Lightpath’s new CFO is focused on making sure the fiber optic company’s finance team is well-equipped to stay on track for growth as the industry continues to grow.
Rachel Stack, Lightpath’s chief financial officer, said in an interview that the finance team is internally operationally strong and focused on continuing to “grow and develop the talent that we have.” Ta. It’s on the strategic side that the company is looking to expand, and this presents a significant opportunity for Stack in a CFO and leadership role.
“We have great strategic people,” Stack said in an interview. As CFO, it will be Stack’s job to train these new entrants to “think outside the box and more strategically,” as the talent is just beginning their careers.
honeymoon period
Part of the appeal of Lightpath for Stack was the company’s approach to talent. She said Lightpath invests the necessary resources to seek out new graduates and people in the early stages of their careers and train them in the process. It’s also important for incoming CFOs to take the time to understand what new entrants to the field need.
“I spend time in spreadsheets and I spend time working with my team to see if I can explain everything I’ve learned in a 20-year career to someone who graduated from college last year,” she said. Said.
Stack took on the CFO role at Lightpath in August, according to a company press release. Lightpath, the nation’s sixth largest digital infrastructure provider, is a provider of fiber-optic networks for businesses and is co-owned by Altice USA, operator of the Optimum brand, and Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners.
Prior to joining Lightpath, Stack served as CFO for data center company Cologix for four years. Prior to joining Cologix, he held various executive positions at companies including Zayo Group and RBC Capital Markets, and began his career as an analyst at Blackrock, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Stack was attracted to the fiber optic provider for several reasons, she said, including its approach to talent, maintaining work-life balance and the complex challenges of running a publicly traded company. As the next CFO, she said it’s also important to understand how the company works holistically before implementing sweeping changes.
“Let’s go in and listen,” she said of how to effectively approach new CFO and executive roles. “Before you move chairs or make changes, you need to understand where your company is and how everything fits together.”
Another thing a new CFO should do, Stack said, is “ask questions, even if they seem stupid.” As an incoming executive, there will be a “honeymoon period” where you can get an outsider’s eye on the company’s processes, so it’s “time to really get a new perspective on how things are done,” she said.
Changing the CFO’s perspective
As new technologies such as artificial intelligence dictate future changes in the fiber optics space, it is also important to have a solid understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of your company’s fundamentals and finance team. Stack will assume the CFO role as the industry is expected to double in the next few years, growing from $3.2 billion this year to $6.8 billion by 2029, according to a September report from MarketsAndMarketsInc. .
Stack said fiber optic networks are “poised to benefit from the hyperscale and AI revolution.”
“AI is going to be a huge bandwidth accelerator,” she said. “I think we’re in the early stages right now.”
Lightpath itself continues to see steady growth. Altice reported a 1% year-over-year increase in business services and wholesale revenue to approximately $370 million for the quarter ended June 30. The increase was “mainly due to increased revenue in the Lightpath business due to increases in Ethernet and license fee revenue,” the company said in its earnings release.
Enabling the company to continue this growth is a key focus for Mr. Stack as he settles into the CFO role, although the role requires a change in strategy compared to his previous role as CFO. would be.
For example, moving from a private company like Cologix to Lightpath, a subsidiary of a public company, requires a shift in perspective. However, both companies occupy different spaces within the same digital ecosystem as data center and digital infrastructure providers, respectively, but connectivity.
“For data centers, you focus on building where the power is, so people come to you,” she said. “If you’re a fiber provider, it’s your job to access those data centers and really foster the ecosystem that is within those data centers.”
Lightpath also has a wide range of products to juggle. That means “you have to do four or five different sales activities,” she says. As a CFO, “It’s a learning experience just to understand how teams are working to sell to these customers and how they’re actually trying to drive value from each of those products.” Or, in my case, a bit of a learning curve,” she said.
