Staff and Leadership

Will Daniel

Founder and Chairman

Often referred to as a cable pioneer, Will Daniel is considered a visionary in the creation and evolution of the Philadelphia cable industry. Mr. Daniel began Wilco Electronic Systems, Inc., an African American private cable company, in May of 1977. Throughout his 40 year career, Mr. Daniel created a company that has become a leader and an anomaly among independent cable operators and is now, one of the few remaining minority-owned cable and telecommunications companies in the Nation.

During the first three years of Wilco’s history, the company concentrated its efforts in the installation and service of Master Antenna Systems, Closed Circuit Television, and Security and Intercom Systems. In 1980, Wilco was granted a franchise by Home Box Office, the nation’s leading pay television service, to market its programming to multi-dwelling unit buildings. This was the first time that such a franchise was granted to a minority-owned firm in the Eastern United States. It was this franchise that opened the door for Wilco’s entry into the cable television industry.

One major milestone in the legacy of Mr. Daniel and for the company, came in 2001 when Wilco became the first sole and exclusive provider of cable television services for the Philadelphia Housing Authority (PHA). This was the first time that a minority-owned firm had the exclusive right to provide services to the entirety of a public housing authority. Wilco soon became a voice and a pillar for minority underserved communities in Philadelphia. Within many City of Philadelphia administrations, Mr. Daniel has extensively worked with and advised Philadelphia City Council on many telecommunications and cable matters throughout the last 40 years.

Under the leadership of Mr. Daniel, Wilco has demonstrated a strong commitment to enhancing the lives of the residents in the communities it serves. The company’s reputation for solid operating performance, innovative and affordable services, personalized customer service, and being a voice within Philadelphia’s minority communities, remains widely acknowledged amongst Philadelphia’s most prominent leaders and throughout the Nation.

Brigitte Daniel

CEO and President

As an award-winning ‘telecom visionary’ and vocal advocate for gender and cultural diversity in the tech industry, Brigitte Daniel is the Executive Vice President of Wilco Electronic Systems, her family’s private cable operation that has specialized in providing affordable technologies to underserved communities as well as platform integration solutions for security access technologies, for over 40 years.

Over the last 13 years, Brigitte has created several substantial private/public partnerships providing innovative solutions to address digital disparities and lack of representation within technology sectors across the Nation, thus positioning Wilco, as a broadband and technology leader. Under Ms. Daniel’s leadership, she has continued the family legacy by pivoting Wilco’s expertise towards the integration of security surveillance and cloud-based door access, property technology (PropTech), IoT( Internet of Things), and smart home automation, platforms, with a focus on urban communities and the creation of workforce pipelines in urban communities.

Driven by her mission to address digital disparities and tech diversity and inclusion inequities, Brigitte has become a national thought leader addressing inclusion inequities within innovation ecosystems across the Nation. As a recent 2019 Mayoral appointed member of the SMARTCityPHL advisory committee and a newly appointed board member of Philadelphia Works Inc., Ms. Daniel provides strategy and vision to both organizations, as the City of Philadelphia implements its various roadmaps to provide smart city solutions and new workforce strategies that are inclusive and complement the Philadelphia’s unique value assets.

She currently is a re-appointed advisor to the FCC’s Federal Advisory Committee on Diversity and Digital Empowerment by FCC Chairman Ajit Pai in 2017, was awarded a 2011 Eisenhower Fellowship where she traveled to India and Sri Lanka examining emerging technologies beneficial to urban low-income communities in the United States and was recognized in 2016 as one of the “Top Women In Technology” according to the Philadelphia Business Journal.

As a frequent speaker nationally on issues related to digital access, smart tech/prop-tech, and inclusive innovation, Brigitte has been featured at TEDX Philadelphia, Philadelphia Magazine’s Think Fest, The Wharton School of Business of the University of Pennsylvania, the SXSW APPENDIX: PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE 12 PROPOSAL FOR SERVICES | © 2020 Wilco, Inc.| CONFIDENTIAL & PROPRIETARY Conferences, and most recently was a key presenter at the unveiling of the City of Philadelphia’s submission of its’ Amazon HQ2 pitch.

Education:

Georgetown University Law Center, J.D
Spelman College, BA