Our Staff


Our Owners

Melannie Jones, CFO & Co-Owner

Melannie’s parents, Tom & Brenda Walton, founded Pend Oreille Valley Networks in 1996.  They were the first local internet provider in the area and under Melannie’s direction the company has grown and expanded into wireless, fiber, business tech and development.  Mel is a passionate kayaker, gardener and all around nature lover.  She is the mother of 2 adult sons and dozens of fur babies.  She lives on beautiful acreage just outside of Usk where she holds wellness and nature retreats.

Paul Ward, COO & Co-Owner

Paul joined POVN in 2015 with a background in systems and network engineering.  Paul has worked tirelessly over the last 3 years to expand the bandwidth and coverage to the rural citizens of our area.  Paul is married to Kari and they have 3 children and live with a farm full of animals just north of Diamond Lake.

 

Our Staff

Jeremy Hansen, Tech & Customer Service Manager

Jeremy has been with POVN since 2016.  He is the voice on the phone when you have a technical or billing problem.  Jeremy has 20 years of customer service and tech support experience.  He is married to Shannon and they have 8 children and 4 co-dependent cats.  In his spare time he is busy carving on leather, pounding out steel and running his homestead in Elk.

 

 

Shannon Hansen, Creative Director

Shannon joined POVN in 2015 as their in-house web designer.  Her role has expanded to developing new businesses from technology trends.  She brings 20 years of experience to her position.  She is married to Jeremy and when she isn’t coding websites, pinning on Pinterest or blogging about tech trends she is busy brewing coffee and herbal concoctions from their Elk homestead.

 

 

Kari Ward, Accounting

Kari joined the POVN family in 2017.  She keeps the rest of the staff in line.  Most days find her hunting down receipts and tracking expenses.  When she isn’t busy bean counting, she is homeschooling and caring for the family farm.  She is married to Paul, our co-owner and COO.

 

 

Tony Jones, Field Technician

Tony came on board in 2016.  He assists Paul with field operations.  He lives in Kingston, ID and is married to Robin.  They have 3 children.

 

 

 

Robin Jones,  Personal Assistant

Robin assists our CFO.  She is married to Tony and lives in Kingston, ID.