Kellen Green began playing on personal computers at about age 5, bought a used BMW 318i online before he was old enough to drive, and estimates he now spends at least several hours a day on the Internet.


When not busy with homework or football, the 17-year-old junior at University High School enjoys downloading music, building PCs for friends, and attending computer gaming parties where participants bring their own neon-illuminated PCs with water-cooled, performance-tweaked microprocessors.


Kellen also is taking a course at the Spokane Skills Center that provides the technical grounding for eventually becoming a certified communications-network administrator andoh, yeshe serves on the board of directors at OneEighty Networks Inc., a Spokane-based broadband-communications company.


We think that Kellens generation represents heavy-duty users of broadband today, and that his perspective therefore can be valuable to the company, says Greg Green, who is OneEightys chairman and CEO and Kellens father.


Our need is for his knowledge, his ambition, and his generations knowledge of what the Internet can be, Green says, adding that he expects OneEighty Networks to incorporate that feedback into its future products and strategic planning.


For his part, Kellen says hes enjoying the learning experience the board position provides.


Some of the meetings are long, but thats okay, he says.


Based on research done by the companys law firm, Green says he believes that Kellen is one of the youngest corporate board membersif not the youngestin the country.


OneEighty Networks provides broadband Internet, private-line, and Web-hosting services to customers throughout Eastern Washington and North Idaho. It is a small, closely held company, with its four directorsGreg Green, President Chad Skidmore, Spokane entrepreneur Rob Brewster Jr., and Kellen Greenowning 65 percent, 20 percent, 5 percent, and 1 percent of its stock, respectively.


Thus, the company clearly doesnt have the same needs as bigger corporationsFortune 500 public companies, for examplethat have large boards dominated by outside directors and that go to great lengths to bring prestige, valuable relationships, and hard-earned, relevant business savvy to their boards.


A mostly older crowd


At those companies, directors still tend heavily toward the 50-plus age group, with retired executives appearing to be the most sought-after type of director, national studies show. Publicly traded Internet companies generally have younger boards, but still with relatively few directors under age 40, research shows.


Doreen Kelly Ruyak, spokeswoman for the National Association of Corporate Directors, based in Washington, D.C., says that organizations members are mostly between 50 and 75.


We have not seen a drastic change, she says. You hear buzz around the table that there are younger directors, but not a massive movementnothing like (that associated with) the technology bubble before it popped and that market crashed, she says.


While acknowledging that technology companies might find it to their advantage to seek input from younger people who represent users of their products or services, Ruyak says, Normally you would do that in a marketing capacity, not a board capacity. Thats really not the right place for that.


Theres very much a place for that, she adds, on a board of advisers where youre just looking for perspective.


Board members, though, for small companies as well as large ones, have specific oversight and fiduciary responsibilities, and need to have demonstrated characteristics such as accountability, informed judgment, and the financial literacy to detect red flags in a companys dealings, Ruyak says. That does take a little bit of experience and wisdom. It doesnt mean you have to be 50, 60, or 70, she says.


Its difficult to find statistics on how those ages vary for small, private, information-technology companies with few outside directors. At OneEighty Networks, though, the ages are decidedly younger. Greg Green and Skidmoreat just 39 and 33, respectivelywould seem to be young enough to be in close touch with what future users of their companys services might want. They contend, though, that Kellen and his peers use broadband communications routinely in ways they never would have thought of.


For that generation, they say, the Internet clearly is the preferred medium for buying goods, paying bills, and communicating with friends. The younger generation also is more adept and comfortable at working with the technology than their elders.


Kellen is a good example of our future customer, Skidmore says.


Kellen joined One-Eightys board last spring and has participated in two board meetingsthe company currently is holding three board meetings a year, but expects to boost that to four next yearwhile also carrying out various apprentice-type physical tasks in the companys downtown office building, at 118 N. Stevens.


Kellen had worked for a summer in Avista Communications Inc.s Internet and data communication group, managed by Skidmore, before OneEighty Networks was formed from some of Avista Communications assets, so, He knew the network prior to joining the board, which was pretty beneficial, Skidmore says.


A less conventional role


Greg Green says his son is serving on OneEightys board in a limited capacity that doesnt require the business experience and financial expertise expected of many larger companies directors.


When we vote on financial and deal structure, hes not involved in that portion of it. He is required to sit and listen to all that input that goes into financial transactions, but its sort of an internship, he says.


He and Skidmore say, though, that Kellen already has shown his value to OneEighty by recommending a particular hiring that looks to have turned out well in meeting the companys longer-term expertise needs.


Kellen estimates he currently is devoting only about five hours a month to board-related matters, due to a busy school and football schedule, but expects that to increase.


Greg Green says he and Skidmore, who is like an uncle to his son, expect Kellen to go on to college after he graduates from high school and to continue to serve on OneEightys board during that time.


We might even schedule the board meetings around his education to ensure that he can participate, Green says. He says he has no expectation, though, that his son necessarily will want to return to OneEighty after college to join him and Skidmore in operating and growing the company. In fact, he says, he would be just as pleased to see Kellen strike out on his ownperhaps in an entirely different directionand become more successful than his father.


We dont know what he wants to be when he grows up, and he doesnt know what he wants to be, Green says. We just want to be good mentors.


OneEighty Networks is an affiliate of OneEighty Communications, a competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC) that Green founded in 1998. Avista Corp., of Spokane, once held a majority interest in that company, but minority shareholders bought back selected markets and dial-up Internet-access customers last year and changed the companys name back to One-Eighty Communications. OneEighty Networks was formed after OneEighty Communications and acquired ownership of Avistas broadband-data customers in Spokane and Coeur dAlene.


As he does with OneEighty Networks, Green owns a 65 percent interest in OneEighty Communications and is the companys chairman and CEO. That company is based in Billings, Mont., and also has offices in Bozeman, Mont., and Cody, Wyo. As a CLEC, it provides a full array of local, long-distance, and broadband communication services.


It currently brings in revenues of about $600,000 a month, compared with about $100,000 a month at OneEighty Networks, which still is in its formative stages, Green says. The two companies together employ about 60 people, have an estimated $12 million to $13 million in assets, and are growing, he says.


Theyre absolutely doing wonderful. I couldnt be more pleased with either one of them, he adds.


Green says, Were in the process of acquiring additional facilities, having signed a letter of intent to acquire an undisclosed Spokane-area Internet service provider, and are looking to expand OneEighty Networks into the Seattle and Portland markets.