John Hanna (Ultrafast Fibre)
John Hanna has been appointed as the chief executive of community-owned fibre business Ultrafast Fibre (UFF).
The WEL Group, UFF parent organisation, appointed Hanna to replace William Hamilton who retired in September 2018. Geoff Lawrie has been acting chief executive since then.
WEL chairman, Rob Campbell said Hanna will commence in the role on 4 June.
Lawrie will now step back from this executive role and focus on his independent non-executive directorship of both WEL and UFF.
Established as a Local Fibre Company in 2010, Ultrafast Fibre built and now owns and operates a UFB network in the urban areas of Hamilton, Tauranga, Whanganui, New Plymouth, Tokoroa, Hāwera, Cambridge, Te Awamutu, Stratford, Ōmokoroa, Ngāruawāhia, Tirau, Katikati, Putāruru, Tamahere and Matangi.
The 3000km network represents about 13 per cent of the Government’s national UFB1 initiative.
Hanna who is an experienced chief executive bringing experience as former CEO of Network for Learning from 2012 - 2017, CEO of Maxnet from 2009 - 2012 and chief operating officer of Simpl from 2006 - 2008.
Earlier roles included senior executive positions in IBM, Computerland and SolNet in New Zealand and Australia.
“John joins Ultrafast Fibre at a very exciting time with continued customer focus on the rapid migration from copper to fibre, and as we prepare to deliver unbundled access to the UFB network," Campbell said.
"In parallel, our team’s focus remains fixed on the essential network performance and asset management of what has rapidly become essential utility infrastructure to our communities."
