Yahoo is expected to name its two new board members by the end of the week. What’s interesting is that one may come from the wireless industry—John Chapple, the Chairman and CEO of Nextel Partners. My colleague Joe Weisenthal at paidcontent.org reports today that the new board seats are part of the Yahoo’s settlement with Carl Icahn, which required the company to expand its board to 11, and let Icahn and two of his allies be appointed. Kara Swisher at AllThingsD reported earlier today that Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) was honing in on Frank Biondi and ex ad exec Edward Meyer. And the other one, WSJ is now likely to be John Chapple. Even though Weisenthal calls Chapple “far from the most exciting or pivotal aspect of this story,” a lot of you may know him well.

For sure, he’s s an interesting candidate. I’ve known Chapple for a few years, mostly from covering Nextel Partners up until it was bought by Sprint (NYSE: S) Nextel in 2005. As some of you may know, Nextel Partners was an affiliate of Nextel Communications and was responsible for building and operating rural networks under the Nextel brand. So, when Sprint bought Nextel Communications, it triggered a clause with Nextel Partners, saying Sprint must buy the affiliate—it was the price that was up for debate. In the weeks leading up to Sprint’s purchase, Chapple fought like a dog for what he thought was right for shareholders. It was a fairly bitter public dispute, which manifested itself in lawsuits and back-and-forth SEC filings. In the end, I think shareholders were rightfully happy. Sprint paid $6.5 billion for the stake it didn’t already own (a total value of $10 billion) for the network and its 1.9 million subscribers. At the time, it represented an 8 percent premium over the stock price. Prior to Nextel Partners, Chapple interestingly ran Vancouver, BC’s national basketball and hockey franchises. And, before that, he left the cable industry to work at McCaw Cellular (which then became AT&T (NYSE: T) Wireless). These days, you can find Chapple flying around the country, looking for companies to invest in through his private fund called Hawkeye Investments.