Telecom Industry Veteran Paul Merritt Named CEO of Fatbeam

COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho, Dec. 14, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Paul Merritt, previously with Lumen Technologies' ("Lumen") hyperscalers business as its global managing director, has been appointed to lead Fatbeam as its next CEO.

Merritt's appointment reflects Fatbeam's ongoing focus to accelerate growth in Western US markets, as it expands its breadth of fiber-based, business-to-business solutions. This follows the equity investment made by SDC Capital Partners, LLC ("SDC") earlier in 2020 which provided significant capital resources to enable Fatbeam's continued growth.

"Paul brings unmatched passion, industry and local market knowledge and has a proven ability to build, grow high-performing businesses," said Clinton Karcher, Principal at SDC. "Paul joins Fatbeam at an important time in the Company's journey, and will help shape its future as it grows its presence in its markets."

"Fatbeam is a terrific organization, with a great team of people and all the benefits of a long-term investor like SDC," noted Merritt. "I see a tremendous opportunity to build on Fatbeam's track record of performance and innovation, and to leverage and develop the talent and expertise of this team, particularly building on Fatbeam's commitment to serving customers and being a strong, reliable partner to businesses and organizations and communities we serve."

Merritt was most recently with the hyperscalers business segment for Lumen, formerly CenturyLink, where he managed Lumen's strategy for product and solution development, while also leading sales performance. Immediately prior to his role at Lumen, Merritt directed all aspects of daily sales operations for cloud, software, and infrastructure vertical teams at Zayo. Previously, he served as a regional vice president for Comcast Business where he was responsible for all P&L, revenue and operational responsibilities across all lines of business for his markets. Earlier in his career, spanning nearly twenty years in the telecom industry, Merritt held a number of revenue-generating leadership positions at XO Communications, Qwest/CenturyLink, Redapt and Allstream.

Fatbeam co-founders Greg Green and Shawn Swanby will continue their active roles as Board members, sharing their insights and expertise to help shape strategic decisions. Green transitioned from CEO to the Board of Fatbeam earlier this year.

About Fatbeam
Fatbeam is a business-to-business provider of reliable fiber-based network solutions to education, enterprise, healthcare, government and carrier customers across the western US. With over 45,000 fiber miles connecting more than 50 markets across 8 states, Fatbeam's resilient infrastructure is the best choice for customers requiring high bandwidth and speed for their daily operations with options ranging from Dedicated Internet Access (DIA) to high capacity dark fiber infrastructure. For more information about Fatbeam, please visit www.fatbeam.com.

Media Relations Contact :
Chad Biggs
Red Sky
208.921.8270
[email protected]

SOURCE Fatbeam