Hyperoptic_Mark_Bartlett_COO_March_2025
City-focused broadband ISP Hyperoptic, which since 2011 claims to have built an alternative full fibre (FTTP/B) network to reach “more than” 1.73 million UK homes in parts of 64 towns and cities (inc. 340,000 customers), has today announced that they’ve appointed former Openreach (BT) veteran Mark Barlett to be their new Chief Operating Officer (COO).
The operator, which recently suffered another round of redundancies and spoke about having their “target of 2m homes passed well within our sights” (here), is currently in the process of entering the next phase of their growth strategy (we expect to be hearing more about that in the near future) and such things often benefit from new leadership.
NOTE: KKR acquired a majority (75%) equity stake in Hyperoptic during 2019 (here) and the operator, which is home to c. 2,000 staff, has a committed debt and loan facility of c.£1.3bn.
In keeping with all that, Hyperoptic has today announced that Mark Barlett has been appointed to be their new COO. Mark previously spent nearly 5 years working in various Director roles within Cellnex UK and, prior to that, he also spent nearly 7 years working within Openreach, where he helped to direct many of their infrastructure, network / planning and broadband delivery programmes. Not to mention various stints at techUK, Arqiva, BT and the Royal Navy (Engineering Officer).
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CEO and co-founder, Dana Tobak CBE, said:
“With ambitious targets and growth plans for 2025 and beyond, Mark’s impressive track record, knowledge and expertise put him in good stead to challenge the status quo, bolster our growth – especially within the new build market – and ensure we are continuously improving to deliver against our customer promises.”
Mark said he was “delighted to be joining the team at Hyperoptic at such a pivotal stage of its growth” and is “looking forward” to supporting the team on its “transformational journey to become the UK’s most loved and desired broadband provider“.