Alaska Communications’ board of directors has appointed Matthew (Matt) McConnell as president and chief executive officer. An accomplished CEO, COO, entrepreneur, community leader, board chairman, independent director and Fortune 50 executive, he comes to the role with more than three decades of experience driving profitable growth in technology companies.
Before taking on the new role at Alaska Communications, he served in various positions in the traditional telecom, cable, cloud, and media industries.
Previously, he served as the CEO of MediaKind, a media technology company; COO and advisor to the board and CEO at Cantaloupe, a global technology leader in self-service commerce; senior vice president and general manager at Comcast NBCUniversal; president and CEO of Troppus Software Corporation, a SaaS start-up providing customer care software services; and senior vice president at Level 3 Communications, now Lumen.
According to the company, McConnell has a successful track record. In his leadership roles, McConnell has built an operationally strong, engaged, global organization of 2,000 employees across 54 countries, outperformed on operating and financial results, established and managed an international division as a B2B provider, launched seven new product lines with growing revenue by 700 percent, and provided a more fantastic than four times return on invested capital in only 18 months.
“Matt knows how to build and operate strong performing, technology organizations, focusing on customer experience, employee engagement and community commitment. The board is confident that Matt’s extensive experience and leadership style will serve our customers, community, and partners well into the future,” said Michael Prior, Chairman of Alaska Communications board of directors.
McConnell said Alaska Communications is in a prime position to capitalize on the broadband opportunity. “The demand for broadband and managed IT services continues to grow,” he said. “Broadband grants are now available to bridge the digital divide. Alaska is critical for our country’s resource development, military defense, arctic research and global logistics, all industries that rely on broadband.”
For its part, Alaska Communications is capitalizing on the fiber broadband opportunity. The service provider currently offers fiber broadband in select neighborhoods in Anchorage, Soldotna and Fairbanks. Eligible customers can get speeds ranging from 250 Mbps to 2.5 Gbps.
McConnell also serves as a board director for Junior Achievement – Rocky Mountain and as an adjunct professor at the University of Denver, where he teaches graduate-level courses in leadership, ethics and strategy. He will join Alaska Communications on December 4, 2023.
Sean Buckley
Sean is responsible for establishing and executing the editorial strategies of Lightwave and Broadband Technology Report across their websites, email newsletters, events, and other information products.