Dish Network Chairman Charlie Ergen has generated a notable amount of attention as Dish competes against Japan's SoftBank for control of Sprint Nextel, the nation's third largest wireless carrier. However, Ergen's right hand man in wireless is Tom Cullen, a Dish EVP who heads up corporate development. According to a detailed Reuters profile on the executive, Cullen has emerged as the primary driver of Ergen's wireless strategy. "He's the one who's certainly spearheaded this effort," a source told Reuters. According to the profile, Cullen joined Dish in 2007 and in 2011 he moved to Washington, D.C., to help shepherd Dish's spectrum purchases through the FCC. Now Cullen is working to consummate Dish's proposed takeover of Sprint. If the acquisition is successful, Cullen would likely head up the merger of Dish's wireless spectrum and business aspirations with Sprint's CDMA and LTE networks. Interestingly, Cullen has little direct experience in running wireless networks, but he has worked at cable company Charter Communications and has deep knowledge of the telecommunications space. Article