Leadership Team

Meet the Zayo Leadership Team

Dan Caruso
Co-Founder, President and CEO
dan.caruso@zayo.com

Dan Caruso is President and CEO of Zayo Group and Chairman of Envysion. Dan also oversees Onvoy Voice Services. He is a board member of GTS Central Europe and sat on the board of New Global Telecom until its sale to Comcast.

Between 2004 and 2006, Dan was President and CEO of ICG Communications. In 2004, he led a private buyout of ICG. At the time, the company held approximately $100M of debt and was burning its $30M of remaining cash at a rate of $8M a month. Columbia Capital and M/C Venture Partners backed the buyout, investing a total of $8.7M. In 2006, ICG was sold to Level 3 for $170M, resulting in a total distribution to the buyout group and management team of over $225M and a return on investment of 25x.

Dan was one of the founding executives of Level 3 Communications. From its 1997 inception through 2000, he was responsible for Level 3’s engineering, construction, and operations organizations. Between 2001 and 2003, most of Level 3’s lines of business and marketing functions fell under his jurisdiction. Earlier, Dan was part of the MFS Communications senior management team. He began his career at Illinois Bell/Ameritech.

Dan has an MBA from the University of Chicago and a BS in Mechanical Engineering from University of Illinois.

Ernst & Young named Dan one of the three national finalists for the Entrepreneur Of The Year 2011 Media, Entertainment and Communications Award. In 2009, Dan was named Communications Executive of the Year in Colorado. The Denver Post named him one of Eleven Colorado Business People to Watch in 2011. The Boulder Chamber of Commerce honored him with the 2010 Esprit Award. In 2009, Ernst & Young honored him as the Entrepreneur of the Year in Rocky Mountain Region Emerging Company category.

Dan is an active supporter of the University of Colorado – Boulder. He co-teaches a class on raising venture capital and private equity in the Leeds MBA Program. He is on the Entrepreneurial Advisory Board of Silicon Flatirons, a center for law, technology, and entrepreneurship at the University of Colorado, as well as an active supporter of Start Up Colorado. Dan is a partner with the Denver School of Science and Technology, a network of public charter schools focusing on science, technology, engineering and math.

Ken desGarennes
CFO
ken.desgarennes@zayo.com

Ken desGarennes is CFO of the Zayo Group and is responsible for stewarding the company’s finances, including financial reporting and analysis, and various strategic initiatives. He has 14 years of experience in technology and communications.

Previously, Ken helped acquire and integrate three videoconferencing properties into a company called Wire One Communication, and he served as the company’s CFO. Ken was responsible for the accounting, finance, tax, treasury, corporate development and legal operations of the consolidated company.

Before joining Wire One, Ken was a Senior Director at the Gores Group, a technology-focused private equity firm. In his three years at the Gores Group, Ken led financial due diligence and negotiations on numerous acquisitions in both the telecom and technology market. Previously, Ken worked at Accenture for six years in a corporate development role, after earlier starting his career as a commercial banking officer with First Union Bank.

Ken has a BS in Finance from the University of Maryland in College Park.

Ken was recently recognized by the Denver Business Journal as 2011 CFO of the Year for his work with Zayo.

Matt Erickson
President, Zayo Fiber & Transport Infrastructure
matt.erickson@zayo.com

Matt Erickson is President of Zayo Fiber & Transport Infrastructure. An original member of the Zayo team, he has held various leadership roles within the company. Most recently, he was President of Zayo Fiber Solutions, playing a pivotal role in the growth of Dark Fiber and FTT segments of the business, as well as overseeing the expansion and operation of Zayo's owned fiber network.

Previously, Erickson served as SVP of Corporate Strategy and Development for Zayo Group.

Prior to Zayo, Matt was Vice President of Marketing & Product Management at ICG Communications. He was a member of the senior team that successfully sold ICG to Level 3 Communications in 2006.

Prior to ICG, he worked at Level 3 Communications, where he held various roles, including Internet, transport and infrastructure product management and corporate strategy/development roles. Matt began his career at Price Waterhouse in the audit and financial advisory services groups.

Matt earned a B.S. (Summa Cum Laude with Honors) in Accounting from Colorado State University.

David Howson
President, Sales and Customer Management
dhowson@zayo.com

David is President of Sales and Customer Management for Zayo Group. He has 17 years telecommunications experience and was most recently President of Zayo Bandwidth, a Zayo Group company.

Prior to Zayo, David served as Senior Vice President of Customer Service Management at Level 3 Communications. In this role David oversaw customer and network operations of all of Level 3’s services including colocation. His responsibilities  included customer service, security, network monitoring and maintenance. He was also responsible for the design and build of more than 15 colocation facilities totaling more than 300,000 sq ft of space. 

Before Level 3, David held a number of leadership roles where he was responsible for access management, M&A integrations, network and infrastructure planning and development, and network and facility construction in Asia, Europe, and North America.

David earned his Engineering Degree with Honors from Oxford Brookes University.

Chris Morley
President, Ethernet, IP and Colocation
chris.morley@zayo.com

Chris Morley is President of zColo, a Zayo Group company, in charge of Zayo’s colocation and interconnection infrastructure. Chris most recently served as Chief Financial Officer for Zayo Bandwidth and has 16 years of technology and communications experience.

Chris was previously a consultant with Altman Vilandrie & Co., a boutique consulting firm specializing in the media and communications industries, advising companies and private equity investors on strategy, operational improvement and M&A diligence and execution.

Chris previously served as the Chief Integrations Officer for One Communications leading integration efforts combining three competitive telecom providers creating one of the largest privately held CLECs in the country. Prior to its sale to One Communications, Chris served as Senior Vice President of Operations and Engineering for Conversent Communications with operations in the northeastern US. Chris started his career at Fanch Communications, a top 20 privately-held MSO, as a financial analyst leading up to its disposition to Charter Communications in 1999.

Chris received his BSBA in Finance from the University of Denver.

Glenn Russo
EVP, Corporate Strategy & Development, Zayo Group
glenn.russo@zayo.com

Glenn Russo is EVP of Corporate Strategy & Development, responsible for strategic planning, acquisitions, Marketing and Channel Development. He is also responsible for the performance of Zayo’s European business. Since joining Zayo, Glenn has held several positions, including most recently, President of Zayo Networks. In this position he developed Zayo's regional sales and solutions organization and expanded its business with large enterprise and regional carrier customers. He has over 20 years of telecommunications, IT and related services experience both as a communications service provider and corporate IT executive.

Prior to Zayo, Glenn was Senior Vice President at Level 3 Communications responsible for Transport and Infrastructure services. He was responsible for services across North America and Europe and for establishing Level 3’s channel partner program to expand the company’s distribution to enterprise customers. During eight years at Level 3, Glenn led a broad range of businesses, including fiber, transport, colocation, voice, IP and data services.

Before joining Level 3, Glenn was a senior executive at Bridgeworks, a Texas-based regional network services company. Glenn also spent 16 years with ExxonMobil’s global chemical product division in a range of IT, sales and finance leadership positions.

Glenn is also active in supporting the Colorado entrepreneurial community through participation in industry, state and university programs.

Glenn earned a BS in Engineering from Cornell University.

Scott Beer
General Counsel 
scott.beer@zayo.com

Scott Beer is General Counsel of Zayo Group and is responsible for Zayo’s legal and regulatory functions. He has served on the board of Comptel since January 2008 and is also a member of Comptel’s Finance Committee.

Before joining Zayo, Scott worked for Level 3 Communications as Vice President of Carrier Relations, responsible for vendor relations covering $1.8 billion in annual network expenses.

Earlier, Scott was VP and General Counsel of ICG, overseeing legal and regulatory matters. He started with ICG as Director of Government Affairs, handling state and federal regulatory functions and providing legal support to new product development. Scott was previously in-house counsel at MCI WorldCom, supporting the Mass Markets Finance Department. He began his legal career as an associate attorney for a Denver law firm, where he was a commercial litigator and represented several large communication companies.

Scott holds a Juris Doctorate from Michigan State University College of Law (formerly Detroit College of Law). He earned a BA from Michigan State University in Communications.

Marty Snella
CTO / CIO, Zayo Group
marty.snella@zayo.com

Marty Snella is CTO/CIO of the Zayo Group. He oversees all of the technical aspects of the company’s business units, including engineering, field operations, information technology, inside plant and outside plant, network operations and service delivery. Marty joined Zayo shortly after the company closed its very first acquisitions. He has 29 years of experience in the telecom, information technology and cable TV industries.

Prior to Zayo, Marty was the Executive Vice President of Operations at ICG Communications, leading engineering, field operations and information technology. He was part of the senior management team that acquired ICG.

Marty has served at the executive level in construction, engineering, operations and IT for several other successful telecom companies, including Expanets, Qwest Cyber Solutions, Level 3 Communications and AT&T Broadband (TCI).

Marty began his telecommunications career in 1981, as a Telecommunications Specialist in the United States Air Force. Prior to joining the military, he attended Eastern Washington University, then continued his education at the City College of Chicago (Italy), and Lane Community College (Oregon).