Zayo Appoints Chris Brown as President and COO to Accelerate Network Growth
Zayo has appointed Chris Brown as its new President and Chief Operating Officer, a strategic move to bolster the company’s operational execution and expansion as demand for high-performance connectivity continues to surge.
Brown brings more than three decades of leadership experience across infrastructure, utilities, telecommunications, and private investment. Prior to joining Zayo, he was Founder and CEO of Brown Equity Group and previously served as CEO of Lubrizol and Berkshire Hathaway Energy Infrastructure Group.
Strategic Significance of the Appointment
Operational Excellence at Scale
Zayo is in the midst of growing its fiber, transport and managed services offerings serving carriers, hyperscalers, data centres and edge networks. Bringing in Brown underscores the company’s focus on scaling operations efficiently, integrating major asset acquisitions, and maintaining disciplined execution.
Integration of Major Fiber Assets
One of Brown’s earliest priorities at Zayo is managing the integration of the company’s acquisition of Crown Castle Fiber Solutions. Brown himself stated his focus will be on “accelerating growth across the business and keeping execution sharp as we integrate Crown Castle’s Fiber Solution Business.”
Bringing Infrastructure & Utilities Expertise to Telecom
Analysts note that Brown’s background in energy and utilities is highly relevant given the similarities between managing large-scale fiber networks and electric/gas infrastructure: reliability, uptime, asset lifecycle, and scalability.
Leadership & Growth Alignment
Steve Smith, CEO of Zayo, remarked that Brown brings “deep operational and commercial expertise … with a proven track record of driving growth and execution across multiple industries.” This signals Zayo’s ambition to combine strategic growth with mature operations.
What It Means for Zayo’s Future
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Enhanced Execution as Demand Grows: With data, cloud, edge and AI workloads surging, Zayo’s network must scale rapidly and reliably. Brown’s hire indicates a push to maintain execution while scaling.
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Sharper Asset Utilization: With older fiber assets, new acquisitions, and expanding route miles, integrating and optimizing these become critical. Brown’s infrastructure-led background is well suited for this.
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Tooling & Operational Discipline: Zayo likely will sharpen its operational systems work-flow, asset management, network analytics, and reliability metrics to support its growth strategy.
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Market Confidence: Appointing a seasoned executive signals maturity to markets, customers and partners helping Zayo position itself as a dependable long-term partner in connectivity.
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Competitive Advantage: With strong leadership, Zayo may better compete in areas such as dark fiber, wavelength services, edge infrastructure, and enterprise/ hyperscaler connectivity by executing more efficiently than peers.
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