Fiber infrastructure provider Segra revamped its executive leadership team following its acquisition by Cox Communications last month, adding a new CTO, COO, CFO and chief legal and people officers to its ranks.
John Nee, Segra’s CMO, told Fierce the CTO and chief legal officer (CLO) roles are new positions while the COO, CFO and chief people officer (CPO) appointments backfilled existing slots.
“Although now owned by Cox, the Segra brand will continue to operate as a stand-alone business within the Cox family of companies,” Nee said. “These updates of the executive leadership team are to sustain and accelerate continued growth of Segra.”
The company went with an internal hire for the CTO role, promoting its Vice President of Network Operations and Engineering Scott Wallhermfechtel to the post. Wallhermfechtel has been with Segra since 2019, and previously held executive positions at Lumos Networks and AboveNet Communications.
Likewise it sourced new COO Dan Watts from within, raising him from his previous position as VP of product and business development. Watts takes over the role from Jason Campbell, who held the position since mid-2020.
The CFO, CLO and CPO roles are all being filled by former Cox executives. Tim Montz, Cox’s former VP of finance, will replace Peter Zarella as CFO. Vonya Alleyne, previously VP of people solutions at Cox, will take over for Tanya Clark Robinson as CPO. And Robin Dunson joined as CLO from her role as AVP and associate general counsel for commercial at Cox Enterprises.
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Segra operates a fiber network of more than 30,000 route miles which connects 10,400 locations and nine data centers across Pennsylvania, Ohio, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, and North and South Carolina. It provides Ethernet, MPLS, dark fiber, advanced data center services, IP and managed services, and voice and cloud solutions.
Cox Communications announced a deal to buy Segra’s enterprise and carrier business in April and closed the transaction in the beginning of October. The terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Cox indicated the investment was one of the largest in its history. Bloomberg sources pegged the value at around $3 billion.
Mark Greatrex, Cox Communications’ incoming president, said in a statement announcing the deal’s close "an expanded geographical presence, greater network capacity and more services will be an immediate benefit for customers of both companies and will better enable us to meet the significant demand for our solutions."