Frontier has tapped former Google Fiber and Verizon veteran Chris Levendos as its new executive vice president of field operations, marking the latest member of the search giant’s broadband division to pursue a new endeavor.
Prior to Frontier, Levendos most recently served as the head of Google Fiber’s network deployment and operations organization. Levendos is taking over from John Lass, who plans to retire.
He will report directly to Dan McCarthy, CEO and president of Frontier, and serve as a member of the telco’s senior leadership team.
In his new role at Frontier, Levendos will focus on how to better customer needs by maximizing the effectiveness of Frontier's fiber and copper networks to expand reach and increase speed capabilities.
Levendos has plenty of experience to bring to Frontier’s field operations in 29 states. During his tenure at Google Fiber, he led network planning, expansion, design and operations for FTTH infrastructure. Earlier at Verizon, he served as region president and as vice president in the wireline transformation group.
Prior to coming to Google, Levendos spent 26 years at Verizon, most recently serving as the telco’s region president for its New York City wireline operations. He began his career with Verizon in 1989 and held positions with increasing operational and engineering responsibility.
Given his broad experience in overseeing Verizon’s wireline network infrastructure, Levendos’ appointment comes at a key time for Frontier. Levendos will be able to help Frontier through managing the new network infrastructure, which includes existing Fios networks, in its new California, Texas and Florida markets.
One of his notable tasks during his tenure at Verizon was the massive restoration of Verizon's network infrastructure in lower Manhattan that was destroyed in Superstorm Sandy. His knowledge and expertise was critical to the network upgrade to fiber and the restoration of services in record time.
While gaining Levendos is a win for Frontier, his appointment at Frontier follows what has been a disruptive time at Google Fiber as its parent Alphabet continues to retool the division. Besides Levendos, a number of other high level Google Fiber executives, including CEO Craig Barratt left the division amidst a restructuring effort.