Speed Fibre Group appoints Martijn Blanken, Noel Ryan, John Gilvarry and Cormac Ryan to the Board

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Speed Fibre Group, the home of telecommunication businesses Enet and Magnet+, has made four new appointments to its Board. Martijn Blanken, Non-Executive Director of Speed Fibre Group, Noel Ryan, Chief Financial Officer of Speed Fibre Group, John Gilvarry, Chief Technical Officer of Speed Fibre Group and Cormac Ryan, Commercial Director of Enet have all joined the Board of the company as non-executive directors.

Speed Fibre Group is an Irish investment vehicle focused on telecoms infrastructure as well as communications service provision. A prominent force in the Irish telecommunications sector, Speed Fibre Group has an annual turnover nearing €80 million, a dedicated team of over 230 professionals, and a customer base exceeding 11,000.

 

With offices in Limerick and Dublin, Speed Fibre Group plays a pivotal role in shaping the connectivity landscape of Ireland. Speed Fibre Group was recently acquired by Cordiant Digital Infrastructure Limited, an operationally focused specialist digital infrastructure investor.

 

Martijn Blanken joined Speed Fibre Group as a Non-Executive Director this year. With more than 25 years of experience in the global telecommunications industry, Martijn has a proven track record of delivering both turnaround and growth, leading rapid change, and creating shareholder value in complex and competitive environments.

 

Most recently, he was CEO of EXA, the largest dedicated digital infrastructure platform connecting Europe and North America, from 2021 to 2023. Previously, he was a senior advisor to I Squared Capital, a global infrastructure investment firm, and BCG, a leading management consulting firm, where he helped establish and grow a global telecommunications infrastructure platform and advised clients on go-to-market effectiveness, digital transformation, managed services and asset management.

 

Noel Ryan has over 28 years’ experience in telecommunications and financial management. He joined Speed Fibre Group five years ago as Chief Financial Officer and his role involves supporting the Group CEO, the management team and investors to deliver the organisational business plan, whilst simultaneously leading the finance function for the company.

 

Prior to joining Speed Fibre Group, Noel was Regional CFO with Digicel, the communications and entertainment provider that operates across 30 markets in the Caribbean, Central America and the Pacific. He has also held senior financial roles at Trulife Group, VeriFone, Trintech and Hitachi.

Amongst his qualifications, Noel holds a Bachelor of Business Studies Degree in Finance from Dublin City University and was a member of the Chartered institute of Management Accountants in Dublin Business School.

 

John Gilvarry joined Speed Fibre Group in 2019 as Chief Technology Officer, bringing over 22 years’ experience of telecoms in Ireland and international markets. He joined from Digicel where he was Group CTO for Digicel Business. Prior to this, John has held a number of roles in the mobile industry in Ireland and the UK, including O2, Vilicom, Meteor and Hutchison.

 

A highly skilled and results driven leader in fixed, mobile and TV services, John has extensive experience in conceptualising, developing and delivering strategic initiatives to drive business growth. He also has considerable knowledge of outsourcing strategy and post-acquisition integration strategy. John has a BEng in Electronic Engineering from Dublin City University and an MBA from the University of Warwick.

 

Cormac Ryan currently serves as the Chief Commercial Officer at Enet, having joined the company in 2016. With over 25 years in the telecoms industry, his expertise spans strategic leadership, commercial negotiations and team development.

 

Previously, Cormac held roles as Commercial Director and Sales Director at Enet, and before that, as Client Director at BT Ireland and Project Manager at Silicon and Software Systems. His skills include market analysis, strategy formulation and high-stakes deal-making. Cormac holds a BE degree from University College Cork in Electrical and Microelectronic Engineering.

 

Welcoming the new appointments, Stephen Marshall, Executive Chairman and Managing Partner of Cordiant Capital’s Telecommunications Infrastructure Group said:

“We are delighted to appoint Noel, Martijn, Cormac and John to the Board of Speed Fibre Group. Given their combined wealth of expertise in the telecommunications industry at a global level, all four are a significant asset to the company. Our board members are looking forward to working with them to leverage their skills and knowledge to shape the future of the business and continue to propel the growth strategy of Speed Fibre Group.”

 

Speed Fibre Group consist of two businesses – Enet and Magnet +. Enet operates the largest alternative wholesale telecoms network in Ireland, which comprises of over 5,600 Km of fibre infrastructure, including the Irish State’s Metropolitan Area Networks (MANs), proprietary metro networks, a unique dark fibre backhaul infrastructure, as well as one of the largest licensed wireless networks in the country.

 

Taken together, Enet’s infrastructure creates a fully integrated nationwide telecommunications network that is truly open access in nature, enabling retail service providers and network operators to deliver world class data connectivity services to their customers throughout Ireland and enabling them to connect internationally.

 

Enet also offers carriers a wide and innovative range of world-class fibre and wireless wholesale products and services, ranging from Managed Connectivity, Infrastructure Access, Direct Internet Access and white label broadband.

 

Magnet+ is Ireland’s largest connectivity network within the Irish market. The organisation (previously known as Magnet Networks) was acquired in December 2020 by Speed Fibre Group. In 2021, Magnet Networks and its sister company AirSpeed Telecom, market leader in the provision of fibre and wireless connectivity services across the country, came together to operate as one unified brand – Magnet+.

 

Speed Fibre Group is owned by Cordiant Digital Infrastructure Limited, an operationally focused specialist digital infrastructure investor. The business primarily invests in the core infrastructure of the digital economy – data centres, fibre-optic networks and telecommunication and broadcast towers in Europe and North America. Further details about can be found here: www.cordiantdigitaltrust.com.