Member Article

Voneus names David Smyth as new CFO

Voneus, the rural community broadband specialist, today announced the appointment of David Smyth as Chief Financial Officer. Smyth will oversee Voneus’ continued strong financial performance, as the company steps up its efforts to upgrade its customers to gigabit-capable broadband and expand into new hard-to-reach areas across the UK.

Smyth joins Voneus with a wealth of valuable experience from telecom companies, most recently as CFO of Gigaclear, the full-fibre rural broadband operator, where he led the Finance, HR, Strategy, Legal, Facilities and PMO teams and facilitated a near doubling in size of the company.

Prior to Gigaclear, Smyth sat on the Board of a UK-listed software business and a high growth NASDAQ-listed broadband company operating throughout Russia. This followed a hugely successful 12-year period as Strategy and IR Director at Orange, the mobile operator, which he joined two years before it launched service, built and ultimately helped sell to France Telecom for £25bn.

“I am excited to be joining Voneus, whose mission to level up rural and hard-to-reach communities is close to my heart. No family, individual or business should be disadvantaged in Britain today because of poor broadband, no matter where they are,” said David Smyth. “I join at a time when Voneus’ customer base is experiencing a rapid expansion and I look forward to working with the team to further expedite this growth.”

“This year, Voneus enters a new chapter as we look to upgrade a large number of our existing customers to gigabit-capable fibre broadband and reach hundreds of new customers with our fixed wireless technology. David will play a key role in supporting our ambitious plans by managing, mentoring and empowering our finance and operational support teams to add value across the business,” said Steve Leighton, CEO at Voneus. “He is a strategically-minded, highly talented individual and we are delighted to have him on board.”

Smyth replaces Graham Wallace, one of the founding members of Voneus, who has served as the broadband provider’s CFO since 2011. During Wallace’s tenure, Voneus experienced rapid and consistent growth, while he also played a pivotal role in securing the company’s 2019 investment from Macquarie Capital.

“Graham’s contribution to Voneus over the last nine years has been immense and we can’t thank him enough for his dedication,” continued Leighton. “Under his watch, the company has grown from scratch to be one of the largest providers of rural broadband in the UK and he was instrumental in securing external investment that’s helping us close Britain’s digital divide.”

Wallace commented “I’m happy to be leaving the company in safe hands as it now has the strategy and funding to develop a steeper trajectory of growth and care for our customers. I have developed deep and lasting friendships in Voneus, with a very talented team, but am now looking forward to my next venture.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Voneus .