux Falls Festival of Bands.
He served on multiple nonprofit boards whose missions he believed would make the community better for all. Mark led the Board of Directors for Educational Telecommunications for South Dakota Public Broadcasting, launched Foundation Park through Forward Sioux Falls, served on the Bishop O’Gorman school board, and helped anticipate and implement new technology as part of Avera Health’s board.
Mark led by example. His legacy of vision, community involvement, and love of work and learning brought an entire region together, created jobs and opportunities across many communities,
instilled a code of honor into a whole generation of young men, and laid a foundation for personal and community growth that sparked ripples that will be felt for generations.
