Former BT Group CEO and Salesforce president Gavin Patterson and Derek McManus, who was previously chief operating officer at Telefonica UK for more than a decade, have both joined the X3T board. Thomas P O’Neill, founder and chief executive of O’Neill and Associates, a US-based public relations and government affairs consulting firm, has also been appointed to the board.
Patterson brings a wealth of experience in UK fibre market as well as the strategy and implementation of global leading enterprise software solutions.
Patterson said, "The UK and European fibre markets have become a highly competitive landscape. While constructing new fibre infrastructure is a critical first step, the key to achieving ubiquitous high-speed connectivity will be to empower network operators and service providers to work together to scale customer connections.
"X3T’s recent merger with industry leader, Strategic Imperatives, creates an exciting opportunity to establish Strategic Imperatives' Fibre Café platform as the number one unified interface to the fibre ecosystem, and further expand its industry leading billing platform, Elevate. The telecoms industry has been operating with siloed infrastructure and legacy technologies for too long, and the joint forces of X3T and Strategic Imperatives is demonstrating how software can solve some of the industry’s biggest challenges and unlock competitive advantage."
As an operating partner at one of X3T’s investors, Asterion Industrial Partners, McManus brings almost 40 years of telecom experience to the role.
McManus said, "European fibre rollouts are at a critical moment as network infrastructure expands at a rapid pace thanks to commercial investment and Government incentives. To make this investment in fibre pay off, it’s imperative that solutions are in place to maximise the utilisation of these state-of-the art networks, and that means finding ways to improve network operators' ability to integrate with service providers at scale to drive end-customer take-up. X3T and Strategic Imperatives have both progressed to be the industry leaders, innovating with software that supports provisioning, connectivity and monetisation, and I’m delighted to have the opportunity to support their ambitious growth plans at this exciting juncture."
A former state legislator and Lieutenant Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, O’Neill brings five decades of leadership experience working across the public and private sectors.
O’Neill said, "Europe has raced ahead of the United States in delivering future-proofed open-access telecom networks, and as X3T and Strategic Imperatives start to bring their expertise to global markets, such as America, I'm looking forward to helping the team to seize these opportunities."
X3T chair David McCourt, who is also founder and chairman of Granahan McCourt Capital, said, "The appointment of Gavin, Derek and Tom further demonstrates our ambition and commitment to deliver for our loyal and growing customer base. It’s hard to find so much telecom, software, regulatory and operating experience in three people, and we are very fortunate to have the opportunity to welcome them to our team as we accelerate our investment and rollout of industry leading solutions to improve the fibre ecosystem."