NEWINGTON, CT (January 27, 2016):  Tom Gallagher, of West Palm Beach, Florida, has been elected as CEO and Secretary of the American Radio Relay League (ARRL), the national association for Amateur Radio in the United States. Gallagher will succeed David Sumner, of Coventry, Connecticut, as the chief executive officer of ARRL, effective April 18. Gallagher was elected by the ARRL Board of Directors in a special session on January 25. He will join the ARRL staff in Newington, Connecticut as CEO-Elect on February 29, and a transition period will follow.

Gallagher joins ARRL following three decades as an international investment banker and financial services executive. His career has included senior leadership positions with JP Morgan Chase & Co and CIBC Oppenheimer & Co in New York, and with Wachovia Capital Markets in Charlotte, North Carolina. He has also served as an adjunct professor at the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and as CEO of the Secondary School Admission Test Board in Princeton, New Jersey. Gallagher has served on boards, both public and non-profit, including the boards of two New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) companies, the National Public Radio (NPR) affiliate in Charlotte, North Carolina (WFAE), the Executive Board of The Penn Fund at the University of Pennsylvania, and The International Center of Photography.

Gallagher graduated magna cum laude with a BA from the University of Pennsylvania, and he holds an MBA from The Wharton School. He is a graduate of The Lawrenceville School, where he held the Nicholas Noyes scholarship. He has been a licensed radio amateur since 1966.

Founded in 1914 by Hartford, Connecticut inventor and industrialist Hiram Percy Maxim, ARRL is the largest Amateur Radio member organization in the world, with over 170,000 members. ARRL celebrated its Centennial in 2014.

“I am excited by the prospects of ARRL’s Second Century, but I am equally mindful of Dave Sumner’s enormous 4-decade contribution to our organization, and of the extraordinary contributions he has made to advancing the art and science of Amateur Radio, to growing our ranks, and to expanding the sheer enjoyment of ham radio around the world,” Gallagher said.

Amateur Radio — also known as ham radio — is a popular service and hobby that allows worldwide communication without the need for existing telecommunications infrastructure. Amateur Radio is frequently used during communications blackouts caused by natural disasters. ARRL has memorandums of understanding with several organizations, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the American Red Cross, the Salvation Army, the National Weather Service (NWS), and many other organizations. There are over 740,000 federally licensed radio amateurs in the United States, an all-time high.

More information on ham radio is available at www.arrl.org/what-is-ham-radio