MCLEAN, Va., April 06, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — GTT Communications, Inc., a leading global cloud networking provider to multinational clients, has announced the selection of directors that will be appointed to GTT’s Board of Directors upon emergence from chapter 11. The new chairman of the board will be Anthony Abate, and the named directors will be Sherman Edmiston, Jon Lin, Adam Malin, Ernest Ortega, James Parker, and Wayne Rehberger. The new board of directors will be formally constituted and appointed upon GTT’s and its debtor-subsidiaries’ emergence from their prepackaged chapter 11 cases, which is expected to occur within the next several months after certain required regulatory approvals have been obtained. The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York approved GTT’s prepackaged plan of reorganization on December 16, 2021.
The new board will bring substantial knowledge of the telecommunications industry and corporate finance, coupled with seasoned governance experience, in support of the Company’s business transformation and growth phase of its multi-year strategy.
Anthony “Tony” Abate, who will be the new chairman of the board of reorganized GTT, currently serves as a director of GTT and a member of GTT’s Strategic Planning Committee. Mr. Abate also currently is the chairman of the board of directors of Southeastern Grocers and director and Audit Committee chair of Denbury, Inc. Previously, he served as an independent director of TOPS and Broadview Networks, after each emerged from bankruptcy. He also served as an independent director for Looking Glass Networks and Cbeyond Communications. In addition to his board activity, Mr. Abate spent the past 16 years in operating roles, most recently as chief operating officer and chief financial officer of Echo360, Inc. Mr. Abate also spent over a decade as an investor at Battery Ventures and Whitney & Co., serving on the board of several private equity backed businesses, and worked as a consultant at McKinsey & Co., where he advised several leading publicly traded companies on business performance improvement and new market expansion.
Sherman Edmiston III currently serves as a director of GTT and a member of GTT’s Strategic Planning Committee. Since August 2016, Mr. Edmiston has served as a managing member of HI CapM Advisors. He also currently serves as a director of Arko Corp., Key Energy Services, Inc., Real Alloy, and Riverbed Technology, Inc. Mr. Edmiston previously has served as a director of Arch Resources, Centric Brands, Inc., IPC Systems, Inc., Mallinckrodt SpecGX., and HCR ManorCare Inc.
Jon Lin serves as the executive vice president and general manager at Equinix, responsible for Equinix’s Data Center Services business. Mr. Lin has been with Equinix for more than 13 years, and has held senior leadership positions in strategy, product, engineering, sales engineering, and professional services throughout his career. Prior to Equinix, Mr. Lin held leadership roles at Tata Communications and UUNET/Verizon.
Ernest “Ernie” Ortega currently serves as CEO of GTT and will continue on in this role. Mr. Ortega brings over 30 years of experience in the telecommunications industry with a strong record of delivering revenue growth at major companies. He has held various C-level roles with leading organizations with responsibility for $400 million to $1.7 billion in revenue. Prior to joining GTT in 2019, Mr. Ortega was CEO of Towerstream. He was also chief revenue officer at Colt Technology Services. Before joining Colt, Mr. Ortega was chief revenue officer at Cogent, and prior to that, he spent 14 years at XO Communications in leadership positions, including executive vice president of sales and marketing.
James Parker is CEO and member of the board of directors for Tangoe and has two decades of leadership experience in enterprise software, cloud, and telecom. Prior to joining Tangoe’s leadership team, he was CEO and executive director for Masergy, a leading software-defined global network company. Before joining Masergy, Mr. Parker served as chief customer officer for Tata Communications. Earlier in his career, Mr. Parker held senior leadership roles with CenturyLink and Microsoft.
Wayne Rehberger served as the senior vice president and CFO of Engility from 2015 until his retirement in 2019. Mr. Rehberger was also the CFO at TASC, from 2010 to its subsequent merger with Engility in 2015. Prior to his CFO roles in the professional services industry, Mr. Rehberger served as the COO of XO Communications. Before taking on the role of COO in 2004, Mr. Rehberger also served as XO’s CFO for more than four years. Prior to that, Mr. Rehberger was affiliated with MCI Communications, where he held several broad financial roles. Mr. Rehberger also has served as a director on several public and private boards. He most recently was a director of QTS Realty Trust and, from 2020 to 2021, served on the board of Fusion Connect. Mr. Rehberger currently serves on the board of Abt Associates as a member of both the Audit and Compensation committees. He is also a member of the advisory boards of SAP National Security Services, a subsidiary of SAP, and Pixelligent, an international nano-technology company.
Adam Malin is a partner and senior member of the investment team at Anchorage Capital Group. Mr. Malin has led investments for the firm for over 10 years in the technology and telecommunications sectors. Prior to joining Anchorage in 2009, he was an analyst in the financial restructuring group with Goldman Sachs in New York, where he focused on advisory and financings for companies across a variety of industries. Mr. Malin has served as a board observer for several companies, including eir, a large fixed and mobile communications provider in Ireland, and SentinelOne, a cyber-security company.
Additional information regarding GTT’s reorganization, including court filings and additional information regarding the individuals selected to serve on the board of directors of reorganized GTT, can be accessed free of charge by visiting GTT’s restructuring website at https://cases.primeclerk.com/GTT or for a fee via PACER at https://www.pacer.gov.
About GTT
GTT provides secure global connectivity, improving network performance and agility for your people, places, applications and clouds. We operate a global Tier 1 internet network and provide a comprehensive suite of cloud networking and managed solutions that utilize advanced software-defined networking and security technologies. We serve thousands of businesses with a portfolio that includes SD-WAN and other WAN services, internet, security and voice services. Our customers benefit from a customer-first service experience underpinned by our commitment to operational excellence. For more information on GTT, please visit www.gtt.net.
