On Jan. 4, Segra announced that Kevin T. Hart has been named the company's Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Hart succeeds outgoing Segra CEO Timothy Biltz and will assume responsibilities immediately.
Acquired by Cox Communications in 2021 (see "Cox Communications expands fiber play with purchase of Segra's commercial enterprise and carrier business"), Segra is a super-regional fiber-based provider serving commercial enterprise and carrier customers, and one of the largest fiber infrastructure providers in the U.S.
Hart brings more than 30 years of telecommunications industry experience to Segra. For the past 11 years, he has served as Cox’s executive vice president, chief product and technology officer and, as noted by Cox, "has delivered over $20 billion in capital programs while nearly doubling the company’s return on invested capital."
Notably under Hart’s direction, Cox launched new products and services including G1GABLAST, the company’s highest-speed Internet service, and a portfolio of commercial products for Cox Business customers.
Hart has also led the Cox Network Transformation 2.0 initiative, through which the company is investing billions to upgrade the broadband infrastructure to support future residential and business applications for Cox customers.
Hart also has specific prior experience in fiber and commercial communications M&A. As Group Vice President and CIO of Level 3, he helped the company acquire and integrate eight companies, quadrupling revenues in a 24-month period. He also served as chief information officer for Clearwire, the first national 4G wireless carrier in the U.S.
“Kevin’s ability to drive revenue growth through innovation and strategic investment, coupled with his technical, operational and transformational leadership expertise and knowledge of enterprise and carrier networks, will be integral to guiding the next phase of growth and market leadership at Segra,” said Jeff Breaux, Segra board chairman and executive vice president of Cox Business.
“As I learned more about Segra through the acquisition process, I was impressed by their strong customer focus and their ability to deliver value with their fiber infrastructure,” said Hart. “I look forward to working with the outstanding employees of Segra to build on their impressive customer focused culture as we grow Segra’s customer base and revenues and develop leading-edge technology capabilities that will advance Segra’s leadership in the marketplace.”
Segra ranks among the largest independent fiber infrastructure bandwidth companies in the Eastern U.S. It owns and operates an advanced fiber infrastructure network throughout nine Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern states. Segra provides Ethernet, MPLS, dark fiber, advanced data center services, IP and managed services, voice and cloud solutions
[This article originally appeared on Lightwave's sister site, Broadband Technology Report.]