Former Interoute chief named CEO at Gigaclear
Appointments

Former Interoute chief named CEO at Gigaclear

Gareth Williams Gigaclear.jpg

Former Interoute CEO Gareth Williams has been named as the new chief executive of UK rural infrastructure provider Gigaclear.

Williams will replace interim chief executive Mike Surrey, who has been in charge at the rural full fibre firm since founder Matthew Hare stepped aside in June 2018. Surrey was formerly COO.

Williams spent 17 years at Interoute, 11 of which were spent as CEO, prior to its $2.3 billion sale to GTT Communications last year. In this stint, he saw Interoute’s revenues grow from €188 million to €710 million, with the company’s network covering 70,000km of lit fibre, 15 data centres and 33 colocation centres by the time it was sold.

Charles McGregor, Independent Chairman of Gigaclear, said:“Gareth has a proven track record having successfully scaled up a large and complex pan-European network infrastructure business in his previous role. I am delighted we have been able to secure someone of his quality and look forward to working closely with him as he guides Gigaclear through the next stage of its development.”

Prior to becoming Interoute CEO, Williams spent five years as president of global sales at the company. His other experience includes a year spent as president and COO at QoS Networks, two years as head of global ISP data sales at Concert, and over 13 years in products, sales and marketing roles at BT.

Williams said: “Gigaclear has established itself as a major player in digital transformation in the UK, carrying out ambitious but vital work in connecting underserved areas of the UK to high speed internet, and I’m pleased to be joining at this exciting time in its evolution.

Gigaclear, which is owned by Infracapital, deploys fibre networks in remote and rural areas of the UK. Set up in 2010 by Hare, the company has now provided full gigabit broadband services to over 65,000 rural homes in the southern half of the UK with a network that reaches more than 200 communities across 20 countries.

Gigaclear also announced the strengthening of its operations team with the appointment of Drew Ritchie as chief operating officer and Nathan Rundle as delivery director. Ritchie joins from Affinity Water Ltd, where he was managing director of wholesale operations, while Rundle joins from BT-owned Openreach, where he was delivery director for the south region.

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