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City-focused broadband ISP Hyperoptic, which has spent the past few years rolling out their own full fibre (FTTP/B) network to cover 1.9 million UK premises and is also in the process of onboarding via Openreach’s network (here), this week announced that they had appointed Sam Horrocks to take on the role of Chief Financial Officer (CFO).
The operator, which is currently home to 400,000 active subscribers and recently suffered another round of redundancies, is currently going through somewhat of a strategic shift that has seen their own network build switch to focus more on commercialisation. On top of that, they’re also now working toward reaching the rest of the UK by harnessing Openreach’s growing national FTTP network (due to start becoming available from early 2026).
Suffice to say that there’s a lot of change happening within Hyperoptic right now. As part of that, they’ve appointed a new CFO to replace Richard Woodward, who after 4 years at the provider recently resigned in order to “make a change from a life-long telecom industry career to join the amazing team at Neko Health” as their CFO.
By comparison Sam is said to have a strong track record as a finance leader in telecoms, tech and private equity-backed businesses and brings over 25 years of experience in driving performance and growth at companies including Vodafone, Inmarsat and, most recently, as Deputy CFO of Travelport. One of his longest stints was the nearly 14 years he spent at Virgin Media, occupying various strategy and senior financial roles.
Dana Tobak CBE, CEO and co-founder of Hyperoptic, said:
“This is an exciting time for Hyperoptic as we continue our upward trajectory of growth and innovation. Sam’s strong background in financial planning, business partnerships and commercial and operational delivery makes him the ideal fit for this role.”
Sam will no doubt find quite the challenge in navigating today’s highly competition and consolidation prone broadband market. But being the CFO of a well-established alternative network like Hyperoptic isn’t a bad place to start.