CEOs may be the leaders who provide the vision for the company. But every great company must also have a slew of emerging leaders who work behind the scenes on key projects. These are the risk takers who work drive new products and initiatives that will keep a company on the cutting edge.
Every year, FierceTelecom takes a look at these up-and-coming executives and profiles them for our readers.
Not content with the status quo of the U.S. broadband market, Google Fiber has helped to change the way services are viewed with its deployments of 1 Gbps fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) services in various markets. Joining fellow FierceWireless honoree Craig Barrat is Google's Dennis Kish, who replaced Milo Medin last September to head up Google Fiber (NASDAQ: GOOG).
Google Fiber's expansion continues to influence a number of other telcos to make their own move into the 1 Gbps race, including TDS Telecom. Leading the mainly rural telco's FTTH 1 Gbps initiative into secondary markets like Hollis, New Hampshire and St. Marys, Ga. is Matt Apps, senior manager of Internet product management and development at TDS Telecom.
Another game changing technology in the wireline industry is software-defined networking (SDN). AT&T is keenly taking advantage of SDN with plans to virtualize and control over 75 percent of its network using this new architecture by 2020. Josh Goodell, vice president of network on demand, mobile and business solutions for AT&T, is driving the company's initial deployment of SDN to enable automated service delivery while driving cost out of the business.
But technology and services are just two parts of the new transition service providers are facing. Jennie Chandra, vice president of public policy and strategy at Windstream, is helping the hybrid CLEC and ILEC wade through a series of challenging regulatory hurdles, namely special access and the IP transition.
These are some of the people who are propelling network transitions, launching new service initiatives, and developing network buildout strategies to respond to emerging consumer and business demands. Check out our list of the emerging innovators in wireline. --Sean
| Matt Apps, senior manager of Internet product management and development at TDS Telecom |
| Jim Capuano, SVP and chief of network operations at FirstLight Fiber |
| Jennie Chandra, VP of public policy and strategy for Windstream |
| Matt Erickson, president of Physical Infrastructure at Zayo |
| Josh Goodell, VP of network on demand, mobile and business solutions at AT&T |
| Dennis Kish, VP of Google Fiber |
| Kenny Wyatt, president of business solutions at CenturyLink |